{"id":193,"date":"2010-07-02T17:07:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T21:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2010\/07\/02\/ph-nutrient-creep-you-nailed-it\/"},"modified":"2010-07-02T17:07:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T21:07:00","slug":"ph-nutrient-creep-you-nailed-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2010\/07\/02\/ph-nutrient-creep-you-nailed-it\/","title":{"rendered":"&quot;pH Nutrient Creep? -You Nailed It&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_ZzNIw3ADWQo\/TCuzQfeup3I\/AAAAAAAAAQw\/J0STU7_zgOU\/s1600\/DSC_0627.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488677666790745970\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_ZzNIw3ADWQo\/TCuzQfeup3I\/AAAAAAAAAQw\/J0STU7_zgOU\/s320\/DSC_0627.JPG\" \/><\/a><strong>Photo: Foliar iron deficiency on river birch<\/strong><br \/>River birch (<em>Betula nigra<\/em>) is a popular landscape tree in the Southern Appalachian region (USDA zones 6-7). The cultivars &#8216;Heritage&#8217; and &#8216;Duraheat&#8217; have made a good native species even better with resistance to aphid and leafhopper insects. However, river birch demands a soil pH which is moderately acid. Why?<\/p>\n<p>Iron is an important minor nutrient element. If the soil pH rises (becomes less acidic), available iron becomes less available to plants. Major landscape trees also affected by &#8220;pH nutrient creep&#8221; include favorites as pin oak, willow oak, sweetgum and littleleaf linden. An old timey recommendation was putting several nails in the bottom of the hole at planting time.<\/p>\n<p>Modern day solutions include: 1. adding elemental sulfur in late fall to lower the pH and next year&#8217;s new foliage should stay green all summer long; OR 2. apply iron supplying fertilizers like Ironite\u00ae or Sequestrene\u00ae, following package rates accurately; OR 3. feeding acid raising soluble fertilizers like Miracid\u2122 or Hollytone\u00ae which contain iron.<\/p>\n<p>Follow any one of these three approaches and summer color will gradually return this summer or next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo: Foliar iron deficiency on river birchRiver birch (Betula nigra) is a popular landscape tree in the Southern Appalachian region (USDA zones 6-7). The cultivars &#8216;Heritage&#8217; and &#8216;Duraheat&#8217; have made a good native species even better with resistance to aphid and leafhopper insects. However, river birch demands a soil pH which is moderately acid. Why? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[468,469,466],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}