Basil deficiency ?

jayendra

Someone suggested a foliage spray of epsom salts?

Charlie

Mine do the same. Never been able to grow any decent basil so watching with interest.

Marc d W

jayendra wrote:

Someone suggested a foliage spray of epsom salts?

I agree with you that it is probably magnesium deficiency
I have never used a foliar spray of Epson salts but I do use dolomite lime to add magnesium to the water.
High potassium levels can induce magnesium deficiency.
Magnesium deficiency is worst when plants are growing slow due to being too cold.

However, in all but the most extreme cases, iron deficiency can be easily mistaken for nitrogen or magnesium deficiency. It is unlikely to be nitrogen and Iron deficiency usually occurs in the newest leaves first, so just to be on the safe side I would dose with both dolomite lime and iron chelates.

jayendra

Okay thanks.
So amount of dolomite?

The reason I said foliar spray is because its an AP system and wasn't sure about the fish.
We had a person on another forum have huge tomato success last year with calcium or magnesium sulfate application.

Marc d W

in my 5000l system i use dolomite lime along with calcium hydroxide, potassium bicarbonate, calcium bicarbonate/carbonate to also keep the pH up. i use about 5 handfulls of dolomite lime evertytime i think i have a magnesium deficiency. i also apply a small ammount on my growbeds around any plants showing a deficiency. i follow this same approach with iron deficiency.
like iron and calcium, plants use a lot of magnesium.
my fish dont seem to be suffering from any issues with the water parameters other than temperature - so i think with common sense dolomite use is fine.
the advantage of using dolomite over magnesium sulfate as a spray is that other plants are probably suffering or will be soon from the magnesium deficiency. Because basil grows so fast it shows up the deficiency quicker than other plants that may be growing slower.

RupertofOZ

One of the few times where I would probably agree with the diagnosis of a "magnesium" deficiency...

Which is a bit strange... anyway.. dolomite is the way to go...

Either as a pH buffer... or even just sprinkled around the plant... (I do that for tomatoes)

jayendra

Thanks - will get some dolomite in asap.

5 handfuls for my system marc?

Marc d W

i used 5 handfulls as i had no idea how much to use and 1 handfull per 1000l seemed very scientific to me. it resolved my magnesium deficiency and have only made 3 further applications in the last 2 years ( but i have done some several water changes). it was after the last lot of water changes that my brocolli and cabbages showed the deficiency in a big way. the 5 handfulls stopped the problem in its tracks. also i use rain water so there are no significant levels of minerals in my water to start with.
bear in mind that the yellowing you see wont be fixed but you should not get any more.

Marc d W

Hi jayendra, I kept a few old and scabby broccoli plants to take photos of what I think is magnesium deficiency. I think it is magnesium as the symptoms are consistent with the deficiency and they disappeared in the new growth following the application of dolomite lime. Notice the old growth still has the symptoms and the new growth is fine.

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Charlie

Finally I think I've found what is a deficiency in my system thanks Marc. Question is, my PH hovers in the 7's so would using dolomite be an issue for me to use in the system as i dont want to raise my PH obviously. Maybe used as foliar spray would be better? Looking for options.

Marc d W

I can't say 'cos I have the problem of keeping my pH up around 6.5. The 5 handfulls of Dolomite lime I used had no noticeable effect on the pH but then neither did the 2kg of normal ground limestone.

I would put some dolomite in the system and see what happens or even sprinkle some on the growbed or spray with magnesium sulfate at a rate of 1 tablespoon per 4l of water (from memory)

I have some photos somewhere of my chili plant that was affected last year by magnesium deficiency and the new leaves are coming out now which are OK. If I can find them I will post them.

High levels of sodium can induce magnesium deficiencies so people running systems with high levels of salt may be more prone to the problem.

We should have a thread where all this info is kept in one place so we don't have to look all over to find the info we need.

jayendra

yeah brickies lime on the other hand - don't measure that in handfuls - we know what happens there :upset:

I found the thread from another forum about supplements for tomatoes.
Everyone had horrible tomato seasons last year except this guy.

Quote:

I'll write up what I did but am not sure if that's what helped or if I just fluked it this year.

I don't understand why everyone had a bad season as I found the dry weather better than other years when it was wetter. I find that when it is damp I get diseases a lot quicker. So that is another reason I wanted to overfeed and look after them this year.

Going back in this thread I see I planted my seedlings around late October and that is where it started.

For years my dad grew tomatoes and he and a good friend of his always had the friendly comp going. They both had good and bad years.
But his friend used to swear that the best thing to do is plant the seedling on a handful of lime.

So I decided to try it this year. At first I thought I would only plant half like that but before I knew it I was obsessed and planted them all on top of a handful of lime. Then I started sweating and worrying but after a couple of weeks only one or two had died so I thought that was ok.

Then I got talking to a lady who works in the B store who I know from previous shopping trips there grows tomatoes. This was the second week of nov and she somehow convinced me to give them all a good feed of sulphate of potash.

So I gave them all 1 teaspoon and watered in.
Then i started thinking 'oh no" what have I done so i rushed down to the industrial fertiliser place and bought some Rustica.
http://www.campbellsfert.com.au/rustica-plus.aspx

2 days later I gave them 1 quarter teaspoon each of Rustica and watered in.

1 week later I watered with epsom salts.

Next day I fed them 1 quarter tsp Calcium nitrate each.
http://www.campbellsfert.com.au/cal-nitrate-ghg.aspx

By now I knew there was no turning back. All I knew was that the plants looked healthier than they ever had before.

Then mid to late December i gave them the same dosage of rustica and calcium nitrate.
By that time I had sprayed with lime sulpher twice. copper twice and tomato dust diluted in water once.
Late Dec I sprayed with Lime sulpher again and then things really took of. After that I could only keep up with giving them plenty of water.

I may have fluked it or I may have got a good balance. I intend to try the same again next season with at least half of them so time will tell.

Hardly organic but what the heck. they taste marvellous.

jayendra

Okay sprinkled around the top of tomato plants and added 3 handfuls into the system.
The fish are looking a little dopey but okay.
Also foliar sprayed with espsom salts and poured heaps of seasol in.

Gwydion

Charlie wrote:

Mine do the same. Never been able to grow any decent basil so watching with interest.

One of the few things which grows like weeds, I got 2 sweet basil and one Thai basil and they have overtaken my dwarf fruit trees which are growing in the same half blue barrels. So not all in one... ;-)

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Basil deficiency ?

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