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Potted plants Leaf voes - Purple and yellow leaves in different plants

3 years ago

Hi

Lately, I have been struggling with potted plants with leaf turning yellow and purple on multiple types of plants in different pots. I am wondering if you can help with some opinion on what could be the problem.

I live in hardiness zone 7a. It's summer time and day time temperature have been lately about 15-20 degrees C..with some odd days at temp going to 25 C. I believe that I do not overwater and water only when pot feels lighter..usually every 2nd or 3rd day.

As can be seen in the multiple plants below, the leaf starts turning yellow and purple from bottom leaf onwards. I have used a fresh peat based potting mix with fertilizers to start with(i.e. about 3 months ago to start from seed) and have been fertilizing with a 7-3-6 fertilizer fortnightly at half strength. To some pots, I have also added compost (very low nitrogen content as per the compost bag declaration) and epsom salt..but it didn't help.

Plants type and problem per pot:

1. Peony poppy: mainly yellow leaves at bottom..they then dry and fall down

2. Asters, Sweet sultan, Stock: All of them show purple and yellow leaves..with Asters being least affected.

3. Sunflower/Lobelia: Sunflower with yellow leaves..and lobelia with some purple ones. To be honest, I think that sunflower is progressing towards maturity..and is planted in a pot to small for the tall variety and hence the result..but I may be wrong.

4. Mint: Mainly bottom yellow leaves.. This may be just natural aging?

5. Kale (Nero di toscana): purple veins and underside of some leaves are also purple. For comparison..the kale in other container..doesn't have purple veins.. but lower leaves seemed to be having slight yellow spotting..which I harvested already.

6. Holy Basil: purple leaves both on old and new growth. This variety is not supposed to have purple leaves..

7. Coriander: Almost all bottom leaves were purple first and then started turning yellow. Oregano in the same pot seems happy.

8. Green chilly: This one is the only perfectly healthy plant :)

At some places, it points out that it could be phosphorus and/or nitrogen deficiency but adding compost rich in Phosphorus and add the liquid N-P-K fertilizer didn't seems to have helped. Also the potting mix was designed for green plants to begin with..and it's been only 3 months in the growing season.

Thanks

Andy

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Comments (2)

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
3 years ago
You have a lot of different plants growing there but there are some general comments that can be made. Firstly you have far too many plants in your containers. The plants are basically starving due to overcrowding and competition.

Pic 2 shows Oregano, a perennial capable of spreading over a couple of square feet, in the same small pot as Cilantro, a short lived annual. The Cilantro will naturally die off in a few weeks, whatever you do.

Pic 6 shows a mass of seedlings which should have been thinned out long ago. The same applies to your Opium Poppies.

So, the biggest problem is that your plants just do not have enough space. The secondary problem, aside from the space issue, appears to be nutritional. Even the plants which have a bit more space, e.g. the sunflower, do not appear to have sufficient nutrition.
HU-700174116 thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
HU-700174116
Original Author
3 years ago
@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK Pic 6 actually shows full grown Lobellia..but yes.. I would agree that most plants are congested.. I bought rainbow kind of mixes for many flowers and and hence it was necessary to try to put in many seeds. I should have thinned out.. but a lesson learnt for next year.

But for the sunflower.. the main head has matured and roots have been out of the container like almost 6-7 inches long roots out of the potting holes.. I have repotted twice and don't have any bigger container to report unfortunately :(. Do you not think that it's natural aging for the plant?

How often do you think that a prebagged potting mix (Peat + Sand + Synthetic Fertlizer) should be fertlized? I am doing it a half strength twice per month.. May be I should increase to full strength and weekly routinw..
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