911 !! Help, plants are yellowing. What is the answer for this?

[Indyartist]

My plants have been doing very well up until this week-end or at least now I have an obvious problem. All my plants were started at the same time 2/16 and potted up ten days later. The were all wonderful until I notice now that some have yellowed considerably while others are nice and green. They have all been potted up with Miracle Grow seed starting mix as that is all my small town hardware sells. The Azoychka's are fairing the worse with Aunt Gertie's Gold and Arbuznyi being still nicely green. Tap water is all any have had, I'v not added any fertilizer to the water. What is the likely cause for my relatively sudden yellowing and seemingly negative result now with some of these? The photos show yellowing in various stages plus a few healthy greener examples all growing side by side under the same conditions.

[Stepheninky]

Originally Posted by Indyartist

My plants have been doing very well up until this week-end or at least now I have an obvious problem. All my plants were started at the same time 2/16 and potted up ten days later. The were all wonderful until I notice now that some have yellowed considerably while others are nice and green. They have all been potted up with Miracle Grow seed starting mix as that is all my small town hardware sells. The Azoychka's are fairing the worse with Aunt Gertie's Gold and Arbuznyi being still nicely green. Tap water is all any have had, I'v not added any fertilizer to the water. What is the likely cause for my relatively sudden yellowing and seemingly negative result now with some of these? The photos show yellowing in various stages plus a few healthy greener examples all growing side by side under the same conditions.

They do not look over watered so my best guess is that they do need some weak fertilizer. MG at .5 tsp (the small end ) to a gallon of water should be plenty. If you can I would use the new organic MG its got a much better quality nitrogen profile, but you can use what you can buy locally or have on hand. just use it at a 1/4 to half strength.

The seed starting mix from MG only has 0.05 nitrogen and if the water PH is a bit high which most tap waters are a little high then you are not really getting that.

If you want just to get them back on track you could even get a cheap gallon of water to add the fert too (just this time around) and add the fert to that to water with just to see if they come around.

maybe some others will chime in as well but from the splotchy yellow and green veins in the leaves my bet would be on not enough nitrogen

[ContainerTed]

I agree with Stepheninky. Some fertilizer can't hurt. I would give them a round of 50% the recommended concentration.

I would also ask you how many hours a day the lights are on. The plants need some dark time in order to use all that energy they store up during the light times.

You might also consider a foliar feed of some fert with only Nitrogen (like the MG in the rusty orange bottle).

No need for panic just yet, but after those babies started past the third set of real leaves, some fertilizer was definitely needed. A correction now and they should be just fine.

Ted

[Indyartist]

Thanks guys. I have nothing too fancy to choose from here but I do have standard Miracle Grow and some bottled water. They mostly need watered but I was waiting to hear what people thought so I could add fertilizer if it was the general consensus. I will eventually get up to speed with more tomato specific fertilizers as my awareness of what is needed matches my financial ability to acquire them. For now it is out to the garage to find the Miracle grow half strength in a gallon of (purified!) bottled water. Also my lights so far have been on 24/7, so for these larger early starts I'll let them be "lights out" when I am as well.

After looking in the garage, I'm actually applying Peter's Professional All Purpose plant food. 20-20-20 "Now with Minors!". This plant food is quite old, so I hope there is no expiration date on this sort of thing. It is in a plastic tub and is still somewhat moist and blue.

[Stepheninky]

Originally Posted by Indyartist

Thanks guys. I have nothing too fancy to choose from here but I do have standard Miracle Grow and some bottled water. They mostly need watered but I was waiting to hear what people thought so I could add fertilizer if it was the general consensus. I will eventually get up to speed with more tomato specific fertilizers as my awareness of what is needed matches my financial ability to acquire them. For now it is out to the garage to find the Miracle grow half strength in a gallon of (purified!) bottled water. Also my lights so far have been on 24/7, so for these larger early starts I'll let them be "lights out" when I am as well.

After looking in the garage, I'm actually applying Peter's Professional All Purpose plant food. 20-20-20 "Now with Minors!". This plant food is quite old, so I hope there is no expiration date on this sort of thing. It is in a plastic tub and is still somewhat moist and blue.

