Got Ailing Plants? Culture Care Provides the Cure

Five questions to ask yourself regarding plant care
Recently, I volunteered to spend a weekend standing under an open-sided tent with the sign—"Ask An Expert." At the annual Sunset Celebration Weekend, our booth was one of many, dotting the vast circular lawn (designed by Thomas Church) at Sunset magazine's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The Celebration is a two-day festival of all good things about living in the West. I enjoyed talking to homeowners who brought their gardening concerns. Under the tent, Sunset editor Kathy Brenzel, and senior garden writer Sharon Cohoon who edits Sunset's blog Fresh Dirt (www.freshdirt.sunset.com/ ) and an ever-changing array of extremely knowledgeable Master Gardeners had plenty of nifty answers. Of course, a few questions were puzzlers.

The most common queries were about citrus, which grows in many Bay Area gardens. My favorite was "Why does my plant have yellow leaves?" Yellow leaves are like having a headache. Diagnosing is tricky. But perhaps because I'm a writer and used to asking questions not answering them, I found myself inquiring about various aspects of the homeowners' plant care. As we'd go through the basic list, we'd usually hit on something they had overlooked—Bingo! Try that one.

The following questions could work for diagnosing other ailing plants, although the last one is citrus specific. Container-grown citrus are terrific candidates for greenhouses or even sunny windows with an outdoor stint in summer. And here's the advice that all of us who were standing in the booth agreed on—don't over-chemicalize your life. If a plant needs more care than good culture and compost tea or insecticidal soap can provide, go ahead and get rid of it. The world is full of fabulous—and disease-resistant—plants.

Questions for Diagnosis 101
• Are you delivering water on a regular basis? Citrus especially appreciate this with Dry soil on top indicates the need for more.
• Are you feeding regularly? I prefer a good organic plant food with lower numbers than chemicals have, so the new growth is not overstimulated, making the too-tender foliage attractive to pests.
• Do you mulch to cut down moisture loss? Use bark or even pebbles, but don't tuck it up against the stems.
• Is the plant potbound? Pull out and check roots—this could be a two- or three-person job with older trees.
• Does your citrus need iron? Yellow leaves may be caused by an iron deficiency, easily remedied with specific food.

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