Reasons Your Plants are Turning Yellow + How to Fix It 

@0:36 - Transplanting shock @2:12 - Nutrient deficiency (Nitrogen?) @3:33 - Sandy soil, Compacted soil, Too much clay in soil, Un-broken down organic material (carbon source, like big chunks of mulch) @9:33 - Their life cycle

It is deeply impressive that you were able to shoot this in one take. No hyper-edits, no cutting out the "um"s, and that shows how confident you are that you know what you're talking about, and were well-prepared to speak on it. Kudooooossss

Over watering can also do this - especially evening watering - and it is probably the most common problem after shock. Many (most) plants require air at the root system during the night. Too much water can actually drown a plant. First thing I always try with yellow (not brown) leaves is cutting back the water. If root rot is involved - it will also help that. Shock - especial in newly transplanted plants - can come from any type of stress. Even a windy day on a young or newly transplanted plant. Although normally wilting is the tell tale. Just have some trust and keep caring for the plant(s). If you are a container gardener - reusing the same soil for more than one season can also do it. You can;t treat potting soil like garden soil. Potting soil gets depleted very quickly and is hard to refresh. Always use new soil each year and drop the old in your compost. Try to top off your container plants with fresh soil or compost a couple times during the season. Arg....I've typed too much for the internet!

Your enthusiasm is contagious. I now love gardening. Every time I need to look something up, you somehow have a video on it already! :)

Dude I did not realize all of your seeds are heirloom, that’s exactly what I have been looking for...great prices and free grow guides on RU-vid from Luke himself. Thanks man!

Last year, I had this problem. I did a web search for possible reasons and possible solutions. It wasn't time to add fertilizer and the plants were established. One reference indicated that the yellowing could be caused by a magnisium deficiency. The solution offered was to mix up some epsom salts in water and put it in a sprayer and spray the foliage. This helped my plants green right up. I only had to do this once during the growing season.

Another reason: Planting summer plants too early in the spring before soil temps are warm enough. Don't be in such a hurry, and don't always believe what the back of the seed packet says!

I'm a first time gardener this year and you have been soooo helpful! Thank you for your craft and sharing your love of gardening.

I've been outside taking pictures of my seedlings and posting them on reddit, trying to figure out what the problem is. This video is perfectly timed!! Thank you

This is my "go to" gardening channel!

Garden plants: Baby us throughout our lives or we will die.☹️ Weeds: spray me with chemicals that kill everything and We will still grow through asphalt that is 200 degrees 😐

I love how i have watched like 50+ of your videos over the past 2 years and just realized your name is Luke. You don't introduce yourself enough! You are totally a Luke!! Love your videos! My plants are definitely in the fruit is more important than leaf cycle.

Wow, so timely! I was just asking my dad if he had any ideas for why my plants looked a little sketchy, but I'm hoping it's a bit of transplant shock and that I'll see improvement in another week or two.

I know this isnt a brand new video,but thank you for making it. I found it just now and it was really helpful.

Thank you for always being such a great source of gardening knowledge for all of us! ♥️

In a future video, would you consider addressing what percentage of your family’s food you grow yourselves, and how much total growing space you have? My house is on a plot that is 1/12 acre, and less than half of that is fit for growing. I’m trying to figure out how to optimize that space to feed my family as much as possible.

We had so much rain spring of 2019, then a lot of my plants (especially currant bushes) were turning yellow, but the veins were still green in the leaves. Found out it was chlorosis so I gave them iron and they greened back up!

Some warmth-loving plants will turn yellow if a sudden drop in temperature occurs. Something we have to live with here in Northern Germany. They recover when it gets warm again. Careful of too much nitrogen - it is no good for root crops.

Always the first channel I check when I have gardening questions! Thank you so much for all that you do for budding gardeners!

Experiencing this with my beans right now... it's almost like you upload exactly what I need when I need it.. 🤔🙏

I LOVE THAT HOODIE EVERYTIME I SEE IT! Great video, thank you for the reminder not to panic because I sometimes forget. The best you, Mrs. MI Gardener and Mini MI Gardener. 💚

You have the best timing! I was just looking up why my tomatoes were turning yellow and in my subscription feed, here you are. Thanks so much for what you do! Grow big or go home!

Thank you! This was very helpful. I am fairly new to gardening and was dealing with this issue just a few weeks ago. Our fix was adding blood meal, I actually have a video of this. Thanks again!

Hi, Luke! I hand pollinated my squash the other day and thought of you. 😁 I giggled and giggled and giggled.🤣

LUKE! so...omg, i built my raised beds ~on top~ of beauty bark, and my shallow beds have been turning very yellow (except the peas.) this is because of the nutrient exchange, eh? i didnt think it would hamper it in a negative way, but it must be. and now i know. wow. thank you. and hopefully things go positive enough for the rest of the season. 🤞🏾

Perfect timing. My Kajaris started looking bad when I transplanted them. I watered them with fish emulsion and they look worse. It’s been about two weeks since transplant but just a couple days since the fish emulsion.

