Hello Everyone,

I'm curious for opinions on the yellowing leaves on my mostly 2 year old previously very healthy trees.  Started off the late spring with all my trees looking great and putting on a lot of growth.  Over the course of the last two to three weeks, I notice almost ALL of them are losing their nice green color and slowly fading to more of a yellow.  Some falling off completely.  Most are looking weaker by the day.  Since they're all suffering the same symptoms, I'm going to assume the cause is a common variable for all three.  As such I've narrowed it down to two things that have changed since I noticed the decline, watering and temperature.  We're having record highs in the Pacific Northwest right now (90's this weekend).  It's been in the high 70's to mid 80's for the last few weeks.  Typically I water once every 7-10 days, however with the high temps I'm been watering once every 2-3 days.

Other than that, I'm stumped.  Any ideas?  They were fertilized with my usual process about a month ago.  Attached a few pics.

 


 

I should also note, in the past when I've watered in fertilizer, I've watered in lime a week prior.  This go around I skipped the lime all together.

Are they a little root bound? Are the pots staying light after watering?
Does the fertilizer have iron in it? I bet if you uppot and fill the gap in the larger pot with composte or composted manure, they'll darken right up again.
Try rabbit poop, that stuff is fantastic.

The potential to be root bound occurred to me, but I ruled it out since it was all my trees at the exact same time.

Nope, they are heavy after a watering.

The fertilizer I use is Espoma Plant Tone.  I'm not certain of the iron level.

I used to have problems with lime green leaves when the heat of summer came on before I started using Irontone in the mix as well. Sprinkling some on top helps, but you should start mixing some into your potting soil.

Being in Fresno we have been getting extreme heat. A lot of my trees will turn yellow I don't worry about it. Usually in the fall they darken up. This is not all though only some do this. Also FmV rears its ugly head alittle more in periods of heat sometimes light yellow splotches on leaves.

Yellow leaves can be from poor fertilization, underwatering, cool weather (such as Fall, or a 60-70F week in the middle of summer), too much shaded, shaded lower leaves, older leaves, etc.

I up potted one of my trees yesterday from a 15 gallon to a 20 gallon and was shocked at just how hot the root ball was when I took it out of the pot. I did it at about 6 pm when the 85 degree sun was beating against the black plastic pot. I figured it would be warm, but as I was breaking up the roots I found that the soil, even a few inches in, was VERY hot to the touch! All my trees were exposed to the same conditions so I'm wondering if that may have been a contributing cause for the yellowing leaves. I wrapped and insulated all pots today.

what did you insulate/wrap your pots with?

I used Reflectix. They have it at Home Depot and Lowes. I cut to size and wrap around the outside. I've used it in previous summers, works really well. Outside walls of the pots will be cold to the touch underneath, even when in the very hot sun all day.

http://t.homedepot.com/p/Reflectix-16-in-x-25-ft-Double-Reflective-Insulation-with-Staple-Tab-ST16025/100012574

I used that stuff last summer and it works pretty well.  This year I'm not using it because my trees are larger so they shade the pots more and I've also planted tomato plants on the south side of my row of pots.  So those also provide shade to the pots.  I'm not sure about the wisdom of that second part though because my tomatos have exploded and it's hard to tell what's going on with my figs.  Like a jungle.

Here in the south you have to water potted figs almost daily if they are in full sun. I would guess that will be the case if you are having high temps too. If its really hot try moving them to a spot with afternoon shade, and then water a little every day. That should get them past the worst of it.

On a longer view, why not trench them in halfway? My potted figs are half buried in oversized trenches, then covered with mulch. That gives the roots room to spread and obtain more moisture, but still be easy to remove in the fall. Only drawback is the araingement is not asthetically pleasing, but since mine are in the back yard I don't care.

I may have to try that.  It occurred to me, but I don't really have a good spot unless I start tearing up the lawn.  Definitely considering my options though.