Iron for Gardenias?

[nellie923]

I kept my gardenias in containers and overwintered them in the house or the garage. Even though we are now in zone 8, our winters have had an "arctic blast" where windchills get below zero, with real temps about 3 degrees for a week or so. So lots of plants that used to be hardy here are now annuals. Anyway, one of my garenias has yellowing leaves. I gave it some chelated iron (liquid) and a couple of weeks after that, some Miracid. I have read where I need to give it a granual fertilizer with iron, but i'm not clear on how much iron the formula needs to have, or what the best food might be. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Tetters]

The very best granular slow release feed for gardenias and other acid loving plants is, in my opinion, Osmocote.
Another alternative for an organic solution is either blood fish & bone, seaweed, or even diluted white vinegar.
Osmocote outshines any other in my book, and is certainly preferable to anything with ''miracle'' on the label.
When the leaves start growing back nice and green, the old yellowing ones will probably drop off, so that'll be good, as you can then forget they were ever there Good luck!

 

[nellie923]

Thanks. I tend to use organic fertilizers except when I need something quick acting (hence the Miracid). Osmacote does contain some iron, but not much, and I don't know if it is sufficient to reverse obvious iron deficiency. But I do have some so might just put it on the plant!

 

[YumYum]

Lots of times there is ample iron in the ground. It is the pH level that gets too high for these types of plants, then the plant can't uptake the iron and the leaves start to yellow with greenish veins. You need a way to check the pH of the soil.

Watering with city or well water tends to make the soils pH level go up and not recommended for acid loving plants.

 

[nellie923]

I forgot to point out that the gardenia is now on year 2 in the same container soil, so that soil may be depleted somewhat. Good to know about city water.

 

[Tetters]

Our cactus nursery that @zigs runs depends on rainwater, so we have several hundred litres stored up in tanks for the job - they're all over the place