yellowing leaves - multiple plants

[chilliking]

over the last week or two i've noticed on quite a few of my veg plants the leaves have gone a pale yellow colour:

- green courgettes
- yellow courgettes
- spinach

any ideas what this could be caused by?

should i be feeding the above plants? if so what should i use?

[VirginVegGrower]

Sounds like the plants are deficient in some nutrient or other, possibly nitrogen - are they in containers? I am not feeding mine although I have planted in compost/manure mix.

[chilliking]

no, they are in the ground in our new veg patch. the area was used for grasses previously. we dug it out in early spring and i dug in some compost before planting.

if i feed these what should i feed them?

[perkin]

Courgette plants are usually fed with some kind of potash feed when fruiting - any liquid tomato feed or comfrey tea (if you have this). However, the colouring sounds like this could indeed be a nitrogen deficiency as VVG mentions above. In which case, feed with a general purpose plant feed - these usually have nitrogen as their main constituent (the N in NPK).

[chilliking]

In which case, feed with a general purpose plant feed - these usually have nitrogen as their main constituent (the N in NPK).

Would something like growmore do the job ok?

[perkin]

Yes, that will work fine.

[VirginVegGrower]

That's why I tend to plant mine on top of manure and compost = plenty of nitrogen, which means I don't feed. Growmore is an old and trusted non organic solution; for organic then comfrey feed is brilliant. You can find the leaves everywhere at the moment but unfortunately any tea you brew will take six weeks. Good luck and hope you can sort it out now.

[Snadger]

Could also be water related.............too much or too little?

[Potstubsdustbins]

If your watering correctly then a good guess is lack of nitrogen, general fertilizers like growmore/BFB are NPK neutral. To give them a real boost use something like Miracle Grow which is rich in nitrogen.

Colin

[Florence Fennel]

The oldest leaves on my courgette are yellowing, but the new growth is lush and green, both in containers and in the ground and this is the case every year. I'm off to try the miracle grow now, thanks.

[Two_Sheds]

You want nitrogen for your spinach, potash for your courgettes I don't want my courgettes to grow loads of leaves (nitrogen), I want them to produce lots of fruits (potash)

[Florence Fennel]

Now she tells me. Too late was the cry, they've had a feed of miracle gro.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'm almost certain miracle grow is not high nitrogen. Will check at the plot tomorrow

[Potstubsdustbins]

AP for your info,

Scotts changed the NPK formulation of general purpose Miracle Grow in 2005, was 15-30-15, now 24-8-16.

You may be thinking of their Tom food which is 18-18-21.

They also do several other formulations for different purposes.

FF don't worry it will do no harm what so ever, the piont being made was that general yellowing of leaves could be lack of nitrogen and as 2Sheds points out, nitrogen for greenery potash for fruits. If you have lots of little courgettes whack some potash at em on the morra.

Colin