chlorosis – Xtremehorticulture

Central Growth Bright Yellow in Palm

2 Comments / chlorosis, fertilizer, nutrition / xtremehorticulture

Q. Hello, I’m hoping you might offer a suggestion for a sick/ugly palm tree. I have a Mexican fan palm in my back yard in Mesquite that was planted from a 24″ box nearly five years ago (in December, by the way). About this time last year, it developed what I called the “bald man” look, with the top fronds curving down much earlier than normal, leaving only the emerging (newly opened or unopened) fronds sticking up. When they emerged, they were a uniform yellow color – the older fronds’ color is fine, except for the curved stalk. When summer came this year, it returned to normal and looked great all summer. Now, it is doing the same thing again this year. Coincidentally, last year and this year were the only times it’s produced the strands of seeds/berries. If it’s going to look terrible during the cooler months (which is when we are at this home), I’m probably going to have it removed and replaced with something else. Before I take that drastic step, I thought I’d see if perhaps you could offer suggestions to “cure” this problem.I thought I’d write for your advice and include a photo. I’d appreciate any suggestions you can make. A. That sort of yellowing in the growing point of the palm is usually a sign that the central bud is going to die. Once the bud dies of a single trunk palm, the palm dies. The fact that it was yellow and recovered kind of surprises me. It is usually an indicator that the central bud is diseased. This is a queen palm with new, immature fronds coming from the central bud. On another note, Palm trees should never be planted during late fall or the winter months. They usually have a higher mortality if planted during this time of the year. The best time to plant them is when there is good weather for a couple of months after they have been planted. Typically palm trees do quite well when planted during the summer months. If you want to try something, you can use a fungicide poured over the top of the central Bud to see if you can arrest the problem. Another possible problem could be nutritional. I would apply some iron chelate around the base of the tree and water it in now. Another palm, one of the date palms, with the central fronds coming from the bud yellowing. Another possible problem might be keeping the soil too wet or the soil might not be draining water very well. Soils that hold too much water can cause this type of yellowing as well. Even another possibility might be that the palm was planted too deeply. If the palm was planted more deeply than it was growing in a nursery then you can develop yellowing like this as well. Make sure the soil drains easily. If the palm may have been planted too deeply or is in a low spot in the yard, you might have to move it somewhere else where the water does not accumulate. Thirdly, apply a landscape fertilizer in the spring or late winter along with an iron chelate. The iron chelate should contain EDDHA as the chelate in the ingredients.

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Pink Leaves on Purple Plum Probably Iron Problem

Leave a Comment / chelate, chlorosis, EDDHA, iron 138, pink leaves, purple leaf plum / xtremehorticulture

Iron chlorosis on purple leaf plum Q. I have two red leaf plum trees both about two years old. They started the year beautifully. One continues to look normal but the other one has all of a sudden taken a turn that bothers me. The leaves are getting pale, pink instead of red and see through-ish. It is a nice full tree yet young. Is it as simple as not enough water or something else? It had a great year last year. A. It is most likely iron chlorosis. If you want to see if that is the problem try making a few liquid applications of an iron chelate to some leaves using a spray bottle to see if this turns them dark purple (I am assuming you have a purple leaf plum). It may take four or five applications with a spray bottle to the same few leaves a couple of days apart since liquid applications to the leaves are not typically as effective as applying it to the soil. Otherwise buy some iron chelate containing the EDDHA chelate and apply it to the soil in a bucket of water and wash it in around the roots. You should see it turn dark purple in growth that comes out AFTER you make the application to the soil. This discoloration is also possible if the tree roots are being kept too wet by watering too often or you have poor drainage.

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Yellowing of Meyer Lemon Tree Leaves Hard to Correct

