Healthy plants yellowing

Straticus

Straticus

Hi all,
    I was a long time user a ways back, and got out of growing peppers and now recently have started again. To make a long story short, I planted a few plants at the end of May in pots in my back yard, as the soil here at my new house is too poor and I didn't have the time to make raised beds. I have 1 Trinidad Scorpion, 1 hot bannana, 1 sweet bannana, and another trinidad variant. I got them all locally at a green house.
 
They have recently started turning very yellow, and plants are dying. It killed off my strawberry plant, and is about to kill my green beans. I cannot see any kind of aphid or bug damage on the plants themsevles, I've carefully inspected them. We've had some very torrential rain here in MD, but with my potting mix and the drainage holes I cannot imagine that overwatering is the issue. I used Pro-mix potting soil (60%) and about 35% earth worm castings and some composted manure bought from a green house. The manure was put carefully on the bottom of the pots as to not burn the new roots. I've also drilled more then the 2 holes in the bottom, so I know they drain quite well. When I dumped my strawberry plant, the soil was dry and looked normal. It is effecting all of my plants, not just peppers. The pepper plants just seem to be fighting whatever the issue is better then the others.
 
I have heard that using black pots, like I have, could burn the roots of the plants. I would suspect with that though, the plants would look worse off then they do. The temps get to 100+ here. I have also fertilized using an organic mixture bought at a green house, which was 4-5-5. This was after the yellowing started happening. I also used a foilage spray of epsom salt, hearing that helped people with yellow leaves. Still no difference 3 days later. The pictures I'll upload were taken just hours ago. I'll also upload a picture of the plants a month ago. If it helps, the yellowing seemed to start at the bottom leaves, and work its way up every plant. I'm running out of options here as this has never happened to me, and I've grown many times in pots. Any help would be appreciated, as I cant think of anything else do besides move them out of the pots and put them into something else as a desperate move. I've worked really hard and hate for them to die.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Below, please note the plant in front was recently bought, and thats why it looks so "normal":

 
Below is what the plants looked like a month ago:

 
Thanks for your time and help. I hope I can find something out to save them.
 
 
Sometimes once the damage is done, all you can do is wait for the leaves to drop and new ones to grow.  I had a plant  that I was hardening off and forgot about, left outside.   By the time I came across it again all the leaves were destroyed and it looked deathly sick for a month but then one day new leaves started growing. 
 
Do you mean your peak summer temps are 100+ or that it has already been 100+ for an extended period?  I didn't realize it was that hot in MD in July.
 
Anyway it got to 100F here last summer and I saw no difference in health between my plants in black vs white and other colored pots, and that was on a hot concrete slab patio reflecting the heat instead of in the yard, but I've also read others claiming they saw a difference... personally I think you have to have a large group of both side by side in a season to rule out other variables and be sure.
 
Anyway I would give them one more dose of fertilizer then move them into the shade where they only get as much water as you give them, in case it starts raining a lot again.  Without leaves they will barely need any water.
 
The peak summer temps here are around 100+, we have yet to have extended period of time at those temps though. Many days its mid 80s-90s but feels over 100 with the humidty etc.. Yeah, I guess I have no choice but to wait it out and see, I'd hate to stress them out even more by moving them from their pots at this point.
 
Here's a link to a graphic that you may find helpful (scroll down to "Graphical Portrayal of Deficiencies"): http://tomatoheadquarters.com/tag/symptoms-of-plant-disease-in-leaves/
 
When looking at the graphic, keep in mind that it represents where issues tend to start - meaning that the issue will spread if left unchecked - so think about where the yellowing started with each plant. Also note it could be that more than one thing is going on. I am inclined, as well, to think that overwatering is not the issue. Those pots look to be fairly small - what size are they? Not only do they seem small, but you did not fill them with very much soil. Likely the soil is drying out very quickly due to both evaporation and the plant uptaking the water. However, you also said that the area has been hit with torrential rains. Rain contains a lot of nitrogen, and too much nitrogen can cause lockout - meaning the plant will not uptake other nutrients, especially calcium. Do you have a means to stop the nitrogen for a while? I grow in pots and move my plants into my garage when we are going to get heavy or extended periods of rain (and leave the garage door open so the plants can get light.) Do you have somewhere that you can move the plants so that you have more control over what they're getting? Focus on giving them fertilizer without nitrogen (or at least very low nitrogen) and see if that doesn't make a difference.
 
I would say it's from the rain. To much water it also could be the pots are on the small side. But I am far from an expert grower.
 
I have a couple that have done exactly this. In my case there's no reason, I think it is just...one of those things. 
 
Thanks for the replies all. I guess what makes the most sense for me is the nitrogen. The only source of nitrogen these plants got was a handful of composted manure at planting, planted well into the bottom of the pot. I can't see that being an issue, but its plausible. The only way to actually determine if this is the cause or not is to repot into a bigger pot and leave out the manure I'm guessing. Thats the only way I could stop the nitrogen. I will try to replant one or two of them, and see if that ends up making a difference. The pots, I was told, are 5 gallon. They were from a local nursery. I have bigger out in the garage, and when I transplant I will put them into larger pots.
 
