I would have done just as you have, using a very weak (1/2 normal strength) solution of fish emulsion. My experience has been that leaves which are already chlorotic will not respond. The next set of new leaves should look better. Nitrogen deficiency is not the only cause of chlorosis. Magnesium, for instance, is essential to the production of chlorophyll. If any sort of nutrient deficiency is the cause, I would expect fish emulsion to help because it contains a little of everthing. Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) are a good source of magnesium, used sparingly. Jim Here is a link that might be useful: Chlorophyll

The problem with adding a lot of vinegar to such basic water is that the vinegar neutralizes the basic elements and the result is salt. The symptoms I see could all be caused by salt. A better approach would be to add the vinegar to the water and let it stand for a day or more; perhaps the salts will settle to the bottom. Aside from that if you are using an essentially neutral mix, there is no need to lower the pH of the water below 6.5.

I'm also growing in containers and in the ground. About half of my container tomatoes show similar signs of mg deficiency (least that's what I assume it is, the bottom leaves are exactly like your final photo). Many of my tops are more purple with rolled over leaves and purple veins. So I'd be curious to hear other suggestions. I've been spraying with epsom salt and liquid worm casing for a couple weeks. It hasn't seemed to help. *shrug* Of course, maybe it'd be worse now without. Next year I'll be adding some Epsom salt to the soil mix. Wish Raybo was still posting. I believe he has an ongoing experiment with this? Strangely, it does seem to depend on the plant. Anna's Russian, Black Krim, Krijna Oxheart, and Knin have it bad. Stupice, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Persimmon, Sungold, and Coustralee have little or no sign. All are in SWCs with identical soil and additives.

Well, watering "little and often" is a poor strategy and may well be the reason for the chlorotic (yellowing) foliage. Small sips of water that don't move through the soil and out of the drain hole insure ALL dissolved solids (salts) in tapwater and fertilizer solutions remain in the soil where they accumulate, often to the point where the plant becomes entirely unable to take up water. Curing salt pulls water out of cuts of meat used for bacon, ham, salami, ...... . As salt accumulates in the soil (solution), it can, by the same mechanism, pull water out of plant cells. We commonly describe this issue as 'fertilizer burn', but the scientific term for it is plasmolysis, because protoplasm is peeled away from the cell wall, thereby destroying the cell. That's ONE potentiality. Nutritional issues, over/under-watering, uneven watering practices soil pH, soil compaction, root congestion, low light, and several other cultural influences can cause chlorosis in normally green tissues. There just isn't enough information to pinpoint a cause and provide you with a remedial strategy. The plant needs repotting, but it's not an 'emergency' situation. There are good times and not so good times to repot. Generally, the 2 week period before and after Father's Day or the Summer Solstice are the best time to repot tropical Ficus in North America. Potting up can somewhat alleviate the limitations imposed by root congestion, but that practice ensures congestion in the center of the root/soil mass will always be limiting. Repotting is more extensive than potting up. It includes root pruning, reducing the volume of roots by removing large roots not immediately attached to the base of the trunk, bare-rooting, and a complete change of soil. If it was your own plant, I would strongly urge you to flush the soil thoroughly (to rid it of any accumulating salts), then start fertilizing every 3rd or 4th time the plant gets watered, and start using a 'tell' to 'tell' you when it's time to water. See below for short articles I wrote about flushing the soil and using a tell. You might find this helpful. Flushing Soils When you water, you should be able to flush planting's soil to eliminate the potentiality of salts from fertilizers and tapwater accumulating in the soil, thereby limiting the plant's ability to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in the water. If you think you shouldn't flush the soil during your regular water applications for fear the soil will remain saturated for a lengthy period, limiting root function or worse, you should consider a different soil or take steps to reduce the amount of excess water your soil can hold. By whatever means necessary, getting to the point you can water correctly is going to make a very big difference in the opportunity to realize as much of it's genetic potential as possible. Once you can water correctly, you no longer have to do battle with a water-retentive medium over control of your plant's vitality. There are several methods of limiting how much water your planting can hold, all but 1 or 2 are completely passive, requiring no effort on your part other than set-up, which is monkey easy. I can help if you have interest in that, I'm continually improving my proficiency at monkey easy tasks. To flush the soil of a planting: Water with room temperature water until the soil is completely saturated. Allow the planting to rest for 15 minutes to an hour to allow as much of the salt accumulation as possible to go into solution, then pour a volume of room temp water equal to at least 10X the volume of the pot the plant is in slowly through the soil. This will remove most of any accumulation of offending salts and resolve any skewing of nutrient ratios. It's a good idea, no matter what time of year, to fertilize most plants immediately after flushing the soil. Try to be sure you're using a fertilizer that has a ratio as close as possible to the ratio at which the plant uses nutrients. The NPK % listed on fertilizer packaging is not its ratio. 7-7-7 and 14-14-14 are 1:1:1 ratios. 9-3-6, 12-4-8, and 24-8-16, are all 3:1:3 ratios. Container growers should try very hard to avoid use of fertilizers advertised as 'bloom-boosters', or any number with a middle number (Phosphorous) higher than either the first or third numbers (Nitrogen or Potassium). These fertilizers can badly skew nutrient ratios with even the first application). On average, plants use about 6x as much N as P, so there is NO potential for a positive outcome when supplying many times as much P as the plant requires. I, and a large number of other members, use Dyna-Gro's Foliage Pro 9-3-6. It's designed to closely mimic the uptake ratio of the average plant, and has many other attributes not commonly found in other fertilizers. It also has ALL of the nutrients essential to normal growth. Summarized, it makes fertilizing as easy as it can be, and from 1 container. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al