The petter should be fine. to use.

[les matzek]

liquid kelp at 1 1/2 teaspoon per gallon should green them up
for you fairly fast, i use this to spray the paper towell that i
put in a zip lock bag and set in on the top of my frezer and
i use the same for the first 4 weeks and then i switch to
folaige pro, good luck.

les.

[jrypka]

I would agree with the lack of nitrogen assessment is the most likely cause, but it also appeared that the yellowing ones were leggier than the dark green ones. Is that true in general for all your plants? If so, perhaps it is more than just nitrogen, but something with light and temp? Perhaps the yellowing ones aren't as heat tolerant as the stocky dark green ones (only a factor if your growing area is quite warm). I'm definitely not an expert, but just an idea.

[travis]

Because the cotyledons are still green and it's the newer leaves that appear to be yellowing, I'm going to say micronutrient deficiency, most likely iron, but possibly manganese. Nitrogen deficiency would show first by the cotyledons turning yellow, then the lower leaves yellowing rather than the new growth.

Also, the cotyledons are curled downward on some of the affected plants, and the seed starting mix appears dry (light brown rather than dark brown) to me, not over watered, so I'm going to say the lack of sufficient moisture is more of an issue than over watering.

You need to keep the peat pots in a shallow tray so you can water the seedlings from the bottom up. First off, peat pots wick out moisture from the starting mix and evaporate it into the air. Reverse the process by setting the peat pots in a tray, and water from the bottom so the peat wicks the moisture into the starter mix.

Any plant food you add at this point should include micronutrients to be of any value to those plants that have the top foliage yellowing, and the beginnings of interveinal chlorosis (lacy yellowing between leaf veins that remain green), both signs of micronutrient deficiencies. If you don't have a good water soluable plant food, put 1/2 tablespoon of Epsom salts per gallon of water along with a half to 3/4 teaspoon of Peters per gallon of water, and water from the bottom.

[Stepheninky]

Originally Posted by travis

Because the cotyledons are still green and it's the newer leaves that appear to be yellowing, I'm going to say micronutrient deficiency, most likely iron, but possibly manganese. Nitrogen deficiency would show first by the cotyledons turning yellow, then the lower leaves yellowing rather than the new growth.

Also, the cotyledons are curled downward on some of the affected plants, and the seed starting mix appears dry (light brown rather than dark brown) to me, not over watered, so I'm going to say the lack of sufficient moisture is more of an issue than over watering.

You need to keep the peat pots in a shallow tray so you can water the seedlings from the bottom up. First off, peat pots wick out moisture from the starting mix and evaporate it into the air. Reverse the process by setting the peat pots in a tray, and water from the bottom so the peat wicks the moisture into the starter mix.

Any plant food you add at this point should include micronutrients to be of any value to those plants that have the top foliage yellowing, and the beginnings of interveinal chlorosis (lacy yellowing between leaf veins that remain green), both signs of micronutrient deficiencies. If you don't have a good water soluable plant food, put 1/2 tablespoon of Epsom salts per gallon of water along with a half to 3/4 teaspoon of Peters per gallon of water, and water from the bottom.

Good call on the micros, A teaspoon of molasses added to the water would be another alternative to add the micros. Just microwave or heat a small amount of water to mix the molasses into and then add that into the gallon mix.

A teaspoon of molasses has 8% Calcium 8 % Magnesium and 2% iron so that also would would be a option. A 12 0z jar is $2 -3 bux at the grocery store so its pretty cheap and effective.

[Indyartist]

Wow, interesting to find out about molasses as a plant nutrient. The Peter's plant food I'm using has what they call "Now with Minors!" which is Boron .02%, Copper .05%, Iron (chelated) .10%, Manganese (water soluble) .05%, Molybdenum .0005% and Zinc .05% plus 20-20-20 Nitrogen, Phosphoric acid and Potash. I think I will lose one Azoychka plant after all but the others hopefully are improved with this treatment, tonight was my second chance to water them with the fertilizer mix. I'll post some photos after a few days if there is noticeable improvement. Even with this slight set back, this years starts are my best ever. These plants are to start 4 weeks early in the Wall-O-Waters so we'll see how the next 40 + starts go which will be scheduled for a mid-May planting.

