I have not been over watering...planted them up in 3 inch peat pots. I bottom water them until the peat pot is wet and then don't water them again until the soil and pot is bone dry and some of the seedlings start to wilt just a little. I know you don't think you are over watering but you are or the leaves wouldn't be yellowing. And the peat pots are contributing to the problem which is why many of us won't use them - ever. The peat pots wick water up too quickly and then wick it away from the soil and the plant roots thus forcing you to water more frequently. When you water until the pot is wet it is too much water for the roots and the leaves yellow. Then the pot dries quickly and begins to pull the water out of the soil drying it out and making you think you need to water again. If you cannot get rid of the peat pots and move the plants into plastic cups which is the recommended solution, then you will have to water them from the top using a small watering can so that only the soil itself is watered until it is only slightly moist. Make sure the pot gets little of it. The check the deeper soil moisture level, not the pot condition, before watering again. Going from real wet to bone dry should be avoided at all costs. You want a consistent LOW level of moisture in the soil. Hope this helps. Dave PS: lots of discussions about the many problems with peat pots here you might want to read for future reference. And do be sure to strip it all off the plants before transplanting them.

Kudzu had given me some of his Moso that he started from seed in 2004. Mine are going great and they have been left outside throughout the winters. I usually move the planted up against the house on the back deck for just a little shelter from the weather. The Moso seems like a tough cookie in cold weather. My biggest concern is where to plant it in the yard....and when.

Kate, "They are native plants from the southwest that like good drainage/rocky soil. Their first set of real leaves are turning a bit yellowish & I am concerned... I used sterilized peat moss & vermiculite to plant them in." Both peat moss and vermiculite are water retentive -- the very opposite of good drainage. These seedlings may be drowning. Also, how strong was that hydrogen peroxide you watered them with? You may have burned the root hairs right off of them. Normally perlite is added to peat moss to increase the drainage. The perlite retains air, which is the very opposite of vermiculite, which retains water. Vermiculite in a fairly fine form is best used on the surface of a seed-starting medium to keep moisture there to aid germination. Mixing it into peat moss is a questionable practice. Most professional growing media based on peat moss have some nutrients added, including a significant amount calcium, which is absent from most soluble fertilizers. If your media does contain just peat moss and vermiculite, it is both sterile and devoid of nutrients. You should water with a one-half strength complete liquid fertilizer that contains a complete complement of trace elements. Since your growing media is sterile, it doesn't contain the usual population of soil bacteria and other organisms, so you should not use a formula that contains any urea. Unlike in garden soil, the urea won't be converted to nitrates and it will just build up to potentially toxic levels. Also, the ammonia form of nitrogen is bad for some plants, such as pansies and -- who knows -- maybe your Oenothera. So, ideally, your soluble fertilizer should contain nitrogen only in the nitrate form. "Maybe I need to put them in a sandy mixture??" I would try that. And weak soluble nutrients. With sand you are essentially using a form of hydroponics, so a hydroponics supply house would be a place to look for suitable nutrient formulations. Since your plants need both phosphate ions and calcium ions and since calcium phosphate is relatively insoluble, you need to alternate feedings of calcium nitrate and a soluble formula containing everything else including the soluble phosphates. I don't know of a formula that uses chelated calcium (although there may be such a thing) so, as far as I know, no single soluble nutrient formulation is adequate for your sterile growing medium. When it is said that a native plant prefers lean, nutrient poor soil, that usually means low nitrogen and good drainage, but not no nutrients at all. Including trace elements, all plants need a minimal amount of over 15 different elements, and many element pairs need to appear in a ratio to each other that falls within a particular range, so excesses can be as harmful as shortages. MM

More than one thing causes this but first I would check for spidermites. Place a piece of white paper under the leaf and tap the leaf. If it is mites you should see tiny pepper size spots crawling on the paper.