Blog
What’s Wrong with my Plants? - Part 2
Your guide on how to recognise deficiency or overdose of elements - Part 2
Magnesium
It is one of the chlorophyll components (responsible for the plants green colour) and a lot of other enzymes.
If a plant suffers from lack of magnesium you will notice that:
- Lower leaves dry out
- Leaves become lighter in colour and they will have up curled edges
- With time edges will get red or brown but the nerves will stay green and long
Lime
It has a fundamental role with soil pH. It’s lack is usually related to magnesium, pottasium overdose or high hydrogen ion concentration.
Lack of Lime causes:
- Change of shape and curls on the edges of young leaves
- light brown nerve colour on young leaves
- Weakness of the root system
- Appearance of dry growths, spots on the fruits
Iron
The plants which will show very quickly the lack of iron are rhododendron, grapevine, hydrangea, buxus (boxwood) and surfinia.
The problems usually appear when there are wrong air-water relations, when there is not enough oxygen or when we have an overdose of lime and the pH is above 7.5. We can have a problem with lack of iron also when there is too much phosphorus and pottasium or not enough daylight.
With a lack of iron in a plant you can notice:
- Chlorosis of the upper leaves: the leaves are getting yellowish-whitish, where only nerves stay green
It's very hard to complete the iron deficiency. We need to optimise the soil pH. We should try to water the plants with soft water, which doesn’t contain lime. It will loosen compacted soil. We can use the specialist iron on leaf feed (iron chelate with 0.1-0.2% concentration), which within 10 days will bring back the green leaf colour.
We hope our gardening tips will be useful. If you need any additional help please do not hesitate to contact us.