14 Comments / chlorosis, citrus, yellowing / xtremehorticulture

Q. We went and talked to nursery folks a couple times about this tree. First we got the water cycle correct, then iron was suggested which we did as directed. Then a soil amendment was suggested. Online I read possibly the tree suffers from a magnesium issue. I thought these photos would give a better picture. We did as directed and the tree is not responding in fact it is getting worse. I am wondering if it is because of where it was planted which is a confined root growing area. Any insight would be appreciated. Readers lemon tree with yellowing leaves A. By looking at the leaves I have to assume this is a Meyer Lemon (which is, by the way not technically a lemon but an unknown hybrid found in a Chinese back yard by USDA researcher D. Meyer in the early 20th century). Your pictures are all pretty good with the exception of not showing a critical view of the trunk where it is just out of the soil. Just for future reference always look at and show this interface of the trunk and soil. W/o that view I have to only guess that the rootstock/trunk union is well out of the soil and we can eliminate that issue. And, a shot of the soil might show how the plant is getting watered. I have to assume drippers and I would guess they are in the same locations as when the plant was planted. Closer look at readers yellowing leaves The leaves show two distinctive symptoms that often occur in concert: 1. There is some salt burn and 2. The common symptom that comes with salt issues is the magnesium deficiency. Just FYI Iron deficiency only occurs on the new leaves. For the salinity (salt) issue we usually look first at the watering and with watering comes knowing if the water can even be applied uniformly all around the edge of the canopy, sometimes called the ‘drip line’. Citrus are botanically a shrub with shallow and wide spreading roots that are tough to grow to maturity with drippers unless they are closely spaced in a wide band around the canopy’s edge. There is one picture showing the plant is right next to a step wall with no water being applied in that zone of the root system. Clear look at the yellowing or chlorosis problem on readers citrus I would not worry too much about adding any supplements and see if you can begin to manage a watering system of application that would give a long deep soaking water application out near the drip line. The ‘soaker’ hoses could be laid out on the ground out near the drip line and let it run for hours and hours to try and leach out the excess salts that may have accumulated over time with the drip system. Drip systems are fine but, due to their limited water output salts can begin to accumulate thus impacting citrus’ sensitivity to salts. Give it a long deep watering about once every few weeks from now on all during the growing season (May through October) to supplement the regular water to leach out the salts that inevitably are deposited with the limited volume of drip systems . .This leaching watering is also the great time to add fertilizer and get it into the soil evenly all around the active roots near the drip line. -Terry Mikel

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Keifer Pear Turning Yellow Needs Second Application

4 Comments / chlorosis, cure, yellow leaves on pear / xtremehorticulture

Q. My Kieffer pear, which set no fruit at all this year, got extremely chlorotic, from early April to now. I treated it about 9 days ago with Western Organics’ Super Iron Chelate, per package instructions. I see noticeable improvement, but does it need a second application? If yes, at what interval? Does this condition have any relation to the lack of pears this year? Normally, this tree yields over a hundred pounds of fruit per season! Iron chlorosis on pear A. If it did not set fruit, did you see flowers? If you saw flowers but no fruit than it was a failure in pollination or a late freeze that took out any developing fruit when they were very young. If you saw no flowers then we must make sure that fruiting spurs, or short shoots, are present on the tree. Make sure no one prunes off the short shoots or fruiting spurs of the pear. I attached a picture just to make sure we are talking about the same short shoots that bear flowers and fruit. Pear can also get into an alternate bearing cycle. This means that they can set fruit heavy one year and skip the next. Keiffer pear If your tree bore heavy last year then this is a possibility. Next year if you’re pear bears heavy again then thin it hard. This means remove fruit from the tree when it is very small so that only one fruit remains per cluster of fruit. 40 or 50 leaves are needed to support one fruit. After you have thinned the fruit from the tree, look at it again. If the fruit set is still a heavy load, remove even more fruit. By removing fruit in a heavy set year we can sometimes help shift it back to producing every year. As far as the yellowing goes, if it is iron, the veins of the yellow leaves should be dark green while the spaces between the veins may be light green or even yellow in severe cases. In very severe cases the leaves will yellow and not have any green veins at all. In extremely severe cases the leaves may turn black and scorch. I do not know this product and the quality of the iron chelate. If this chelate is not EDDHA then you run the risk that the iron it may not be very effective. Other chelates drop their iron if the soil pH is too high and then the iron does not make it inside the plant. I would strongly suggest that you look at the ingredients and make sure the chelate is in fact EDDHA. If not, and the label permits, you can mix it with water and use it to spray the foliage or the leaves. If fruit is present you do run the risk of discoloring the fruit with the iron. You can try adding this chelate with a dilute source of vinegar to try and push the pH lower bus making the iron available. This is a hit and miss approach. You are running out of time so I would put this on the soil as soon as possible. Make sure you apply this chelate in January or February of next year to avoid this problem.

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