Rafed, When you say "quick acting" garden lime is it hydrated lime? What exactly does the label say?
Nice looking figs.

fignut,

Let me correct myself.

This is what it's called;
Pennington Lawn & Garden
Fast acting lime
White bag w/blue label

6lb. bag under $7

It comes as your typical garden lime in round shaped pellets but disolves with water. So it starts working quickly.

Hope I was able to answer your question.

Rafed

I looked online for it and it appears not to be hydrated lime. It shouldn't be a problem.
Were these figs transplanted into those pots very recently? Sometimes my new cuttings are pale before being re-potted, but when they get into larger pots, they green up fairly quickly.
If they've been in those pots a while, I'd just fertilize a bit more.

Rafed
Picture is good to gauge your concerns. Thanks for posting them.

You write
They get most of the afternoon sun.
Think it's time to put them in full sun or should we wait to find an answer to this issue?

Just my thoughts

My money says as they keep growing and get accustom to all day sun they will be just fine little by little.

Even if leaves are a little lighter than your picture i would not be to overly concerned as they look to be holding pretty good.

Plus you mention they are growing pretty well , watch you dont overdue it with fertilizer to get instant response like we all would like to see in our plants - there young still and at this stage weak fertilzer and not overly wet or overly dry soil is good.
You will get many different opinions on potting soil and fertilizer to use its my thinking what works best for you is best for you . ; )

__________________
Martin
Near Chicago,Illinois
Zone 5

It's pretty important to be sure what you used before we guess at whether or not it was a mistake. If it's hydrated lime, it will note the contents as calcium hydroxide and you'll probably see Ca(OH)2 on the package. If you DO see these things on the package, it was probably a mistake to use it. This type of lime raises pH very quickly, and it supplies nothing but Ca(lcium). Since two of the primary symptoms of a Ca deficiency are bright green leaves and deformed newly emerging leaves, it's doubtful that you had a Ca deficiency or that the added Ca could have been any benefit.

More likely, the type of lime you used is prilled dolomitic lime. 'Prilled' lime is simply powdered lime mixed into a slurry with a binding agent. Little pellets of the mix is shot from high towers (prilling towers) and it hardens into little spheres as it falls - to make it easier to spread in broadcast spreaders. You can be sure it's dolomite by checking to see if there is a Mg (magnesium) % listed on the package. If the Mg fraction is 1/4-1/2 of the Ca fraction, it's dolomitic lime.

There's still a question about whether or not the addition of dolomite was a good choice. It does supply Mg, and one of the symptoms of a Mg deficiency is chlorosis, but it's almost always interveinal chlorosis. That is to say the veins remain green and the tissue between the veins gets yellowish. I don't see that in your leaves, and the best way to alleviate a Mg deficiency is by adding MgSO4 (Epsom salts).

Any one of several micronutrient deficiencies can cause chlorotic growth. This can easily occur even when the nutrients are present in the soil in adequate measure, but are unavailable because pH is too high and they have become insoluble. If this is the case, adding any kind of lime would further raise pH and make the problem worse.

Please look at your trees and tell me if the chlorosis is more prevalent in foliage that is newly emerged, or in older leaves. That can help point to whether it's one of the mobile nutrients or if it's a deficiency of one of the immobile nutrients.

What are you using for fertilizer, and can you say how much, how often, when last used? Perhaps your trees are simply N deficient & need a boost.

I suppose I should ask what you're using for soil. Is there a chance your trees are remaining too wet? Do they ever wilt toward late afternoon?

I wish we'd have had more time to visit when I was down your way. It was great fun. We'll have to do it again when we have more time.

Take care.

Al

Al,

I did have a long gap between fertilizing this time around.
I do use the 20-20-20 but I had recently purchased some M/G 24-8-16 and had instructed my daughter to use it last week.

Fast Acting Lime;
total calcium ( ca ) 38% Neutralized value 94.6%
calcium carbonate ( caco3 ) 95.5% Calcium carbonate
moisture ( Max ) 1% equivalent ( cce )

PH range 7

The leaves are perfect formed with a few exceptions ( FMV signs ).

The soil I use is called LC1 ( purchased at Tellys ).
I add 20% to 30% pertlite.

Even though the pH of CaCO3 is listed as 7.0, it can still raise the pH of your soil solution considerably higher. CO2 is a by-product of root metabolism and CaCO3 combines with carbonated water (water that contains CO2) to form (Ca(HCO3)2) - calcium bicarbonate, which is used in small amounts to raise the pH of swimming pools.

Something I didn't mention is that Ca and Mg compete with each other for attachment sites on colloidal surfaces. An excess of Ca in the soil can make Mg unavailable. This is termed an antagonistic deficiency, so you need to be cautious about adding an excess of one w/o adding the other. Remember too, that an excess of ANY nutrient in the soil slows growth, and too much Ca is no exception.

If you're using a commercially prepared soil, it's almost certain it was adjusted to a pH of around 6.2 with the addition of dolomitic lime, which would supply all the Ca your plants need, so you can be pretty certain it's not a Ca deficiency. The Ca fraction of dolomitic lime is about 1/125th as soluble as the Mg fraction, so if one of the ingredients in the lime is deficient, it would probably be Mg long before Ca was depleted. I often suggest that people growing plants in the same soil for the second season w/o repotting do not replenish the lime, that they only add a small amount of Epsom salts to their fertilizer solution to replace the more soluble Mg that was lost and to help keep the Ca:Mg ratio better balanced.

Interesting is the fact that the MG fertilizer contains neither Ca nor Mg. We already know it's very unlikely that a deficiency of Ca is an issue, but we can see that Mg might be. You could try spritzing a few leaves with a solution of 1/2 tsp of Epsom salts in a quart of water & see if those leaves green up. If they do, you can add Epsom salts to your fertilizer regimen.

My best guess is this: Either your soil solution pH is already too high, making assimilation of the minor elements difficult and causing the chlorosis, or you simply need to fertilize with a fertilizer with a higher N content. I would try the fertilizer first. If that doesn't work, I would add an ounce of white vinegar to each gallon of irrigation water. Ideally, if you wanted to buy some pH paper, add enough vinegar to bring your irrigation water down to 6.0 and note how much it took. Then, add that much vinegar to the water each time you irrigate.

Also, send me your address (I didn't save it. I was too tempted to come and steal all your plants while you were away, though I have to admit that your duck hunting story gave me considerable pause and caused me to reconsider.) and I'll send you something that will quickly green up your plants.

Al

Al,
Was it the duck hunting part or the 9mm semi-auto I took for duck hunting? LOL

And yes everyone, I did get busted by the DNR. Cost me a few $$$.

Rafed

I wouldn't have revealed your secret, but it was a very funny story. ;o)

Al