Top 10 causes of Yellowing of leaves in plants | Chlorosis in plants

 Hey everybody,

In this context we will give you top 10 reasons of yellowing of the plants. This will give you a rough idea fo the plant deficiency symptoms and the diseases.

     When there is any yellowing of the leaves of the plants you have to investigate it and have find the reason of  it. Proper diagnosis of the Yellowing is very essential otherwise it will spoil the whole planting. You must be aware of these problems to keep your plants stress free and healthy! . Please read the full context to get detailled information , we will start listing the top 10 reasons of the Yellowing.

1)  Attack of the pest :-  When your plant has some sucking pests like aphids, mealybugs,whiteflies, thrips and mites can damage the leaves and can cause yellowing of leaves. You know Prevention is better than cure. These can be easily prevented or even treated organically using Neem oil spray regularly for treatment as well as prevention. Spray neem oil once every 15 days as a preventive measure and weekly once or even twice for treatment of these pests. You can read the uses of Neem oil in organic farming, here

2) No space left for the Roots :- It means that roots of a plant have completely taken up the space within the pot, often circling and creating a dense web of roots. This can cause  stress on the plant and deprive it of nutrients, air, and water and this can result in leaf yellowing and stunted growth of the plant. 
         Solution :- You can replace the small pot with the bigger one if possible and if not you can prune the roots of the plants to make it fit in the pot. But be careful while cutting the roots not to cut or damage the excessive roots.

3) Transplanting :- This is another reason for leaf yellowing and leaf drop. When you just repot the plant,  the plant comes under the stress and shows yellowing symptoms.
You can solve this to a certain extent by repotting your plant carefully and after repotting for the next one week keep the plant in shade away from direct sunlight. Water the plant once thoroughly with Epsom salt solution to counter this transplant shock. 5 to 10 gms of Epsom salt per litre of wateris the recommended dosage.

4) Overuse of the fertilizers: When you give the excessive doses of the fertilizers to the crops the crop shows unusual yellowing and burning symptoms, such as it may show symptoms like the leaf viens are green and the leaf tips and margins are getting burnt or dried. Commonly over use of fertilizers is the problem, so it is important to use fertilizer at the recommended dosage. This problem is more common with the use of chemical fertilizers like Urea, DAP or NPK granules and not a problem with organic fertilizers. And more over, people tend to use too much fertilizer on their plants to make them grow faster, especially untrained farmers. Over doses of the fertilizers cause adverse effects on the plants, so be careful while using the chemical fertilizers.

5)  High Soil PH – High soil pH i.e alkaline soils  can also be one of the reasons for leaves turning yellow. This is little difficult to diagnose unless you have a soil ph testing gadget. Most plants need a slightly acidic pH of around 6.5 for best absorption of nutrients.

6) Temperature:- Leaves start turning yellow when it is either too hot or too cold. In terms of the cold temperatures, like for example in  some plants the leaves start yellowing in winter and eventually fall off and the plant goes into the dormant state in winter. That is  called Winter Dormancy and applies to many other plants as well.

7)  Sunlight: It is the most important factor needed by the plant and it must be the right quality although it is not in our hands. If the plant is not getting the sufficient sunlight then it will show yellowing symptoms. 
If the plant is exposed to too much sunlight then if shows burning symptoms.

8) Improper Watering:- Improper watering can present as either leaf yellowing or leaf drying or leaf burning at tips and edges. The most common reason that plants’ leaves turn yellow is because of moisture stress, which can be from either over watering or under watering. Similarly, the most common cause for brown leaf tips or brown edges on leaves is the plant not getting enough water.
NOT GETTING ENOUGH WATER which can be due to several reasons apart from you not watering the plant adequately.

First of all check whether you are adequately watering the plant by checking the soil surface for moisture by dipping one or two inchesof you finger. If you are forgetting to water the plant, rectify this problem immediately, especially for water loving plants. But this does not mean you have to over water them which is actually more dangerous than under watering and can result in root rot.
2. The roots may be constricted and unable to pick up or absorb the water adequately, especially in container gardening. Also Too Much Clay rich Soil is another cause of constricting the roots tightly. So increasing watering to resolve this issue is not the solution because there is a possibility of root rot with overwatering. The best solution is to  repot the plant in a larger container and in a loose well draining soil. A simple hack to get rid of clayey soil whilere potting you plant is to soak the clay rich root ball for few minutes in a bucket of water to dissolve this soil and then repot this in a well draining soil.

3. The soil does not hold the water and drains out too quickly. If your soil is too much sandy or over draining soil with lot of sand, the water may simply be draining away too fast and this may becausing water deficiency and brown edges on leaves. 
Improve the soil with other stuff like organic material and mixing some garden soil and other stuff like cocopeat, per lite, vermiculite, etc which will hold on to the water better. An ideal well draining soils is the one whichdrains out neither too quickly nor too slowly. 
A Simple and a rough test to check whether your soil is perfectly well draining. When you thoroughly water your plant, it should drain out from the drainage hole in about 1 to 2 minutes, neither quicker nor too late.
4. The roots may be damaged. Like while digging or even repotting or too much root pruning of a root bound plant, this can cause root damage and reduced water uptake. In this case, correct the problem that is causing the root damage and then do some good pruning on the plant branches to reduce its water requirement so that the root system recovers from this stress.
5. The fifth reason for the sides of a leaf to turn brown is a high salt content in the soil either using hard water (salty water) to water the plants or Over use of Fertlizers. To overcome this start watering with soft water and also if over fertilized  flush the pot with large amounts of soft water keeping it in sunlight and properly opening the drainage holes of the container, so that the salty water or the fertilizer flushes out easily out of the pot.

Generally, Indoor plants are more prone to over watering and outdoor plants are morep rone to under watering.

10. Age of plant: As the plant get older it comes to its maturity and at that phase yellowing of the leaves is obvious because it is the sign of maturity of the plants.

 So these are the top 10 reasons of yellowing of plant leaves.

Leaf Chlorosis due to Nutritional deficiencies,either due to poor quality potting soil or absorption issues due to improper soil PH. Lack of uptake of major and minor nutrients in the plant like nitrogen and also certain mineral deficiencies like iron, manganese, zinc and other can cause unique leaf yellowing patterns.