nutrients BLS, nute deficiency or simply over watered???

R

rjacobs

We have had in the past 2-3 weeks here in Dallas A LOT of rain.  Last rain was Friday I think it was.  My raised beds drain very well, but the soil does retain water.  I was thinking that all this was was over watered plants, leaves turning yellow and dropping, but nothing else on the plant shows over watered(no leaf edema anywhere else).  These are on my Reaper's that are a year old and were over wintered.  The rest of my plants(new this year) are showing over watering signs of leaf edema and drooping and curling leaves, its very obvious so im letting those dry out and recover.
 
So tonight I was out looking at my garden and noticed I had A LOT of yellow leaves on the reapers, more so than I remembered seeing even yesterday.  I was going to give them a shot of epsom salt foliar spray(which usually takes care of my yellow leaf problem), but then started looking closer at the leaves and they had black spots on almost every leaf that was yellow(both newer small leaves and older large leaves).  So I fired up the old Googles and it points to BLS(black leaf spot) which says its a fungus, remove leaves aggressively, keep leaves from getting wet, happens when temps are between 65 and 85(yup were around 65 and night and into the low 80's in the day time), etc...  I aggressively removed every leaf I could find that was yellowing with black spots and will keep at it over the next few days.
 
What does this look like to you all?
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Your soil may have become flushed of nutrients from all the rain and plants are now showing signs of nutrient deficiency. Do you have any way to test your soil for tds?
 
tds?  nope.  No clue what that is.
 
I was thinking of watering in some nute's due to as you said, the rain washes everything out of the soil, BUT I know the soil is still pretty wet from all the rain so I was really trying to let it dry out.
 
The top 3-4 inches is dry, but then it gets damp below that.  The roots of these 4 plants go down at least 12" so I KNOW they are still in damp/wet soil.
 
rickster said:
more rain coming tonight
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yea I read that.
 
I think I will still put some ferts down today, maybe just dry granules and let the rain water them in.
 
Looking at the Dr. Earth Tomato fertz which say you just mix them into the top 2-3" of the dirt and then water them in.
 
A diluted liquid nutrient solution in moderation may help. Wet is wet and more rain coming. Plant may be able to get a little benefit of having some nuts available before the second onslaught.
 
I went and bought the Dr. Earth tomato fertilizer and broke up the top 2-3" of soil and mixed around the recommended dose and gave it just a little water to help it set or activate or whatever.  The rain tonight should help it out too.
 
Thanks for posting this question with photos. Lately my Reapers have developed the same problem. Quite a while ago I stopped adding nutes to the water, and moved to strictly water only. I assumed it was a bug problem, so I have been hosing all the kids down with Neem, which hasn't done a thing.
 
Next watering I will add some light hydro nutrients and see what happens (all of the plants are still in double-cups, and are bottom fed).
 
I went and bought the Dr. Earth tomato fertilizer and broke up the top 2-3" of soil and mixed around the recommended dose and gave it just a little water to help it set or activate or whatever.  The rain tonight should help it out too.
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That's all good, but you are going to need some help before the Dr Earth starts to work - that is a fantastically good fertilizer, but organics don't start to work immediately.

In the near term, you really need to get something else in there that is immediately bioavailable. I'm really out of my element in suggesting bottled products, but maybe somebody here can recommend a good bottled organic nutrient. I'd recommend you the fish and seaweed, but that gets watered in, and it doesn't exactly sound like that's what you need right now.

As a secondary suggestion, I'd highly recommend that you install some sort of provision to cover your beds during heavy rain periods. At the very least, maybe install some screen or shade cloth to diffuse the water, so as not to completely flood you.
 
Honestly the plants look WAY better just 3 days later after removing all of the leaves that were yellow and nasty looking and working the Dr. Earth into the soil(I do understand it takes a while to work).  Most just fell right off when I touched them which means they werent going to stay on much longer naturally anyway.
 
My beds drain really well, no standing water, but the soil staying damp is a blessing and a curse.  It SHOULD help out this summer on being able to go a bit longer between waterings when its 100+ degrees outside, but right now when we get thunderstorms, the roots are staying wet for a long time.  I hesitate to say "wet" because I wouldnt say the soil is soaked, but it definitely stays damp.  I only dug down about 12" last week to see just how wet things were and I didnt think it was to bad.  Like I said these big plants arent really showing any other signs of being over watered.  My small plants are, but they are recovering really nicely, and I guess its the nature of the beast.  They will have plenty of time to dry out once it gets into the 90's and 100's probably in May.  I will then be looking at shade cloth for everything.
 
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