Why is my spinach (but nohing else) turnng yellow?

[JCO]

Please go to your profile and put in your location....city and state. Maybe someone is close by that could help. :mrgreen:

[badflash]

My guess would be an iron deficiency. Spinach needs more than other plants.

[jackalope]

Welcome to the forum, Farmer Brown. I believe the pH that you are striving for is between 6 and 7.

This comment seems to suggest that steel wool might be much more effective than nails Clik ;) (http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.9506/msg00173.html).

I'm making an assumption that there is more surface area to provide more rust (oxides), but which would also be much finer in size and easier to dissolve in your system. Get the type meant for general use (i.e. not detergent like SOS pads), usually available at hardware stores for refinishing metal and wood projects, should be located near the sandpaper. I wouldn't pack it down tight, I'd let it be loose (you could contain it in a fence made of old fiberglass window screen) and provide an airstone (for oxygen to speed up the oxidation process). There are microorganisms and bacteria in soils that help the plants utilize the iron, wet, marshy soil being even better, but I'm not totally sure about plain water.

This mention of chelated iron v. scrap iron rust from Garden Web might also interest you. Clik ;) (http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/tips/1998033432008457.html)

Mineral water, seaweed, algae, and sea salt all contain iron if they are more available where you live, but the amount of iron is small, so you may have to grow an entire algae tank, just to provide enough iron to help out your spinach .... I'm not sure whether that would help or defeat the purpose! Just trying to provide some alternatives for you. If you have access to it, maybe you can use dried seaweed(?) to provide a better form of iron than rusty nails - however, you may have to wash it thoroughly to remove the high concentration of salt.

Just my 2 centavos ......

[badflash]

I use blood meal, but only a little at a time.

[stucco]

I picked up some”liquid iron” from the home depot and it seems to be working well.

[davidstcldfl]

Stucco, was the bottle for palms ? My buddy is giving me a bottle of liquid iron. He told me it was for palm trees. It also has magnesium and sulfur in it.

[urbanfarmer]

This might be more expensive, but can help in a pinch. Buy some iron supplement pills and crush them up as finely as possible. Then, sprinkle them over the root system of your plant. You can even mix some in water and spray on the plant directly.

Look for a pill with Iron (Ferrous Sulfate). Ferrous Sulfate is the best type of iron pill I have found for your purposes. If you can, find the pills that come in the cheap capsules because you can just PULL these apart and sprinkle what is inside out without having to crush it. Here is another type to look for:

Each Vegicap® contains 25mg of Iron, as Iron Bisglycinate, which is a unique form of chelated iron formulated for maximum absorption without the gastrointestinal irritation or the constipating effects that often accompany iron supplements.

EXAMPLE: http://www.amazon.com/Solgar-Gentle-Iron-veggie-caps/dp/B00013Z0QA
IRON SULFATE FOR PLANTS: http://www.amazon.com/Bonide-920-4LB-Iron-Sulfate/dp/B0015HXLAI/ref=pd_bxgy_ol_img_b

If you can buy online though, you of course should just buy the liquid iron.
http://www.amazon.com/Bonide-Products-Complex-299-Fertilizer/dp/B000BX4RRI/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1295890215&sr=8-11

[badflash]

I started with about 1/4 teaspoon per plant. I waited to see how it effected my water quality. Then repeated once a week. The plants greened up. If you over do it, the water starts to smell like a sewer and the fish will be gulping for air.



I use blood meal, but only a little at a time.

Badflash, what do you mean by "sparingly". Can you be a bit more specific? Thanks much.

[urbanfarmer]

Glad to help! Let us know how it turns out, please!

[urbanfarmer]

I was finally able to find chelated iron today. It is the international (and in Spanish) version of this US-based product called "Metalosate", from the company Albion: http://www.albionminerals.com/plant-nut ... osate-iron (http://www.albionminerals.com/plant-nutrition/metalosate-products/metalosate-liquids/356-metalosate-iron)

It comes in liquid form. The only difference is that my bottle is 4% iron, and the one in that link is 5%. According to the bottle, the remaining volume is composed of "chelating agent or inert ingredients". The Albion web page says to dilute 1:20 with water and to apply as a foliar spray.

Just wanted to check in and ask the brain trust if they have applied this or something similar, and if the recommended dosage is OK or if I should try anything different.

In other news, my molases-iron application does not appear to have worked. I will not be at my farm until tomorrow, so I am not 100% sure, but my caretaker says the plants look the same (but at least not worse).

In reading more about all this, I can see many reasons why it may not work. Even though molasses does reportedly chelate iron, that doesn't mean the compound is absorbable at my pH (or any pH), and even if it is, if it is then useable by the plant once it's inside. This could be because mobility inside the plant is impossibly slow or, theoretically, because the iron will not dissociate. Who the heck knows. Point is, it doesn't work.
A few rusty nails will take a while to dissolve to a concentration high enough to be absorbed adequately by the plants. If you have something as large as a nail, the surface area ratio to atoms of iron is quite bad for dissolving; therefore, it would probably take quite a while at fairly neutral pH.

If you bury some of the iron nails and give it time, the plants will absorb what dissolves in the water naturally.

[davidstcldfl]

:? .....trying to remember, thought I read (?)....when there is an iron shortage, and then some is added.......
Doesn't 'just' the 'new' leaves show the improvement, not the older ones...???

I've always added maxicrop with iron.......so, I've never personally had this issue.

[urbanfarmer]

Another possible reason that adding iron had no effects could be because there is a different deficiency to blame... or perhaps disease or even some kind of bug sucking at the plants?

[davidstcldfl]

Urbafarmer has a good point.

Farmer Brown, here's a link, showing color pictures of deficiencies.....
(I think this has been posted before ...?)

http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/min-def/list.htm

The Diagnosis of Mineral Deficiencies in Plants by Visual Symptoms
by Thomas Wallace, M.C., D.Sc., A.I.C.
University of Bristol Agricultural and Horticulture Research Station, Long Ashton, Bristol

[stucco]

Stucco, was the bottle for palms ? My buddy is giving me a bottle of liquid iron. He told me it was for palm trees. It also has magnesium and sulfur in it.

David, the gallon jug of iron is just chelated iron. I’m pretty sure that it came from home depot and its brand name is sunniland. they are out of Sanford.

[urbanfarmer]

Did you ever figure it out? :D