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My ornamental sunflowers Black Magic the leaves are turning a strange brown color. But they seem to be staying upright, no drooping, no withering. What could be the cause? This is in Ohio.
Last edited by linnye; 06-02-2019 at 11:25 AM..
Reason: wrong descrition
My ornamental sunflowers Chocolate Cherry the leaves are turning a strange brown color. But they seem to be staying upright, no drooping, no withering. What could be the cause? This is in Ohio.
Look up 'fungal wilting' Most of the time it is brought on by too little water.
If anything not enough water is the opposite of our weather here. several days of the week we have rain.
I think I've actually only had to water them twice with the hose since planting.
There is no wilting of the leaves just discoloration that is NOT white , yellow or crispy lol brown.
here's my suggestion: nitrogen is the nutrient most often lacking in soils, especially after copious amounts of rain. The nutrient can get leached out of the soil. I suggest feed the sunflowers with a liquid fertilizer like Miracle-Gro.
If anything not enough water is the opposite of our weather here. several days of the week we have rain.
I think I've actually only had to water them twice with the hose since planting.
There is no wilting of the leaves just discoloration that is NOT white , yellow or crispy lol brown.
Then you should have added that in your original post. No one here is a mind reader. I gave you an avenue to consider with what you posted. Now if you have too much rain, sunflowers don't like that either.
here's my suggestion: nitrogen is the nutrient most often lacking in soils, especially after copious amounts of rain. The nutrient can get leached out of the soil. I suggest feed the sunflowers with a liquid fertilizer like Miracle-Gro.
The lower leaves of plants deficient in nitrogen become pale green/yellow with darker green veins.
The OP's plants may or may not need fertilizer, but the leaves turning brown are not a sign of nitrogen deficiency. Here's a pretty good description of the signs of nutrient deficiencies -http://mgofmc.org/docs/nutrientdeficiency.pdf
The leaves of overwatered plants do turn brown, but there are lots of other reasons for turning brown.
OP, if your plants otherwise seem fine, I'd just wait and see. Or take a sample of the leaves in to your county extension office. I personally don't know of a fungal disease that would act like this, but that doesn't mean there isn't one!
You might want to take a leaf or 2 to a local nursery for analysis.
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