Plants getting less and less green!!!!

[russellw]

I'm new to growing veggies, but I've made a start. Got a worm farm, and some things are doing great, but a few plants seems to be getting paler, and losing there deep green colour. Any reasons for this? Thank you.

[rainbowgardener]

Could be a variety of things; hard to answer without a bit more information. What kind(s) of veggies are you growing and in what conditions? Are they growing outdoors, in the ground, in containers? In Australia, I guess you are going into summer; what's the weather like? Are your veggies in full sun?


Off the top of my head, without knowing any of that, the prime candidates might be not enough light if they are in a kind of shady area or lack of nutrients. What is your soil like and have you been fertilizing or adding some kind of nutrients like compost/ worm castings?

[russellw]

They are outside, in boxes. The basil looks very pale, and some of my cucumber leaves too. I've been using worm juice. They get plenty sun in the afternoon from about 12pm till about 5 pm. I did use different bags of soil's in varying degrees of potting mix, some horse manure, and organic garden soil I bought in bags. in a 1:1:1 ratio. Some of the plants have kicked of quite well, tomatoes, rocket and carrots doing ok, and some cucumbers, but others just don't seem to be growing at all. When I noticed the basil lose its greenness, that when I first thought I must have a nutrient issue, but I am still learning.

I did get different bags of soils from various centres, so maybe some of them where not up to scratch??

[TheSilverSurvivor]

Sounds like a nutrient deficiency. Could be nitrogen since that's the primary nutrient for green growth and tomatoes thrive in low nitrogen, which is why it's important to keep cucmubers away from tomatoes. I suggest getting a nutrient level testing kit to see where your levels are at and investigate "Companion Planting".