Quoted:
Before I moved to the country I did lawn service in my neighborhood. At some point I noticed that many of the trees planted in the back half of my old neighborhood were yellow and didn't grow much. I have attached a picture below from Google. This is not my house nor are these my trees, however, you can see the phenomenon I am talking about. A healthy tree next to trees that were planted at the same time and are not healthy at all. They have been this way for 10 years.
I planted three live oak trees on my property. One is doing phenomenal, one got 100% raped twice by leaf cutter ants but is OK though thin, and one is yellow as hell. This is the first year I've seen it yellow this way. I have alkaline soil so I have to treat my peach trees with chelated iron, but live oaks should be fine. I have cared for this tree the same as all the rest, but it looks like shit. I treated it with chelated iron this weekend, so I'll see if the condition improves, but I don't want to have to treat it continually. If this tree is not good for my area I may need to remove it and plant a different one.
Thoughts?
Picture of Trees View Quote
@Chadnutz
I'm sorry I didn't see this until now. Scrolling through topics, and no idea how I missed this one from mid-July.
I agree that it could be chlorosis, which is iron deficiency, but it's important to understand the reason for the deficiency.
The chelated iron you are feeding is a good thing, but the alkaline soil is the real cause. If the soil is too alkaline, the iron is not available to the tree. You have to have a soil ph range that allows the iron to be taken up by the plant. If the soil it too alkaline, the plant just can't get the iron.
It's the same reason that Miracle Grow sells a plant food called "Miracid."
That basically lowers the ph so plants like azalea and rhododendron (and other species) can access the iron in the soil.
SO....you could attempt to lower the ph in the area of the yard where your tree is located. That might help it a lot. And it PROBABLY won't hurt your other plants either.
That is not a blanket statement. If you have other plants you care about, you should look at what they are and what level of alkalinity/acidity they tolerate.
However, most ornamental plants prefer neutral to slightly acid soils. NOT ALL. But most.