I have been looking for information on yellow leaves for some time now and nothing is a clear and concise as your video. I have now subscribed. Thank you for the great information

Thank you for explaining why our plants would turn yellow. That has happened to me and I've emailed you about this lol!!!! I have always had a passion gardening beautiful flowers. But due to a very bad back injury I stopped at 24. When this horrible virus started I knew I needed to start my own vegetable garden. So, I started watching some You Tube videos and that's when I saw you. Thank you.. you have inspired me to just do it. "Grow big or Go home" LoL..I just started one day with some seeds from Amazon, a heat mat, grow lights and lots of praying. My seedlings grew, but I felt all over the place. So I purchased your book Ive been reading your book, The Autopilot Garden. A Guide to Hands -off Gardening. Awesome, easy to understand, so informative book!! And that's where I'm at... I'm praying my vegetables will produce now lol... We'll see

Hi Luke, Excellent and timely information. Thank you. My lemon tree was getting yellow. Fertilized it and it looked much better by the same time the next day. All the best from California 💛

I enjoy your videos greatly. They have inspired myself and my siblings (because I show them your videos ALL the time lol) to make a huge garden. So thank you for your videos and the information you provide to us :)

@ migardener As a new gardener, three weeks ago, I am gaining so much practical knowledge from your videos. I especially enjoyed this video because you included info that a novice would take for granted ( i.e. consider the life cycle of the plant). This is so useful for me to understand why the new leaves in the development stage, need nitrogen, if yellowing and may need phosphorus if they are yellowing at the flowering stage. Thank you.

Thanks bro. Great video. I have a lot of clay in my raised bed. I added a bunch of compost (broken down horse manure), but was preparing myself for another failed season. You’ve given me cause for hope.

Thanks for sharing this information. We have sandy soil here so I have to feed my soil a little more often and I try to give them some compost tea throughout the growing season.

Very timely message for me. I was researching why my pea plants were yellowing. From the video it seems that they need more nitrogen. The soul I bought for their pot had a lot of un broken down organic matter in it. The rest of my garden is fine because it's got good soil. So now I know how to fix it :) thanks

Bought your seeds and trifecta+ this year and everything is looking SO GOOD! Perennials that haven’t been doing well for years have life again due to trifecta! Will be purchasing my cool season seeds from migardener as well 🎉 So happy to see a local MI gardener making a splash nationally!

Hi. I have green beans that have yellow leaves and I added iron sulfate to them at the soil and watered the plants. The old yellowed leaves have since been discarded and the plants leaves are looking healthier.

Luke, Heeelp!! A co-worker bought tomatoes this past weekend and discovered all the seeds inside had sprouted!!!! She said the tomato looked perfect. How can this be??? I told her I would ask my garden gurus about this phenomenon.

I planted okra seeds too early, thinking the warm weather was here to stay in mid-April. Since then, we've had chilly temps, light frost ( protected them with cotton sheets ), and now days of nonstop rain. My little okra seedlings (in containers, mind you) survived all that to put out yellow leaves. And then it got sunny and warm, and the leaves turned green, without me doing anything to fix it. I may get some okra, yet! I would have worried, had I not seen this video. Thanks, Luke!

I’ve learned so much from your channel! Thank you for always making content that is clear and to the point. The way you word the info and the examples you take the time to show your viewers is always so helpful.

Ya'll have awesome customer service I had a problem with my seed order and as soon we got ahold of you the problem was fixed! It was completely my fault I'm not used to buying stuff online 😆

My garden plants aren't doing very well this year. Some are turning yellow, and some have spots. It's been rather a very rainy and cold spring.

The extension office in my county has been closed since March. So I come here for gardening information and even though I'm in Florida and MIgardener is located in the north, he has given me a lot of useful advice.

Thank you very much! All of our radishes turned yellow recently so I'm very grateful for this video :)

Hello Luke I grow 4 tomatoes but there yellow I thought they had a magnesium deficiency so I sprayed Epsom salt 4 days ago but it didn't fix so I gave it nitrogen fertiliser but it still didn't fix the yellow but there are still young and they aren't growing bloosems yet so what could be the problem then? Thanks.

I often had problems growing stuff because my plants would turn yellow and die.. I was told I over water them, but that never made sense to me since plants are often grown in water.. it's called "hydroponics " .. So its not so much they're being over watered, but the water is binding up the nitrogen..? So, how then does hydroponics work?... Im so confused!

Thank you! In High School my Family moved to Farmington, MI! MI is gorgeous! Thanx for the info! Have a great week!

