What is Iron Chlorosis?
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Posted by Robert Dailey Sep 30, 2007 |
All plants need to take in nutrients through their root systems in order to make chlorophyll. The term “chlorosis” means that the plant has a deficiency of chlorophyll.
Iron chlorosis means that the plant is not taking in enough iron. When a plant suffers from iron chlorosis, the leaves of the plant become yellow or greenish yellow while the veins of the leaves stay green. The newest leaves are affected first and as the situation becomes more severe, more and more of the plant is affected, until the plant tissue itself begins to die.
Although most soils, even alkaline soils, contain iron, the iron in alkaline soils is in a form that plants have difficulty absorbing.
There are a number of ways to combat and eliminate iron chlorosis but the one below seems to provide optimum results:
Iron Chelate. The word chelate comes from the Greek chelos, which means claw. Iron chelate contains iron in a form, which can be absorbed well by plants, and, since it is in granulated form, it can be applied directly into the ground. The best way to do this is to punch a series of holes into the ground around the plant, and pour the iron chelate into the holes. The depth and number of holes depends on the size of the plant. For larger trees, place holes about a foot apart, and about four to six inches deep. Then fill the holes with the chelate. For smaller plants, punch fewer holes but not as deep.
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