Is Your Geranium Turning Yellow?

By Author: Lee Dobbins
Total Articles: 53
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Are Your Geraniums Turning Yellow?

The geranium, like any other garden plant, needs proper care to flourish. Planting in a sunny spot, making sure the plant gets enough water and fertilizer and checking for disease and pests will help your plant to be healthy. One problem with geraniums is that they can turn yellow, wilt and drop leaves. Here's some things to check for if this happens to your plant.

1. If your geranium is in a planter, it could be that the plant has outgrown the container. Make sure the pot is big enough and if it looks like the plant is outgrowing it, then transplant into a bigger pot. Make sure the container has adequate drainage and that you water once a week or as needed in hot weather.

2. Check for disease. Some disease include:

Leaf Spot - leaves fall off after becoming spotted.
Remove infected leaves, water with a soaker so as to avoid getting water on plant.

Rust - rusty looking spots, plant turns yellow
Treat with fungicidal spray.

Dropsy - mostly a problem with indoor plants that show lesions
Don't water the plant so ...
... much and put it in the sunniest spot you can find.

3. Look for pests such as caterpillars, flys, mites,termites and slugs are garden pests that might like to make a meal of your geraniums. You can control most of these pests with special sprays that you can get at your garden supply store. Aphids are another problem that may be controlled with ladybugs. Slugs can be captured simply by putting out a saucer of beer.

4. Make sure you fertilize properly. Geraniums like a soil that has plenty of nitrogen and lack of it can cause the plant to turn yellow. If you suspect this could be the problem, then you might try fertilizing with a fertilizer that has a high concentration of nitrogen.
About the Author Lee Dobbins writes for http://www.geranium-flowers.com where you can find out more about geraniums. Visit http://www.geranium-flowers.com/Geranium-Pests-and-Diseases.html for more on geranium pests and diseases.