Oh wow, this was so helpful! Especially regarding the tomato plant and the adjusting new transplants. I can relax now. Thank you for sharing!

Around November I scan the curbs for throw-away straw bales. Outstanding mulch.

New follower from Holland MI! Excited to have someone here with my weather to guide me ! I’m a dummy and trying so hard - my garden looks beautiful !

Very happy I found you. I’ve been gardening for many years but I can always learn something. Or lots of somethings. Thanks.

June 27th, 2021 question...I do have a lot of unbroken down material in my new soil that was put in my raised beds this year and I am finding a lot of yellowing. You said to add potassium so it will balance what is being taken from the unbroken down matter and my plants. (How much and how often do I add the potassium?) Love your channel. So much good detailed information. Very helpful.

You must have heard my cries begging my plants to turn green again

You could plant peas too next to other plants that want nitrogen since those take the nitrogen from air and put it into the soil.

are you in my house? I needed this haha

I live in central Florida and it seems like the humidity really takes a toll on my plants. Even in shade they cant seem to handle it. I try and keep them hydrated with out over watering them. I try mulching but I can feel the heated moisture coming from the mulch. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do? I was told a while ago to try and only water at night. Im seeing some slight benefits but not enough. My tomato and pepper plants went from green and beautiful to yellow heat stressed.

We've had so much rain. My tall daylilies have starting to change like that. We have clay soil here too.

I'm new around here, so pardon the question if you've answered it... Clay soil... Not draining... Tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, squash, bush beans. A good variety of beds. I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to use compost to amend the soil for better nitrogen absorption. I've watched your video about trench composting, so I've got that planned for next season (or rather as the crops fall off, I'll trench then in). What about when I see this yellowing indication of lack of nitrogen absorption? Which compost is best for which planting? Thanks for everything.

1 - check moisture stress, either way 2 - have a regular schedule of feeding plants with the right amount fertilizer, so deficiencies unlikely and less guesswork to spot. compost doesnt count as fertilizing, with minimal and variable levels. Jumping between various organic fertilizers just as problematic, fish emulsion, later seaweed, later something else, and you have no clue about levels of anything. A complete and high ratio (10:10:10 or 20:20:20) fertiliser applied regularly, you will know plants are not short of any nutrients; instead of throwing on bath salts, then chicken manure, etc. 3 - Having eliminated deficiencies, look for stress factors related to weather, disease, etc. Dont start here for step one, as many pictures of various diseases and deficiencies will look similar enough to make many wrong conclusions.

Onion sets started out great. Once they reached 6 inches, they started dying back. It's been 4 weeks now, not totally dead but limited green tops. I'll probably replant but would like to figure this out to prevent this from reoccurring.

my pepper habanero seedlings have green baby leaves but the first true leaves are yellow. I think it might be over watering and lack of nitrogen so I watered a bit of high nitrogen fertilizer then moved them up to a 8oz cup with mildly moist soil without watering it after transplanting hoping it seeps out some of the water to the surrounding soil and it fixes itself. anybody have advice would be appreciated.

My pumpkin got flooded by an inch of water last week. It's a recent transplant in fresh soil. I used a 1:1 promix : mushroom compost. Wonder if the flood drained out the nitrogen.

Thanks Luke! My potato plants have been yellowing the past week or so but we’re in the flowering stage so I’m almost positive we’re into it’s last weeks of life.

Mine are turning yellow in doors as I hardening them off this week to prepare for planting.

Great video once again and perfect timing!! I am definitely going to try the fish emulsion recommendation this afternoon. Thank you so much for sharing :)

Thanks for talking uncomposted wood chips in the soil! I'm just starting a raised bed and I've made it where there was a shredded tree stump. Now I'm going to add some blood meal to my soil before planting, otherwise I would probably have had nitrogen deficiency and wouldn't know why.

I have a sweet basil plant that is droopy, slightly yellow and then some of the top leaves have dry, brownish patches on them. I try to keep it well-watered, but not overwater it, and it's in a nice fertile potting mix. I don't know what's wrong with it!

I appreciate your sharing of the knowledge and that you keep your editing very simple.

The last point got me... I was looking for this because of my tomato plants. Since I started gardening just this year and tomatoes lately reached above 1,5m in height and started blooming A LOT, I was a little bit scared tbh. I had small pests in other pots and yes the tomatoes are potted, so I feared they could have some too. I'll keep watching them and hope for the best. Thank you for your Video.

Thanks. I’ve been having trouble with new potted plants turning yellow and dying.

I’m here first haha. My seedlings are yellowing and trying not to panic.

Just came in from the strawberry patch. Perfect timing!

I think we need to start a drinking game for when we are watching his videos, every time he say excited we take a shot!

