Why does dill turn yellow?

This very tasty and fragrant spicy herb grows, perhaps, in every household plot. Even a beginner can grow this herb, because it does not even need to be sown, it multiplies in a self-seeding way. But it so happens that the culture begins to acquire a yellow color. What then to do and how to deal with the fact that dill turns yellow? Let's take a look at this article.

Possible causes of yellowing

For young dill, it is very important that all conditions are created and measures are taken for its correct and good development. After all, any small nuance can cause yellowing and wilting of this beautiful and fragrant plant. If you do not notice this in time and do not begin to act, then young dill may simply not give a good harvest, or completely die. To start fighting this scourge, you must first figure out what exactly caused it. The most common causes of yellowing and drying out of a plant are:

- Improper care, for example, lack or excess of moisture and fertilizers, thickening of the sowing.

— Diseases and pests.

- Incorrectly selected growing soil, such as acidity and density.

Let's consider each reason in more detail:

- Improper care.

If you want to get a good and large harvest of this fragrant greenery, then you have to properly take care of the plant. To do this, you need: after germinating the seeds, make sure that the distance between plantings is at least two centimeters. If the plantings are thickened, this can lead to the fact that at first the plant will show good development, releasing up to 2 branches, and then it will wither rather quickly. With thickening, not enough fresh air and nutrients, which are so important for development, get to the plant, which is why the greens turn yellow and also dry out.

Also, the leaves may turn yellow due to improper watering procedures. An excess of moisture can lead to infection with diseases and decay of the root system. With insufficient moisture, a rather rapid yellowing and drying of the leaves occurs, mainly starting from the lower ones. This plant requires a moderate watering regime to prevent the soil from drying out or waterlogging. It is also important not only the number of waterings, but also the quality of this procedure. For dill, it is important that the water temperature matches the temperature of the soil. Watering with fairly cold water, especially on hot days, will cause the plant to turn yellow.

If, with good germination and development of the plant, as well as observing all the rules, the leaves nevertheless turned yellow or faded, it only means that there is a lack of nitrogen or humus in the soil. To combat such a nuisance, special feeding is used, but carefully so that an overdose does not occur, otherwise the deposition of nitrates in the greenery will occur. It so happens that the leaves of the plant turn red a little. This means that it lacks phosphorus.

The leaves still turn yellow when the seeds are ripe, but this is considered a normal, natural process. After all, each plant dries up after the growing season and seed formation.

- Diseases and pests.

Correct and high-quality care is of course very important for any plant, but this is not always enough for a high and good harvest. Another not unimportant reason for yellowing or wilting of dill are diseases and pests. As soon as you notice even a small change in your plant, you should immediately carefully examine it completely. If the plant is severely damaged, it must be removed from the ridge and its root system should be examined.

Here are the most common reasons why dill turns yellow:

1) Verticillary wilting. When a plant is damaged by this disease, the vessels supplying the plant are blocked. This results in low nutrient intake. Infection with this disease becomes visible in the first half of June, at the end of the same month the greens completely turn yellow and dry out.

2) Peronosporosis, otherwise downy mildew. With this disease, the outer side of the leaf turns yellow, and a light bloom comes out on the bottom. The plant dries up very quickly.

3) Fusarium. In this disease, the yellowing of the plant occurs from the bottom up. In the future, the color changes to reddish-brown and the root system begins to rot. And on the stem, brown or yellow vessels are very clearly visible.

4) Umbrella moth. It lives in the umbrellas of the plant, while eating both seeds and flowers, fastening and braiding the umbrellas of the plant.

5) Aphids. A small, very harmful insect that feeds on plant sap. It multiplies quickly enough. When aphids attack the plant, the upper parts of the shoots are deformed.

- Problems with the ground.

Incorrectly selected soil for growing this fragrant plant is one of the main factors due to which dill not only turns yellow, but also dries and withers on the ridge. This plant prefers neutral, nutritious and loose soils. Before planting, it is imperative to prepare the soil in advance, for this it needs to be dug up and fertilized. It is not at all worth liming the soil for no apparent reason. First of all, it is worth finding out what acidity the soil has; for this, special devices or indicator paper are used. You can find them in any specialty shop for gardeners. The most economical and simplest option is considered to be acid-sensitive strips. For this procedure, soil is taken from a depth of 10 centimeters (you can take several samples from different areas), a lump is formed and an indicator paper is inserted into the center of this earthy lump so that it gets pretty well wet. There is a special scale on the package with which you need to compare the result obtained, thereby establishing the acidity. Before this procedure, it is not recommended to apply top dressing in the form of wood ash and other fertilizers that can change the acidity of the soil.

Anti-yellowing techniques

It is imperative to follow the rules for conducting agricultural technicians.

- To turn an alkaline soil into a neutral one, you need to add fresh manure, peat, sawdust, citric acid, ammonium nitrate and ferrous sulfate to the soil. Ground chalk, wood ash, egg shells and slaked lime will help to lower the acidity of the soil. The amount of dressings that should be applied depends on the total area and how much the acidity level is shifted from neutral.

- After the emergence of seedlings, the dill should be thinned out, leaving a distance between the shoots of at least two centimeters.

- If the soil is rather dense, then sand should be added to the ground before sowing. And if the greens have already been planted, then you need to loosen and mulch the top layer of the soil well. This can help you infiltrate the soil with fresh air and nutrients from slow-acting fertilizers. Mulch is also quite good at preventing water evaporation and helps maintain the required moisture level.

- Observe the correct watering regime. Use water of the correct temperature for irrigation and carry out this procedure as needed.

- Top dressing is, of course, very good, but it is not always needed. If the plant has good development and the dill does not change color, then you can do without feeding. If light leaves appear, then nitrogenous fertilizers should be applied, for example, mullein solution, urea, nitrate, carbamide, anhydrous ammonia, ammonia water, and also use a tincture of weeds or nettle.Bioadditives and rotted manure can be used as organic matter.

- To combat the disease of oversporosis, you need to cover the soil and the root part of the plant with chalk powder or ordinary ash. In case of serious lesions, biological agents are used: Fitosporin-M, Beyleton or Planriz.

- In the initial stage of verticillary wilting and fusarium, Topsin and Fundazol can help you. In case of severe infections with these diseases, patients with asthenia must be removed and disposed of by burning, and the rest of the bushes must be treated with Previkur.

- It is prohibited to treat pests with insecticides on spicy crops, as the greens become unusable.

- Against the pest of aphids, Biotlin and Fitoverm preparations, treatment with potassium chloride (30 grams are diluted in 10 liters of water) and spraying the plant with superphosphate are suitable. Decoctions and infusions of tobacco, chamomile, potato plant residues, nettle, celandine, garlic, onions and wormwood can also help. The method of spraying with soapy water or a solution with detergent is popular among gardeners.

- If the plant is attacked by an umbrella moth, then such crops are removed from the beds and burned. The main thing is to make sure that no wild plants grow nearby, in which an umbrella is formed, because from them this insect can again fly over to your culture.

Conclusion

It is a well-known fact that it is better to prevent trouble than to fix it. In order to harvest a good and high yield, you should prepare the soil for cultivation in advance, follow all the rules of crop rotation, follow all the rules of agricultural technology for cultivation and care. It is often possible to fix the problem with yellowing of dill, but this must be done quickly and in a timely manner, especially due to the attack of pests and infection with diseases, otherwise you can completely lose the entire crop.