Sandie: Ordinary nitrate-based 10-10-10 fertilizer is poison for blueberries. Never use a nitrate-based fertilizer on blueberries, only a sulphate such as ammonium sulphate. The balanced soluble acidic fertilizers such as Miracid are fine, since they do not contain nitrates. So is pure, granular ammonium sulphate. Symptoms of nitrate fertilizer use on blueberries are chlorosis, which is what you have, although your case is mild compared with some I have seen. Counteract it with iron sulphate, watered in well. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

House guests, so sorry for late reply: I've been foliar feeding with seaweed extract, and not watering (soil wet enough) and the leaves are greening up a bit, could be the soil was waterlogged, or iron in the seaweed or that it's been warmer-probably the last. I'll definately try the vinegar solution, but I know the soil itself is well buffered, so I don't expect much of a pH change from watering it, but I will try (when I next water). A nursuryman told me that we could pour pure muratic acid on our soils and the pH would bounce right back. But maybe it'll help long enough to get nutrients into the roots. I don't think our water is alkaline, I did pH test it a while ago. Username_5 Don't you figure that an acidic shock with 'iron and soil acidifier' would kill a good bit of the current alkaline-lovin microherd leaving the survivors to repopulate and in the meantime the soil depleated in microorganisms and so less able to provide nutrients to the plant? I agree in the long term that's gotta be the way to go though, just that I want a few tomatoes this year. Good to know it won't hurt worms-I like those guys and they all just moved in. Albert, I based my determination on a couple things, course I could be wrong: --Chlorosis is in new leaves and not on old growth. --This is the best site I've found which shows pictures of each different deficiency. Plant Physiology Online: Visual Symptoms of Nutrient Deficiency In Plants --Based on the pics, it most looks like the iron pic (but not as severe), the youngest leaves are showing chlorosis, not the older ones, and mostly at the center of the leaf stem. --Manganese "They develop a light chlorosis along with gray specks which elongate and coalesce, and eventually the entire leaf withers and dies"-I'm not seeing any grey, and chlorosis not all over the leaves, not speckled looking either. --Magnesium: "show advanced interveinal chlorosis, with necrosis developing in the highly chlorotic tissue" I don't see any necrosis, and not all over the leaves. Epsom salts (Magnesium sulfate) doesn't help either soil or foliar fed. --It's really common in our area and TX in general Hmm, thats a shame, I thought foliar feeding would work well. Article about iron chlorosis in texas that recommends foliar feeding I read about some sort of iron chelated in sugar or something like that, instead of a synthetic (H)EDTA complex, but I don't know what the product is called or if its even on the market. Maybe I can just mix copperas-I can't find this though--with molasses + heat? Username_5: My personal goal with organics is to grow my home vegies, without synthetic or toxic pesticides, without causing a runoff problem or fish kills(I grew up on a lake in FL that had at least biannual fish kills resulting from runnoff and algal blooms that infected an entire lake chain whenever they fertilized/or whatever-I can't be even a small part of this if I can prevent it), while encouraging beneficials and soil health--all this to my best ability. I understand the chemical deffinition of organic/inorganic I ment organic with respect to the above.

Goodness, how interesting all this is. I had no idea my simple question would call forth so much information and discussion. After reading and rereading these comments I went out and looked over my roses, then looked up pictures of rose foliage with chlorosis. Well. I don't know whether any of my roses have chlorosis. Some of them have some yellowing leaves, but I'm inclined to suspect a month without rain in full sun as the primary culprit. I don't see the pale leaves with darker veins that seem most characteristic of the disease, though I need to look more closely at the foliage on my plants. 'Trier' is nice and green. It's grafted on laxa, I believe, and perhaps this rootstock is adapted to alkaline soils? But I have a lot of Hybrid Musks on their own roots: 'Cornelia', 'Moonlight', 'Penelope', 'Thisbe', 'Vanity', 'Francesca', plus a couple of mysteries, and they all look okay. I developed a theory about my soil ph by seeing what grew and what didn't grow. No acidophile plants grew: not a one: no camellias, no rhododendrons, no blueberries. Kerria japonica is a rare exception, but it does get chlorosis at times. On the other hand, the plants that do grow well for me are the ones the Hillier guide to trees and shrubs says are good over chalk: barberries, buddleias, box, eleagnus, euonymos, forsythia, bay laurel, ligustrum, lonicera, mahonia, mock orange, etc. etc. Not that we have chalk, but chalk soils ought to be alkaline. (Correct, Ann?) Our soil is gray clay that's concrete when dry and glue when wet. So I don't know what's going on. Is there some other reason I can't grow acidophile plants aside from soil ph? Do these plants mostly hate clay? Do they have to be watered, but loath the water we have to give them? There are other plants I have trouble with for unclear reasons: Osmanthus (tea olive)is one. As for the roses, is the soil just not alkaline like I thought? Or do the roses love the tons of compost, hay and practically nothing else, that we give them? Do they actually benefit in some respects by not being irrigated?? Are their seasons of growth such that they are most active in periods when soil conditions favor the uptake of iron? Or is there some chlorosis and I'm just not familiar enough with it to recognize it? I know I could get the soil ph tested, but this is more fun. Technology offers benefits, obviously, but it can never take the place of looking and thinking. Melissa

Part of why the soil test results matter is that the weather can affect the rose's uptake of minerals in the soil, and adding more wouldn't help then (and might create other problems). For instance, a lot of rain and waterlogged soil can interfere with uptake of minerals like magnesium or iron. I can't recall at a glance what the leaves look like for poor magnesium vs. iron uptake, but they both involve yellowing and need different solutions, some of which is to wait for the weather to change. If you do find that this is a chronic problem and you need to add something, our clay soils maintain nutrients longer than sandy soil would. For me, I add soil sulfur to increase the pH of the soil for things like blueberries and azaleas. It usually lasts 3-4 years and it's possible to overdo it for some roses, though most like soil a little more acidic than base. If you add iron, I think it's best to add chelated iron that the plants can take up more easily. I use Ironite and it seems to help as a general fertilizer in spring. I don't think it would hurt to add a little Ironite or Miracid as a fertilizer and see what results if the effects persist after a week or two, but don't add that on to other fertilizer treatments. Just my two cents - most of rose gardening is being patient with the roses and helping them shake off things that are affecting them when possible. Cynthia