They need a few good doses proper fertiliser, and plenty of watering
Nitrogen deficiencies start at the bottom and works the way up, yellowing of leaf's is the most obvious symptom... oh and it can happen pretty fast.
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]I have recently done ALOT of reading on soil, nutes, diseases, and most importantly (I think) PH, and how it all relates to the plants ability/inability to uptake nutes and so their well being.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]What I learnt is, if the PH is wrong, it doesn’t really matter what you do - the plant can’t absorb what it wants at the right amounts. Plain and simple, PH is king. Get it right and you will get everything else right. [/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]I have a couple of Jonah plants that I had been growing indoors over winter. They were looking very nice, but started to yellow a couple of weeks back. They looked similar to your plants and were not getting any better. (my lower leaves remained dark though)[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]I started doing lots of research, followed a few flow charts in relation to deficiency /toxicity by nutrient, and the signs each exhibits. I learnt that my plants were probably boron deficient. Ok great.[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]The real discovery was that my plants soil was on the alkaline side, at a PH of about 7.5 (probably due to the tap water that I water with being  about PH 7.8)  Now things start to make perfect sense as Boron begins to get locked out at a PH of 7+![/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]Anyway, sorry about the long post. What im getting at is if you can test the PH (whatever water you water with, and also the soil pH could be helpful), then you can easily see what nutes may be on the verge of getting locked out, and then the chances are it will tie up with the visual deficiencies.[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=10.5pt] In theory if the PH was correct, you could just give it nutes, it could (would) uptake them just fine (because the PH is correct) and your plants would come right. [/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]Ps. In my case I added sulphur to my soil (to lower my PH, to enable the plant to uptake Boron again), and have started amending my tap water with tiny amounts of citric acid to bring the PH down.(It takes a tiny amount, literally like 1:50 of a tea spoon per litre of water, I tested it) [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Things are already greening up and it’s only been a few days.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Cheers [/SIZE]
 
You state you added sulfur to your plants, exactly how did you do that? It sounds like it could be a reasonably simple fix. I'll see if a local nursery has something I can check the soil PH with. 
 
Straticus said:
You state you added sulfur to your plants, exactly how did you do that? It sounds like it could be a reasonably simple fix. I'll see if a local nursery has something I can check the soil PH with. 
Click to expand...
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]Add sulphur in the form of flowers of sulphur if you find you need to lower your PH, (or that your plants just need sulphur) That’s the healthiest way to do it but it takes time for it to work.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]In the meantime while you wait for the sulphur to work you can lower the PH of whatever you water with using vinegar or citric acid. You can find citric acid probably in the baking section of a supermarket.[/SIZE]
 
Thanks nzchili. I got a PH tester yesterday at a local nursery, as well as some organic and all natural soil acidifier, which lowers the PH in soils using elemental sulfur. All pots checked out over 7 in the PH scale, meaning the alkalinity of the rain in my area must be horrible. I have rarely watered with the hose as I've said we've been getting so much rain lately. I'm guessing this comes from the massive amount of limestone we have? I added the correct amount of sulfur per the instructions for plants in pots. I will just have to wait and see. This is extremely unfortunate as even if I have a raised bed garden (which I will next year) this could still be an issue. I appreciate your help. Hopefully this works !
 
Hmm... then how in the world does each potted plant have a PH higher then 7? Like I mentioned before, I only watered from the hose once or twice in the past month. We've just had torrential rains otherwise. I only used pro-mix and earth worm castings as the soil, with a handful of manure. I'm stumped as to what would cause the PH reading. 
 
Is it a probe, strip, or one of those you take a soil sample and mix to get PH?

Have you done any test runs with your ph tester to check it works? For example testing soapy water, vinger, or even unused compost?
 
It's a probe. I didn't have time to run a control test yesterday, I can today. I did see the needle change though from pot to pot, after being cleaned. They all obviously still registered over 7 to about close to 8. 
 
I have a probe but it's probably different to yours.

I find if the soil is to wet or dry, or to warm the probe is not great. Also try leaving the probe in the soil mix for 5 minutes, I've observed mine give a very alkaline initial reading only to gradually come down over 5-10 minutes.
 
Okay, thanks scotchnaga. I will attempt a control and let the probe sit longer tonight. I am also told that elemental sulfur could take months to have any effect. If my soil is truly high in alkaline the sulfur will most likely not correct the plants in enough time. I have read about 2 tablespoons of vinegar in 1 gallon of water to be distributed as a fast acting method to increase acidity in soils. I may have to resort to something along those lines to get a more immediate effect. 
 
I've recently started using sulfur to lower the ph in my blueberry pots, I've read that it's micro organisms such as bacteria in the soil that break the sulfur down and the waste product is sulphuric acid. It's got me wondering if there is a way to encourage these "organisms", sugary water maybe?
 
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