Herself’s Houston Garden

I noticed this happening on a few plants late last summer.

There are two reasons this could happen. One is too much Round up. The other is too little of magnesium or iron or zinc or some combination of them.

I switched from regular Round up to some 3 month extra long type. Don’t do that, I’m sure that is the cause of this since the timing is the same. Stick with regular Round up and use it lightly.

If this is a magnesium deficiency then Epsom salts ( magnesium sulfate ) are needed. Add 1 or 2 teaspoons of Epsom salts to 1 gallon of water. You want to do this 3 times at 6 week intervals. Older leaves are most effected by magnesium deficiencies.

If this is an iron deficiency then you want to add bone meal or blood meal. You need to also fix the soil pH to 7.0 or less. New leaves are most likely to show the symptoms with iron deficiencies.

For zinc you want to add fertilizers for acid loving plants. Lower the pH to about 6. This happens in sandy soils during cold, wet spells. Newer growth is more effected than old.

Watering with your town water which tends to be basic will increase your soil pH. Better to use rain when possible.

The best thing you can do is a Soil test then you know for sure what the problem is and what you need to do to fix things.