So another common issue for the hot days of summer in the land of difficult soil is iron chlorosis. Yes, that beautiful chartreuse color many of your shrubs turn while their veins remain fairly dark making them look like alien beings.

While this looks like the world is about to end in your garden, it s fairly easy to treat. The best example is a maple of some variety, which ALWAYS shows signs of this type of iron depletion.

I find the best tactic is using liquids during the heat of summer because it s available to the plant quickly. And what I typically recommend is a combination of two products the first being a product called Soil Acidifier + Iron (by Fertilome), which in general terms is liquid sulfur (the acidifier); the second is liquid chelated iron. Yes there is iron in the first product, however, it s minimal and because you re treating an iron deficiency I find it s best to use both.

You ve got several things working in your favor here; liquid sulfur created a situation for your plants to intake products more readily and the iron, being chelated, has undergone a chemical process that binds the iron molecule to another substance like an amino acid so the plant can more easily absorb it.

All this techie mumbo-jumbo means that your plants should come out of their sickly state and return to the pretty green they once were. It may take a few applications but they ll get there.

Read: Dog days of summer – Part 1

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