HELP? Vegetable plants all have light green leaves?

I have a major problem where all my vegetables have very luight green leaves to where the are almost yellow. I live in northeastern PA and June was just

30 days of rain and now sun so this may be a factor.

The veggies that are light green are Tomatos, peppers, beans, cucumbers, onions, cabbage. I use 10-10-10 fertilizer, and Ironite. PA has acid rain so I usually mix in soem lime in the early spring.

Also the plants are not growing bushy at all the tomatos and peppers are look thin.

Any suggestions?

Reply to
Bob Petruska
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Check the actual pH. You are describing chlorosis and chlorosis can have a whole host of causes ... including disease, mineral deficiencies (magnesium, manganese or boron) pests (sucking and root insects), soil compaction, overwatering and bad pH. (The insects don't actually cause chlorosis but their damage can mimic it at first glance).

Googling for chlorosis led to this link:

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this helps, Bill

Reply to
Noydb

Bill, thanks for suggestions and link.

I will check the PH again. I'm starting to believe that chlorosis is the problem. From the link you supplied over watering is a main contributor. Again - we had approximately 30 days of water during June in PA without any sun. Lack of iron is also a contributor and I normally till in dry Ironite in the spring and then water with the water soluble form every 2 weeks. I have rasied beds 2" X 12" so drainage is usually not an issue, but the long rains may have just washed away every nutrient in my soil! I just may send my soil for analysis at Penn State U.

Reply to
Bob Petruska

Pat,

I'm just starting to believe that the lousy weather this spring was the majority of the problem. I just checked the PH levels in a few spots and it's running 6.8 to 7.0. Not too bad but I guess it could be more acidic. I think PA acid rains will take care of that but I'm going to water 2 tomato plant with Miracid just as an experiment. I have added composted manure this spring but lightly about an inch over the plot and tilled in in. I agree that I need more organic matter. I can get spent mushroom soil very easily and will add it this fall as in the spring it produced too much ammonia as it still is cooking. I plant in raised bed using 2"X12"X16' so the drainage is fairly decent.

It also looks like we need iron around here so I use the Ironite which also has some very good trace minerals.

I take pictures of my garden and the last good graden was 1985 when I installed the raised beds and used a sterilized soil of 25% peat, sand, vermiculite, top soil.....things grew gigantic that year! It's been downhill since then when the bacteria and fungus take over.

Reply to
Bob Petruska

I've done well with the mushroom soil - but this is only my

3rd season living here, so I don't have long experience with it.

Contrary to what several people have said about letting it age, I added mushroom soil directly to my raised beds this spring. I was worried about doing this, and didn't really want to but - because neither my husband nor myself is capable of digging in our heavy clay (health problems)- I had very little choice in the matter.

It was either fill the raised beds with mushroom soil or don't plant them at all. (This was the first year we've used raised beds.) Some of the raised beds got about 1/2 mushroom soil, and some got 100% mushroom soil.

So far everything is doing very well indeed - this is squash, zucchini, chard, peppers, tomatoes, lettuces, various Asian greens, various herbs, and cucumbers. (I never got the pole beans planted - I hurt my back and haven't been able to work in the garden for the last month.)

The only problem we're having is that the mushroom soil drains fast, and needs daily watering in the heat we've been having for the last two weeks. This may partly be because we're using tires also - they're small compared to most raised beds, and have black solar-heat-collecting sides.

When we're finished setting up the tires (raised beds) and filling them (we're only about 60% done now), then we'll buy hoses with emitters, and put one emitter in each tire. Then watering will just involve turning on the tap. That will be good. Meanwhile, my husband is going out to water with the hose daily - a nuisance, to say the least.

I do know that - in various locations - I've always concentrated (above all else) on getting organic matter into the soil, and I've always had very good results. So I think it works.

Pat

Reply to
Pat Meadows

Pat, I was told that the reason spent mushroom soil is so great for the garden is that it is aged horse manure. If that is true, you shouldn't need to let it age; that's already been done. I would think even if it were fresh at the start of the mushrooms, it would be aged when you received it. Partly, it might seem what the definition of "aged" is.

My garden has been fortunate that I've been able to bypass the mushroom stage and used the aged horse manure directly, in past years with thousands of earthworms included. I figure with that many earthworms working it, it can't be too fresh to use in my garden.

Who knows for certain about the spent mushroom soil? And how old is "aged" when it comes to horse/steer manure?

Glenna

Reply to
Glenna Rose

This was my reasoning as well. In any event, since we had two choices -

  1. Plant in spent-mushroom soil
  2. Don't plant at all

- the choice was easy!

Everything appears to be thriving, so it's evidently not a problem.

Last year's spent-mushroom soil was black, crumbly and completely odorless. This year's was obviously younger: dark brown, crumbly, with a slight odor. But it still worked out well.

Oh, wouldn't that be lovely? We're beginning to have earthworms - we sure didn't start out with any in the heavy clay. We have quite a few now.

Pat

Reply to
Pat Meadows

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