Yellowing Leaves - Lack of Nutrients??

pepperpixie · 16-04-2012 9:25am #1

i've noticed that the leave on all my veg plants are starting to turn a bit yellow, some of the leaves have started to crips up on the edges and yellow inwards and some have little speckles of yellow on the all over.

Plants in question are tomatoes, cucumbers, chilli, peppers & aubergines.

Just wondering is this a lack of nutrient??? If it is, can I start using tomato feed on all these plants now?? (they're only between 2 & 6" tall)

Is tomato food good for other vegetables?? i.e. broccolli, leeks etc??

redser7 · 16-04-2012 12:59pm

Tomato feed is good for all flowering and fruiting plants. For these plamnts, if you need to feed them then use a general fertiliser until you get fruit set and then move on to Tomato feed. For other veg use a balanced fertilser eg 7-7-7. Lots of liquid feeds out there and also stuff like fish, blood and bone, growmore.
The yellow could be a lack of nutrients. But it could be other things too. Have the plants been in the same compost for more than 6 weeks? If so, they may have exhausted the compost and need potting up into fresh compost. Have they been potted up yet?
All the ones you mention are tender plants. Have you got them out in the tunnel fulltime? It has been too cold at night for that yet. If you have no choice and cant bring them in the house for the night you should put 2 or 3 layers of fleece on them. They could be getting frost burnt.
Could also be over or under watering. How and how often are you watering them?
If you let us know some more details can get to the bottom of it.

pepperpixie · 16-04-2012 1:20pm

thanks for the reply Redser, the bigger ones have been potted on the smaller ones haven't. None of them have been in their current compost more than 6 weeks (although it's the aldi seed one i used maybe not as good as branded products??) they are in an unheated tunnel during the day and the most of them brought in at night, the ones that are not brought in are covered with fleece. I water them most days or every other day around 4 pm. Some times when i water them the soil looks a bit caked before hand??? (got too dry)?? and some of the soil looks like it's going a bit green on top (too wet??)

redser7 · 16-04-2012 1:32pm

hmm, could be a watering thing. How are you watering them, from the top or the bottom? The best way to water them is from the bottom. Sit the plants in an inch of water in a deep dish or similar (cat's litter trays are good). Let them take the water up. I only leave mine in for a minute or two. Then let them sit somewhere to drain. Tomatoes do not like to sit in water. Also, it sounds like you could be watering them too often. I do it every 3 days or so. Algae can mean too wet. Tap one out of its pot and see if it the compost is wet right through. If it is, then leave it a 2 or 3 days before watering from the bottom. You'll get to know when they need wter from the weight of the pot.
If they ever do go bone dry, plunge the whole pot into a bucket of water and hold it under untill the bubbles stop. Then leave it to drain the excess off. That should sustain it for a good while until you can resume normal watering. Hope it helps, it's a learning process, i've done the over/under thing plenty of times.

pepperpixie · 16-04-2012 1:35pm

great thanks a million, had been watering them from the top, will try from the bottom so and see what happens.

redser7 · 16-04-2012 1:37pm

Sorry, when you said 'aldi seed one', do you mean the compost you are using? Seed compost has virtually no or very low nutrients in it and is only meant for germinating seeds and getting them going. Once the plants start to take off you need to switch to multipurpose compost. I'd say pot them all on in fresh compost and they should respond. Sorry, missed that

pepperpixie · 16-04-2012 1:45pm

ahhhhhhhhh..........thank you good job one of us has brains......yup it's a seed and cutting compost, i stupidly assumed this meant it would have more nutrients and was delighted with myself planting the stuff on after it had germinated into this. Ok will get some multipurpose stuff today.

pepperpixie · 16-04-2012 1:50pm

actually, when would you usually pot on the stuff, would you pot it on once it reaches true leaf stage?? or wait until there are a number of true leaves??

redser7 · 16-04-2012 2:01pm

Sure it's all learning

people do it differently. Some sow in trays and 'prick them out' when the seed leaves have opened. Some sow into small cells and pot on to small pots when the first couple of true leaves come.
Basically, when you see true leaves form it means the seedling has grown a root system that can sustain it and it becomes a small plant and no longer uses the nutrients that were in the seed itself.
You don't want to restrict the roots. So whenever you see roots coming through the bottom of the pot or cell, pot it up to a bigger sized container.
I sow into one inch cells and when I see the first true leave coming they go into 3 inch pots. Then say 5 inch and then maybe a 2 litre pot untill it's time to finally plant out. But it all depends on when you sowed. I'd sowed mine in early February and the weather still isn't good enough to plant out so I've had to pot up a few times. Some people wait till March or even april so they might only have to pot up once or twice before the weather is good enough.
Next year I'll wait till MArch cause it's driving me mad

They are over 18 inches in big pots with one or two trusses and dying to go out in the tunnel!

pepperpixie · 16-04-2012 4:30pm

ha ha redser i definitely don't have that problem, the stuff i planted in Feb (that survived) is about 4 inches tall and 4 true leaves and the stuff planted in March is about 3 inches tall with 2 true leaves...........i got some multipurpose compost and hopefully tonight or tomorrow evening i'll get time to try re pot the stuff in the new compost i'll then be able to check if things are too wet etc to see where i've gone wrong..!!

redser7 · 16-04-2012 8:14pm

I think somewhere in the middle would be about right

Great, you should see a big difference fairly quickly, especially with longer days and (hopefully) higher temps.

Yellowing Leaves - Lack of Nutrients??

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