I was trying to amend and existing bed yesterday but the garden store I visited was completely out of compost so I added peat moss and I am going to hope for the best!

What would make plants that are yellow become more yellow when adding nitrogen. I bought 2:3 premium mix compost:top soil that I added 8 inches over my loosely cultivated clay soil. Plenty I thought to establish a bed. But all my peppers and tomatoes and beans are yellow and when I add any fertilizer the plants turn more yellow. The home test I did shows the soil had no nitrogen in it?? Shouldn’t a premium mix from a landscaping co have an adequate amount of nutrients? I’m so stumped of what my plants problems are

I always turn to you for everything gardening

Could you do a video on fertilizer and what 5-1-1 means and when you would need different kinds?

I’m confused about why it’s harmful to have wood chips in the soil but it’s ok to have logs in the middle when practicing hugelkultur.

You are my go to source for plant advice. Thanks.

Perfect timing! My lettuce just started turning yellow and I planted them a week ago. I was getting worried.

Thank you. I was considering putting my used wood-chips into my composter after the season. I will. But maybe not too much.

Transplant Shock was the name of my break out album.

Thanks again for another great, informative video! Gardening is something we need to do more of, and our worm castings help, but we definitely need to add more mulch to the gardens we have. Time to fire up the chipper! Thanks again!

Good information, thank you! I live way down south but it’s still relevant to my gardening in lots of warm/hot weather!😁👍🏼

My dude I love your channel. Dont stop creating content. Im a know it all and youve reminded me how much fun it is to learn and be wrong.

List of seeds I can plant now in my zone 7 (philadelphia). Is it to late for spinach?

Learned so much. I was a little concerned about those yellow leaves

Sometimes when my plants turn yellowish when it starts gotten hot . I also find I have a spider mites or aphids problem.

Do you have answers to why my basil grown from seed will develop two true leaves and then just stops and never gets any bigger? A few plants have done that this year...just two true leaves and then they stop. They don't die, they just stop and stay alive with two leaves for months.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS I learn something new! Luke I never get tired of listening to you and appreciating your WEALTH of knowledge! Thanks for sharing with us! And I too love your PMA! (Positive Mental Attitude). Kristy in Missouri 😀

I have been watching you for a couple years now. I like your INFO and PRODUCTION. Thank you for not using MUSIC and trying to entertain us. Some of your early videos were a turn off because of the music then you updated to the one you used all the time. I like it better when it is educational and NOT ENTERTAINMENT.

Spot on information and video Luke. This is what every Gardner needs to know. I just spoke about similar issues in my some of my latest videos too. Take care and God Bless You and the Family.

Other than your own book, what other books do you recommend reading to help dive into gardening? Classes? Advice much appreciated!

Started my tomatoes seeds indoors in late Feb early March I harden them off I put them in garden in may plants are small leaves are lite green to yellow but they have flowers on them last year they where big and green ?????

EXCELLENT VIDEO AND INFORMATION!!! Thank you. You have such a clear, concise, and intelligent way to explain many things ( I have heard bits and pieces before), but you articulate everything in such an easy to comprehend and educate- without either oversimplifying it (that doesn't quite enlighten or offer much substance), nor without overcomplicating the discussion (with too much technical explanations that can be boring, unhelpful and too difficult to follow)! You really hit home with this video for my question of why new transplants were showing yellowing leaves; I was questioning the location, and soil arrangements I set up. I will be more patient to see how things progress. I would love to see a video explanation on homemade/DIY soil amendments that I could do if I cannot find or purchase things like fish emulsion, blood meal, compost tea, worm castings, etc. where I live in Italy. Also, I would love a video explanation on 'what the differences are between compost bins one can find to purchase' verses what you need and 'how to build your own compost bin' , as well as how to compost properly. I have seen how they are charging a fortune selling various compost bins, and I have heard contradicting information about how they are making them and advertising the process all wrong, complicating it, and charging a fortune for nothing! I would be interested to hear your expertise and opinion on it! Thank you again for the wealth of information you are putting out there, and I look forward to watching more of your videos!

Thanks a bunch!! I am new to vegetable gardening this year. This is a great help.

I really needed this video, to understand the yellow and many different plants plus I have heavy clay soil and so your discussion about the sand in the clay and the compost was perfect thank you

Great video, thanks for the help on yellow leaves!! I can go fix my soil.

I have some determinate protatoes in a self wicking container. Some of the bottom leaves turned yellow and I got worried. This makes sense. TY!

Thank you for all super super informations about plants get yellow in leaves.

None of the reasons you mentioned help me solve my yellowing issue. My seedlings came up yellow! Never turned green. Cold snap or over fertilized? We had a cold snap not long after they were planted and I put a layer of 10.10.10 under a layer of soil under the seeds