Dragon fruit branches yellow/pale

[Chuck]

Have you repotted the plant or placed it in the ground since you last posted about it in 2022?

 

[CrazyConure]

Have you repotted the plant or placed it in the ground since you last posted about it in 2022?

Yes. It’s in the ground since 2022. It’s been doing great until very recently. The chelated iron product came today.

 

[Chuck]

Yes. It’s in the ground since 2022. It’s been doing great until very recently. The chelated iron product came today.

Have you had a tremendous amount of rain within the past year or so?

 

[CrazyConure]

Have you had a tremendous amount of rain within the past year or so?

Nope.

 

[Chuck]

Nope.

Just wondering. Anyway, fertilize well every month or so and apply the Iron about every 6 months. I would imagine that your base soil there is sandy and if so leaching is a problem, so, the repeated fertilizing and amendments.

 

[oneeye]

If you stop your sprinklers from soaking the ground 2 times a week yellowing should go away. Catch some rain water in large garbage can and use that for a while and it should return back to normal.

Please friend, for a good learning experience for me, if you dump fertilizer please let me know how well that turns out. This is an interesting post. Thank you

 

[MiTmite9]

I agree it's probably Iron chlorosis. I have encountered this problem many times. Its probably not because of soil lacking Iron. You probably have iron in the soil but its not available because the pH has risen above 7.9. When this happens it locks up Iron and no amount of added Iron will help because its locked out. Adding an Iron fertilizer is a waste of fertilizer and money if the pH is too high.

What causes the problem is using (high water pH) over an extended time. Alkalinity will accumulate over time and will alter the soils chemistry. If you check your sprinkler water you will probably find that the pH is very high. To stop the yellowing you should stop the sprinklers hitting them twice a week.

On the other hand, if you use well water from your area and the pH is not high and its not modified to alter the chemistry, then I would say you need to supplement Iron with an amendment. If you put Iron on the ground and the soil has a high pH its a waste.

Wow. Thank you for teaching me more about chlorosis.