My garden is about three weeks old and everything was going along fine and now all my plants are turning yellow. Soil test shows adequate nitrogen and excess phosphorous and potash. Any suggestions
[img]https://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab146/savanahrae7/tomatoesyellow.jpg[/img]
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savanahrae
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- Location: Melbourne Village Florida
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opabinia51
- Super Green Thumb
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Well, looking at both your soil and your plants, I would say that you have a nitrogen deficiency problem.
But, don't rush out and buy a bunch of NPK tomatoe fertilizer from a chemical store.
Looking at your soil, it looks to be clay based which, is a bit more difficult to ammend. For the short term, add some Mushroom or steer manure around the bases of your plants and water them well.
For the long term, start raking up any fallen leaves in your neighbourhood, also get some non cedar based wood chips, and see if your local nursery or home depot sells cocoa bean hulls, don't used Peat. That is your Carbon source to break up the clay.
As said you need more Nitrogen so, go to local coffee shops and get their used coffee grounds, try local farms and stores for manures, if you have a lawn put your grass clippings down. Vegetable and fruit kitchen scraps also work well as do eggshells. In fact, you can go to local restaurants and cafeterias for eggshells as well. (And you'll need as much stuff as possible)
Anyway, layer the first paragraphs ingredients with the next make adjoining layers of browns and greens repectively.
And when you plant your tomatoes next year, add a shovel full of mushroom manure to the hole. Furthermore, Pluck all the leaves off of the plant except the top ones and bury the entire stem, this will create a healthy root system for the plant. Water the roots, fill in the hole and water again.
Adding the browns will also increase your soils holding capacity for water and help to create pores in your soil where air pockets will form.
One more thing, get a soil test kit and test your soil for Iron as you could have a bit of chlorosis as well.
But, don't rush out and buy a bunch of NPK tomatoe fertilizer from a chemical store.
Looking at your soil, it looks to be clay based which, is a bit more difficult to ammend. For the short term, add some Mushroom or steer manure around the bases of your plants and water them well.
For the long term, start raking up any fallen leaves in your neighbourhood, also get some non cedar based wood chips, and see if your local nursery or home depot sells cocoa bean hulls, don't used Peat. That is your Carbon source to break up the clay.
As said you need more Nitrogen so, go to local coffee shops and get their used coffee grounds, try local farms and stores for manures, if you have a lawn put your grass clippings down. Vegetable and fruit kitchen scraps also work well as do eggshells. In fact, you can go to local restaurants and cafeterias for eggshells as well. (And you'll need as much stuff as possible)
Anyway, layer the first paragraphs ingredients with the next make adjoining layers of browns and greens repectively.
And when you plant your tomatoes next year, add a shovel full of mushroom manure to the hole. Furthermore, Pluck all the leaves off of the plant except the top ones and bury the entire stem, this will create a healthy root system for the plant. Water the roots, fill in the hole and water again.
Adding the browns will also increase your soils holding capacity for water and help to create pores in your soil where air pockets will form.
One more thing, get a soil test kit and test your soil for Iron as you could have a bit of chlorosis as well.
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
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- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Opa- Just looking at the pictures, I would have thought not enough nitrogen too. The reason I hadn't said anything is the OP specified:
"Soil test shows adequate nitrogen and excess phosphorous and potash"
Can soil test be wrong? Could the excess of phosphorous and potash (which would tend to make soil alkaline) be inhibiting the uptake of nitrogen, so it is present in the soil, but the plants are still starved for it? I know excess alkalinity can inhibit intake of iron leading to the chlorosis.
So would it help to do something to acidify the soil?
Savana, when you got the soil tested, did they tell you what Ph it tested at?
"Soil test shows adequate nitrogen and excess phosphorous and potash"
Can soil test be wrong? Could the excess of phosphorous and potash (which would tend to make soil alkaline) be inhibiting the uptake of nitrogen, so it is present in the soil, but the plants are still starved for it? I know excess alkalinity can inhibit intake of iron leading to the chlorosis.
So would it help to do something to acidify the soil?
Savana, when you got the soil tested, did they tell you what Ph it tested at?