Information and discussion regarding garden diseases, insects and other unwelcome critters.
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July 5, 2008 | #14 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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Did you test pH to see if there was much difference between
afflicted and not afflicted plants? I was wondering about flouride toxicity, which is more likely in low-pH soils. Plants don't use flourine, but municipal water supplies usually have a steady supply of it. A number of other minerals that the plant usually has no problem with can become a problem at low pH levels, like iron and magnesium, which become much more soluble at low pH and may block the intake of other nutrients that the plant needs or simply be taken up at toxic levels. It could be something built up in the soil from the water: flouride, chlorine, salt, etc, that affects some plants more than others. It is interesting that the plant does not show other nutrient deficiency symptoms, like purpling or bronzing of the leaves, red tones, tip die-back, chlorosis, marginal necrosis on the leaves, die-back of the growing tips, etc. For leaves to just suddenly curl up and die without any telltale color changes or other symptoms along the way is a strange thing. Maybe you will get lucky, and letting them dry out a bit will fix it. Edit: PS: Since you have several affected plants, you could try a couple of tablespoons of molasses in a gallon of water on one of them, either adding it to the reservoir or just pouring it on top of the container mix. The idea is to see if they are running out of potassium, which is highly mobile in both the soil and the plant. (Molasses is 5% potassium, and bacteria break it down quickly.) The plant could be robbing the leaves of potassium to ripen fruit.
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-- alias Last edited by dice; July 5, 2008 at 02:20 PM. Reason: suggestion |
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