Why are my leaves yellow? What is my problem?

12 years ago

Well, my TREE related problem. This is really weird. I have an American/hybrid chestnut and a sugar maple that both have something that looks like chlorosis, but here is the weird part... in BOTH cases I have an identical species from 20-100' away, and the other examples are perfectly normal looking.

I tried watering the leaves with fertilizer that has dissolved Fe and Mn, but does not seem to make a difference. Stuff I read says foliar spray should show results in a few days.

My soil pH is near neutral on the acid side - maybe 6.5, and mostly clay

Can anyone tell me what the deal is?

Here is a link that might be useful: photos

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Comments (10)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
have you had a long cold wet spring ..???

you dont have a soil issue.. since other local trees are not effective.. so please stop dumping fertilizers on the soil to treat what is probably not a soil issue...

where are you.. describe this springs weather ...

you finished my joke in the first line

ken
brandon7 TN_zone7
12 years ago
I can't open the link. I keep getting kicked back to photobucket's main page (although since I have Knology internet service, maybe it's my bad connection).

Are these newly planted or established? Anything different about the sites? Use fertilizer only when a soil test indicates the need, or a need has been indicated by thoroughly understood symptoms (fertilizer should not be used unless needed).
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Applying salt (NaCl) is perfect! ....... as an example of a decidedly bad idea. Sodium (Na) is an essential element for normal growth, but it becomes toxic very quickly when it exceeds appropriate (extremely low) levels. Salt also raises the level of dissolved solids in the soil solution, which makes it more difficult for the plant to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in water. There might be a handful of terrestrial plants that grow near bodies of saltwater or in saline soils, but they are few and the proclivity would be well-known if it was a landscape plant used as commonly as hibiscus. No plant expert would suggest applying table salt to landscape plants. Check carefully for mites. They usually affect older and lower leaves first. Are you fertilizing? Any idea what your soil has/lacks in the way of nutrients? Hibiscus stands out as something of an exception insofar as its nutritional wants are concerned. It likes more K than N and only VERY small amounts of P. the RATIO of a fertilizer for hibiscus in containers would be somewhere very close to 6:1:10. Since how your soil tests out impacts how you fertilize, We have no idea what's appropriate for trees in the ground, If your soil leans toward sand/sandy loam, it's likely the ratio above would be close. Do you understand the difference between a fertilizer's RATIO and it's NPK %s? An example will probable explain, in case you don't know. 20-20-20 and 5-5-5 are both 1:1:1 ratio fertilizers. 9-3-6 is a 3:1:2 ratio, and 12-2-20 would be a 6:1:10 ratio. Nutritional deficiencies of the mobile nutrients (N,P,K,Cl,Z,Mo) show up in older leaves and leaves closest to the trunk. When you planted out, did you bare root the plant (best to do)? Or, did you simply separate the plant from the pot and drop it in a planting hole? Do you have a nematode problem where you live? Bayer 3-in-1 for Insect Disease and Mite Control is a better choice of product and should be used according to package instructions, not halved. To me, it looks like over or under-watering (symptoms the same) or nutritional, possibly insects (mites). If you're watering while you can easily detect moisture in soil surrounding roots, it raises the probability of over-watering, so cut back. If every time you check the soil is bone dry, things would point toward under-watering. I'm in MI, so can't be of much help in the watering dept. BTW - does your home have a water softener? If yes, is it an ionic exchange system (requires salt), and has water at the hose bib been routed around the softener (if you have one)? Al
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corkball
Original Author
12 years ago
The photos: dang, I tried it from multiple browsers and it seems to work for me. Here is the direct link:
http://s1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa387/billmars/

can you see that?

Fertilizer: I didn't put it on the ground.... only on the leaves to see if they would react to an Iron or manganese deficiency.

History: These trees were planted 2 years ago, and they looked like this last year too. Last spring was much warmer (for Minnesota) than this year, but both springs were fairly wet.

PS: thanks for the response!
Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
12 years ago
As they were tansplanted two years ago and looked the same last year my bet is an odd soil deficiency in the rootball.

That is assuming they were planted rootball intact

What was the planting procedure? Were they bare root whips?
calliope
12 years ago
The chestnut has interveinal chlorosis..........the maple doesn't appear to be suffering quite so badly. The leaf margins on the chestnut are actually becoming necrotic.

There are so many reasons for this, most essentially nutrient dependent..........and you can look up tables explaining how to differentiate one from the other as easily as I can copy them. However, it may be a root problem, since the plantings appear to have been made about the same time and some are suffering and some not.

You may have a difference in drainage in the affected sites, root injury or soil compaction. That would be my first impression.
corkball
Original Author
12 years ago
toronado3800: the maple was bare root. The chestnut was a plug - enough soil to cover the roots basically. It is possible the chestnut has 'bathtubitis' - better soil in the hole and clay around it - but not the maple

calliope: that was my thought. The veins are CLEARLY green on the chestnut, but leaf is even colored on maple. Possibly a compaction issue with the heavy clay - is there anything I can do, or wait it out?
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years ago
I'm pretty sure that as soon as I read 'newly planted' or 'planted 1-2-3 years ago' I'm closing the tab and moving on from now on. And people get mad when I do DD#1.

Jus' sayin'.

Dan
brandon7 TN_zone7
12 years ago
footnotes/sidenotes/whatever:

Corkball, Your link works now. I bet it was my awful Knology service. (Knology keeps telling me they are seeing "significant packet loss", but then does nothing to correct the issue. I tried Comcast and it was even worse.)

Dan, I think some people may just not know what you mean. If they understood the meaning of "DD#1" (including its reason for its usage), they might better appreciate it.
calliope
12 years ago
corkball, I have clay soil.......and there are veins so heavy and white it could be used in a horse shoe pit. I avoid those, lol. For the most part, I plant trees in it without issue and never with ammendment. I am careful, however, to consider the tree because some are less tolerant of water issues for the most part and I get around it by planting those on hillsides, of which I have many. That's why raised bed planting comes up.

I dunno......the chestnut I suspect you may find be futile and may want to consider waiting until dormancy and if it's small enough to try and move it. If you do.....look at roots carefully. It may have been a dead man walking when it was planted.

Why I am saying this is I'd hope that the newest growth would show signs of "pulling out if it". And that doesn't seem to be the case. In fact it looks almost as if the newest growth has some leaf curl and distortion compared to the other picture of the healthy oak. Sometimes that's a symptom of calcium deficiency and that can be exacerbated by magnesium applications, foliar or root. How large are these young trees?
corkball
Original Author
12 years ago
calliope: young trees are maybe 2' high. I could probably move it if i had to. Interestingly though, I was looking at the leaves today, and the new growth appears healthier... I suspect it is a nutrient deficiency (of course I put Fe and Mn on it, so now i have to figure out which one). Maple appears unchanged, so that is still a mystery.

Why are my leaves yellow? What is my problem?

Comments (10)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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Why are my leaves yellow? What is my problem?

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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