[dice]

The Three Little Birds on molasses:
http://www.gardenscure.com/420/organ...-goodness.html

[Stepheninky]

Originally Posted by Indyartist

Wow, interesting to find out about molasses as a plant nutrient. The Peter's plant food I'm using has what they call "Now with Minors!" which is Boron .02%, Copper .05%, Iron (chelated) .10%, Manganese (water soluble) .05%, Molybdenum .0005% and Zinc .05% plus 20-20-20 Nitrogen, Phosphoric acid and Potash. I think I will lose one Azoychka plant after all but the others hopefully are improved with this treatment, tonight was my second chance to water them with the fertilizer mix. I'll post some photos after a few days if there is noticeable improvement. Even with this slight set back, this years starts are my best ever. These plants are to start 4 weeks early in the Wall-O-Waters so we'll see how the next 40 + starts go which will be scheduled for a mid-May planting.

Any update yet? Hope they are responding well for you.

[Indyartist]

Thanks, Stephen,
Generally they are improving as the new leaves that are forming a greener. That is they a greening up from the center out. I've only used the diluted Peter's General Plant Food. I plan on apply fertilizer earlier on my coming seedlings as this group was started 4 weeks earlier than the main group.
It does seem odd to me though that I've ended up with such dramatic differences under the generally same conditions. I have 11 plants that look very well with only one showing some yellowing and the other ten mostly suffering. I took these photos yesterday before your post so they don't show specifics but hopefully you can see the general results.

[Indyartist]

My attempts of rescuing my yellowing tomatoes with "Peter's All Purpose Plant Food Now with Minors!" is inadequate! My healthy specimens still look pretty good but my yellowing plants are looking near loss. Perhaps my efforts have slowed their decline but the trend is still decline approaching complete loss. My early planting for my "Wall-O-Water"s numbered 22 with one already lost. So, I have 11 primarily healthy green plants with two showing signs of yellowing (one formerly healthy plant now bordering on seriously yellow) and ten mostly yellow to nearing loss sickliness. I only need nine good plants for my WOW's so these specimens will meet that need.
My main concern is for the main garden planting of an additional 50 some plants that are now seedlings. I need a solution to yellowing starts that will give me better than 50/50 results that these early attempts have produced.
I plan on going tomorrow, here in my small town, and buying molasses to mix as suggested to add micro nutrients. I've already purchased "Tomato-tone" and "Fertilome Tomato and Vegetable 7-22-8" food but both of these only suggest spreading as granules in the soil with no liquid application.
Any "sure fire" readily available chemical potions that will give me consistent or near consistent green results?

[dice]

You could try (with, say, a couple of the distressed plants)
a teaspoon of molasses and a teaspoon of epsom salts in
a gallon of water, then turn the distressed plants upside down
and dip them in the epsom salts and molasses. Like the molasses
guide suggests, one should mix the molasses into a smaller
amount of hot water first (it is very thick, and the heat helps
it dissolve), then add more cool water until you have the dilution
that you want.

Since this is an experiment (we do not know exactly what
the problem is), you could try a couple of plants with a dip
in just the molasses alone, then add the epsom salts (which
will dissolve more easily than the molasses in cool or hot water)
to the gallon of water, and dip a couple of more plants in both.

This avoids changing how moist the soil is and changing the soil
chemistry in any radical way and simply feeds the plant directly,
via the foliage. Besides whatever nutrients it provides on its own,
the molasses helps chelate the magnesium and sulfur in the
epsom salts as well.

Another thing that I would do is dig up one of the distressed
plants and one of the plants that look perfectly healthy and
compare their root systems. The distressed plants may have
gotten too wet or too dry at some point and suffered some
root loss, and the remaining roots are not enough to support
the plant. (Both can be repotted in fresh mix, so this does not
really cost you anything.)

If none of this has any effect, one wonders about salt in the
water supply and other possible causes (unusually high zinc
or aluminum levels in the potting mix or water, etc).