Improved Charlie - motteled older foliage. Tropical Breeze Magenta - black spots
and dying older leaves. Blue Dream - purple
foliage. Have had these varieties in past years ith no problems. Have dozens of your varietes this year with no problems. These are the only 3.

Regards,

Jack

Hi Jack -

We have a few questions for you....

Did you receive this material as rooted cuttings or unrooted cuttings?

When did you receive the material?

Do you have recent pH and EC levels for these crops?

How is the health of the roots?

Have you made any chemical applications?

The Improved Charlie and TB Magenta were rcvd as unrooted
cuttings in late Decmber 2005. The ICs were planted in a 10"
pot - Pro BX in early Feb. roots white, PH 6.0 no EC level avail.
Fertilize when water is needed with 21-5-20 100ppm,
15-0-0 100ppm, 10-0-0 50ppm with 75% phosphoric acid to bring
PH 7.6 well water down to PH 5.7 With 4 oz of iron chelate per 5gal
of concentrate. I have 8 or 9 other varieties rcvd from Ecke at same time under same program and they are doing beautifully. The TB Magenta still exist in plug tray, same fert - everyday if needed, roots tan to white. I have 3 other varieties of TB and no problems.

The Blue Dreams were rcvd from Yoder a little over 2 weeks as
rooted cuttings. I also rcvd unrooted BD at the same time as the IC and they are exhibiting the same problem. I sprayed some of the
IC with a 10-0-0 and iron chelate mix and the Tb Magenta with
Cleary 3336f. The ICs I sprayed are still moteled, but I probably
screwed up and sprayed with too much on a hot day - can you say
"little black holes and dead leaves?", but its only 8 of them and
they will grow out of it. Hope this helps.

Regards,

Jack

Hi Jack -

In all three cases it looks like you are dealing with some nutritional issues.

Though your pH may not indicate nutritional problems, the mottled foliage on Improved Charlie appears to be progressing to interveinal chlorosis. Are you alternating fertilizers and supplying 100 ppm nitrogen with each feeding or combining the three you are using and supplying 250 ppm each time? On established Improved Charlie you should be feeding 250-300 ppm nitrogen with a target EC of 2.5-2.8. Some varieties are more sensitive to nutritional problems than others which is why you might not be seeing these symptoms on other Cascadias. We have not heard of similar issues from other customers to indicate that there might be a problem with Improved Charlie.

The purple spots on Blue Dream are an indication of low substrate phosphorus. A calcium deficiency can also be expressed similarly. We recommend having a soil and tissue analysis to confirm if, in fact, low phosphorus or calcium is causing the spotting. The phosphoric acid you are injecting is supplying phosphorus but you may need to increase the amount of phosphorus supplied in your fertilizer. Phosphorus is taken up best when the pH is above 6.0. If yours tends to be at or lower than 6 and you aren't supplying enough phosphorus a deficiency may arise. Calcium is also compromised when the pH is below 6. Again, some varieties are more sensitive than others to deficiencies.

The verbena also look a little hungry. The new foliage looks a little yellow and interveinal chlorosis is apparent on the newly mature foliage. Have the cuttings been allowed to dry out too much recently? The burn on the lower foliage may be from allowing the cuttings to dry out to much. Both the deficiency and the moisture stress may be eliminated when the cuttings are transplanted to containers with more nutrient and water holding capacity. Verbena are also sensitive to high EC in propagation and if the cuttings were allowed to dry it can damage the roots which will also compromise nutrient uptake.

Nutritional disorders can be difficult to diagnose with pictures because several nutrient's deficiencies can be expressed the same way. We recommend that you have a tissue and soil analysis done for each of these crops before making any corrective treatments. You'll have a clearer picture of what is actually going on with each crop and you won't run the risk of making the wrong corrective treatment and making each problem worse.

Hi,

The ferts are all mixed together with the iron and acid as the
concentrate for the 100:1 injector that is working properly.
Coincidently the NYS Ag. and Mkts. inspector came by yesterday.
He agrees that the 2 petunias are nutritional. He took rooted
cuttings of them and a rooted cutting of the TB Magenta, which
will be cultured at some govt. lab somewhere.

The verbena could have dried out somewhere along the line, until
recently we have not had too much sun and we back way off on
water/feed during those periods. I'll let you know what the govt.
has to say about the TB Magenta and I'm confident that the
petunias will look better as I'll be able to feed more often now that
the sun has returned and longer days are coming.

Regards,

Jack

Blicon -

Let us know when your results come back. We can help you with appropriate corrective treatments.

Thanks!