What Fertilizer Did You Use

//What Fertilizer Did You Use

I see that the foliage is looking a bit yellow and that there is some browning on the edge of a couple of the leaves. Did you use an organic fertilizer or a synthetic one such as one of the “blue liquids?” If you used a synthetic and used a bit too much you might be seeing signs of fertilizer burn. If you used an organic product it wouldn’t be fertilizer burn.

It’s possible that the yellowing is just some of the leaves shutting down as peonies can do at this time of year. Are all the leaves looking like this or just the older ones? Has the plant been watered deeply once a week through the summer? In general peonies need one inch of rainfall (measured in a rain gauge not a carton or cup) over a 24 hour period, once a week. If the plant hasn’t gotten that much water it might just be starting to go into “fall mode” a bit early.

In general this isn’t a great time of year to fertilize peonies (or other perennials) in that the time when they put on their growth is in the spring and early summer. Right now perennials are stockpiling carbohydrates that they will use for winter survival, and they use the growth that was created in the spring to do this.

Additionally, the blackening you see might be fungal in origin – it’s natural to see some signs of leaf spot fungi at this time of year and this year more plants are showing fungal issues because of the cool night temperatures.

The best thing for you to do at this point is to make sure the plant gets deeply watered once a week. A light application of composted manure on the top of the soil is always a good idea for plants as well.

If the leaves continue to yellow and turn brown, and you used a synthetic fertilizer, soak the soil well today to flush some of it away and hope for the best. In the future fertilize these plants with an organic such as Flower-tone applied in the early spring.

By | 2015-12-01T22:37:47-08:00 December 1st, 2015|Plant Diseases|0 Comments

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