Garden troubles all.

We bought a bunch of these plants for a small hedge in our rear courtyard which has a narrow strip garden and essentially they are growing well in the preprepared soil with good drainage. The planting area is warm for most of the year, gets filtered light and about an hour of direct sun each day. It gets watered 2-3 times per week – we don’t live in the east!

Anyway, the origial leaves are about 2cm long and 1.5cm wide and a darkish green, however all the newer leaves that shoot are less than 1cm long and maybe 0.5cm wide and a much lighter green – almost that minty shade described in the link below. A bit too light I would have thought though in contrast to the original foliage.

http://www.greenhillspropagation.com.au/plantdetail.php?pid=440

Can you suggest what I might need to add to the soil or suppliment the plants with to boost them out of this if there is indeed something wrong?

PS: the leaves do not have any yellow spots, aren’t being eaten by things or wilting.

enduro said:

Garden troubles all.

We bought a bunch of these plants for a small hedge in our rear courtyard which has a narrow strip garden and essentially they are growing well in the preprepared soil with good drainage. The planting area is warm for most of the year, gets filtered light and about an hour of direct sun each day. It gets watered 2-3 times per week – we don’t live in the east!

Anyway, the origial leaves are about 2cm long and 1.5cm wide and a darkish green, however all the newer leaves that shoot are less than 1cm long and maybe 0.5cm wide and a much lighter green – almost that minty shade described in the link below. A bit too light I would have thought though in contrast to the original foliage.

http://www.greenhillspropagation.com.au/plantdetail.php?pid=440

Can you suggest what I might need to add to the soil or suppliment the plants with to boost them out of this if there is indeed something wrong?

PS: the leaves do not have any yellow spots, aren’t being eaten by things or wilting.

New leaves are often different colours but a common problem for all plants near concrete is alkalinity. Is there concrete nearby? Do the leaves keep getting lighter in colour?

I’d give it a liquid feed each fortnight?

yeap, near concrete, bricks and paving. Water does run off the wall and paving into the garden. Prior to planting I did put a few bags of composting mulch in and top dressed with wood chips.

Perhaps I should get a soil tester? Could do with one for the veggie garden too.

I’ll give them a biweekly liquid fertilizer too. Yesterday I trimmed all the odd leaf branches back so the plants are back to about the size they were first planted about a few months ago. With luck they will shoot along during the end of summer months.

enduro said:

yeap, near concrete, bricks and paving. Water does run off the wall and paving into the garden. Prior to planting I did put a few bags of composting mulch in and top dressed with wood chips.

Perhaps I should get a soil tester? Could do with one for the veggie garden too.

I’ll give them a biweekly liquid fertilizer too. Yesterday I trimmed all the odd leaf branches back so the plants are back to about the size they were first planted about a few months ago. With luck they will shoot along during the end of summer months.

Just add some Iron Sulphate to the fert mix You won’t need a lot just keep adding it until things look better.
You could use Iron Chelates but I’ve found that Iron Sulphate works better mixed as it were with your regular liquid fert.