Chlorosis

I was puttering around weeding and such and it struck me that some of my azaleas looked strange. It took a while for my increasingly slow brain to make the connection and then it struck me they were chlorotic. I spread some iron mix around their base and then foliar fed them and watered the whole thing in. I'll swear they are greening up in front of my eyes. After an hour there is definitely a significant change. Now if I haven't managed to kill them they should do a lot better.

Question: when (if) you have treated your plants for chlorosis did you notice a rapid change or am I hallucinating and my wife needs to start checking out the homes for me?

Roger

Good question-
I always thought that once a particular leaf turned yellow it would not turn green again.

Sally, I guess the leaves can recover if they are not completely yellow.

Normally, the cause of this problem is not iron or manganese deficiency. Instead, it is because the soil is too alkaline, which causes the iron and manganese to be chemically tied to the soil and unavailable to plants.

Two of my azaleas are showing chlorotic symptoms too. I need to treat them. A good dose of iron and acidic fertilize should help. Linux, I will make sure I watch them after applying the fertilizer and let you know if they turn green right there and then. LOL!!!

By the way, what 'iron mix" did you use?

Many many years agoe there was a product called "green sweep" or such that you could spray on your lawn and it would green up almost before you were done spraying! Maybe there was some of that in what you applied, especially to the leaves. So, I vote yes to guess that greening can happen rapidly.

I'm with Coleup -- the greening is fast.

The "iron mix" I used was Espoma Iron Tone. The foliar feed was Bonide Liquid Iron. My guess is the quick result was due to the foliar feeding and it will take a while for the dry mix to be effective. I need to get a couple of pH readings and suspect that I will be putting in an acidifier as well. The Espoma does have sulphur in it which over time will be an acidifier.

Thanks, Linux. I will go see if I can find them at the Home Depot.