I have a couple Pink Butterfly brugs in concrete planters. They are growing and blooming just fine but the leaves are yellow. I've added just about everything I can think of to green them up but yellow they remain. I have cuttings from the same plant in plastic nursery pots that have regular green foliage. Is something leaching out of the concrete that's making them yellow? If so is there anything I can add to counter it's effect? They are underplanted with several other plants and I'd hate to have to pull them out because that means pulling everything out.
Karyn
I have a brug planted beside a concrete planter& also is an old sidewalk we tore up and some brugmasnias went in its area.The newer the sidewalk the more lime is leached out.Most sidewalks after 10 years are done leeching and fully cured.
Most times yellowing leaves is lack of some nutrients.most commonly calcium& magnesuim.I use the fertilizer for azealias/cammillias.its acidic.But frosty don't get yellow leaves and don't see them at all on Jamicia yellow which is also doing lots better this year.It use to stay yellow all the time with even useing the epson salts for magnesuim.And leaves would drop when buds set cause not enough nutrients. Are you loseing leaves?maybe more so than usual?I think Patrick has posted on here at one time the differances in nutrient loss in leaves.maybe try a forum search.I know it would have been awhile.
Another thought is look real close for spidermites.you might notice easier in early moring with dew as the dew would hang on the spiders webs.
Sure sounds like concrete leaching might be a factor, causing a higher ph and less available nutrients, especially nitrogen, the most important one. Also Magnesium & calcium as mentioned, and I'd also add iron to the list, which is necessary for greening up and is neutralized by a high ph.
When you say you've tried everything, have you also put in additives like lime, bone meal, gypsum, etc., that could also raise the ph? You might try heavily leaching the soil clean with water then using that rhody/azalea/camelia fertilizer for a while. I would heavily water every time you do it so that it freely runs out the bottom (the planters have good drainage?). That will help keep the ph down a little.
Tom H.
Marysville, WA Zone 8a
This message has been edited by Grrrnthumb on Aug 4, 2007 7:32 PM
These planters are about 20 years old. I've added extra calcium, magnesium, iron, and used an acidic fertilizer. The leaves are still yellow. I've also added ST and B1, along with kelp extract and foliar feedings. The leaves don't drop and there's no sign if insect infestation. I haven't added lime and never tested the pH of the soil. I figured it must be something from the planters because the other Pink Butterflies in plastic pots with the same soil are nice and green. It's a shame because the planters are so pretty and all the other plants are fine in them.
Karyn
Karyn, for some reason or other, I am having an unusual number of yellowing leaves this season...... on some brugs more than others. But since you have the same brug in another container not yellowing, I would agree that it must be the container.
Ok two more questions. What have you been using for a basic fertilizer (NPK), and do you have excellent drainage in the bottom of the planters?
One thing that's tough with the calcium is that not only can a deficiency possibly cause small yellowish leaves, but also an excess could do the same by changing the ph balance of the soil.
When a fast growing, coarse, pig of a plant like a brug gets yellow leaves, I might guess that it's more likely something simple like not enough basic nitrogen available (whether unavailable through high ph or just not enough in the soil) than it would be a rarer problem of low secondary nutrients.
So it could be that much of the stuff you've added has actually been working against you. I would flush very heavily then just start using only one good full spectrum fertilizer (a "grow" formula with plenty of nitrogen, not a super bloom type). That can solve most soil problems. Next year you can renew the soil with lots of compost.
And it will also take about 2 weeks to see results.My azealia fertilizer is a 30-10-10 & re read box and its iron& magnesuim thats added in the fertilizer.(I had a different brand box at begining of season)you can also mist the foliage with fertilizer from spray bottle.I haven't checked my PH recently.(maybe that PH would shed light on charles from April not blooming anymore.)
If you like your planters you could get some heavy plastic pond liners, coco fiber liners, or even smaller pots (maybe sink the pots into the existing soil among the existing underplanted plants?) that will fit into the planters and use them that way. Making sure to put good drainage holes into the liners/pots of course.
I don't know of any way to treat the container without pulling everything out.
Won't high nitrogen fertilizer push the plant to put forth more vegetative growth, at the expense of blooms? In my climate, I'm just now getting blooms on a lot of my brugs, so I don't want the plants going into a growing spurt.
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
For sure that's true Patrick, temporarily, but usually that's just what you want if you have a sickly, yellow-leaved plant. Without a full compliment of chlorophyll, the plant can't make enough energy to make up for the massive drain that a flush of giant blooms takes. But if you give it blooming conditions, the plant knows it must bloom at all cost; it must reproduce even if it destroys the plant. So without enough chlorophyll, it just starts sucking energy from the rest of the plant.
In extreme cases it could bloom to death, but usually just leaves you with an even more sickly looking plant that looses most of it's leaves (but with blooms )
Healthy first, bloom later.
Symptoms of lack of nitrogen:Growth stunted, small leaves ,pale green coloring,older leaves die and are shed early. they recomend at least 15% nitrogen 10-15% potassuim.I add comost as top dressing also.I'm sure that changes things around too.If I fertilized mine regularly 2-3 times a week.I would have 3-5 times the blooms that I do.I'm good about once a week but if they got blooms yeah I'll get them twice in same week.But I'll mist with spray bottle too at times.cuttings seedlings.
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