This past month I visited my parents’ house and noticed that their young maple tree looks bad… really bad… So here’s what’s up. There are iron deficient leaves! (Basically the plant is showing signs of iron deficiency). The leaves are yellow on the outside with green on the inside, and a bunch at the top and from the ends of the branches are dead and falling off. It looks like the tree is dying! So, what exactly is going on, and how do you fix it???? Here’s what you need to know…
Iron Deficiency
Here are the common symptoms of iron deficiency to know if your plant has it or not:
1. The leaves are bright yellow on the outsides, but green on the leaf margins (it looks like the picture above…)
2. The whole tree is affected, not just parts of it. (If only sections of the tree are affected, then the problem is most likely root-related).
3. The leaves have the worst discoloration on the new leaves, while the older leaves are looking somewhat better off. This means that the leaves on the ends of the branches are the worst, not the other way around.
These are the sure signs that your tree (or plant) is iron deficient.
So what do you do?
Well, what I did is I went down to Home Depot (love that place), and bought some iron fertilizer (Ironite was my choice). Now I’ve been spreading it at a couple of lbs per square feet, evenly below the drip line (as far as the branches spread out). Then I’ve been giving it a nice soak through with some water to get that iron down into the roots. And that just leaves time for the tree to take it all in and hopefully recover enough for next season.
Do you have this problem? Or is your plant having a different issue? Comment below and I’ll see what I can do for you! Then, for more ideas for your yard, check out this post Landscaping 101: Designing your Yard in 10 Basic Steps!
Happy Digging!