i dont see any yellowing..

and i dont recognize the plant.. do you know what it is??

and is it being grown in a pot...

and did you use fresh media.. or old media ...

the more facts you can give.. the better answer you will get ...

ken

My apologies, i thought all 3 photos were posted. That is a swamp milkweed. The leaves are yellowing on the swamp and tropical milkweed and zinnias. The damage on that photo is like tiny pin holes running along the middle. like something poked holes in it. This all started about 3 weeks ago. The soil was new, about 5 months new. Brand new everything.

5th attempt of posting pics

So disappointing

when the lowest.. or oldest leaves ... yellow.. but the growth points remain vigorous.. i default to water issues...

and looking at the last pic.. wonder if the brick wall is baking them.. long into the night ... rather than allowing them to recover ... how hot does teh pot itself get.. most things like cool roots ....

also... you have a lot of rather large plants.. in what looks like a relatively small square pot.... whats your fertilizer regimen ...

and just by eyeballing it.. you could probably do a lot better than that potting media you have.... may i guess bigboxstore stuff????

potting media is a science.. and covered ad nauseum in GW .... and no two are equal ...

the biggest thing a GOOD media does.. is manage water ... holding enough moisture.. while shedding excess ... and every plant has different needs regarding such ...

and it can take a lifetime to perfect such...

and one reason.. i dont mess with pots ...

why are you trying to grow such large aggressive plants in pots???

what i am trying to say.. is you are struggling hard enough as a newbie.. let alone trying to perfect growing in pots.. which make it a monstrous challenge..

but dont let it get you down.. you have done well .. all things said.. those are some rather nice sized plants .... dont get me wrong at all ... july/august.. is the hardest time of year.. both in the ground.. and in the pot .... so dont let it get you down ...

ken

hmm, good points. I water the plants every day unless it rains but even then i still check to make sure they are not dry. I try to keep the swamp mw wet ( thats what several people from the garden center have told me to do.)

I will move the pot away from the wall to see if it helps in any way. That is the only one by the wall. So should I go ahead and re-pot that plant in the white container?
It gets hit with sun after 1pm as the other ones that have the same yellowing/damage are in the sun from 9am until about 6. I have 2 patios they are separated by a brick wall (apartment building)

The plants that are not near the wall have the same damage. I did notice a green thing jumping around and something that looked like it was carrying rocks on its back. And another bug that looked like it was carrying a piece of cotton.

Most of the pots are raised off the ground on a table. I have a huge bush in front of both patios which do not belong to me.

Oh yeah thats the stuff.... the MG potting soil from HD.
I was told these plants would not get big.. But i am seeing that was a lie!

My goal was to have a butterfly garden (the kids insisted.)
All of the plants were from seed except the swamp milkweed and cone flower. And no butterfly visits YET.
The only plant that does not have the damage is the cypress vine.

So disappointing

{{!gwi}}

This morning. This one was only 2 yellow leaves yesterday now its so many

There's a bunch of earwigs and what I'm assuming to be those leaf hoppers. Could be wrong though.

Did you plant the milkweed to host butterfly caterpillars?

Are these pots dry every day?

Yup I did plant the milkweed for the butterflies.....

They are dry every day maybe 3 inches deep.. I do my best to keep the swamp mw wet.. (thats what I was told to do)

Have you checked for butterfly caterpillars? Hopefully that's what's chewing the milkweed.

The yellowing leaves look like a symptom of roots being suffocated by too much moisture.

Sorry you are feeling so frustrated and disappointed. Please try to keep your expectations on the low side as you begin gardening. It takes a bit of time to gain the experience to really know what you're doing, and even then you won't always succeed. On the other hand, I've always found there are things that surprise me by doing great when I expected little. Stay open to growing things you didn't think you wanted to grow.

I've had several unsuccessful attempts with various types of milkweed. I think a pot is not the best place for it. If you want to provide food for butterfly larvae, parsley and rue are good and easy choices. Be aware that the caterpillars will eat them, though, so they won't look great, but they will be doing their job.

Also, I don't know if it's just where I am, but the excessive spraying of insecticides out of unreasonable fear of West Nile virus seems to have greatly reduced the amount of butterflies in the last 10 years. So planting with butterflies as your main goal may not be as satisfying as it once was, sadly.

"If you want to provide food for butterfly larvae, parsley and rue are good and easy choices."

This is true, but won't host monarchs.

I'm wondering if there's some confusion between nectar plants (provides nectar for adult butterflies) vs. host plants (which are eaten by the caterpillars.) Almost any plant that has nectar will appeal to almost any adult butterfly. But different caterpillars need different plants for food. They are not interchangeable although many do have more than one plant that is a suitable food source. Knowing what butterflies are common in a given area is necessary to add the proper host plants to a garden, if that's one's goal. Providing nectar sources is much easier, and no knowledge of specific butterflies is needed.

I totally agree, milkweed would do much better in the ground, if that's an option. Perennial plants with long tap roots are not the best candidates for long-term pot culture.

No cats on them, just earwigs and something that looks like a rock and one that looks like it carrying cotton.. oh and the green bug which I think is a leaf hopper? I had 1 cat on there and it was some sort of moth one.

Purpleinopp, is there a way I could check it? And if there is anything to do about it...

All the vines are doing great.. They seemed to be untouched by bugs. If it was the cats chowing down and making everything a mess Id be happy!

I am disappointed because its not working! And all of these kids are quickly losing their patience lol.. The neighbor hood kids plus mine talked me into this. Its ok, I enjoy it anyway, I bought some purple coneflower and black eyed susan a few days ago because I seen about 15 butterflies that looked like monarchs but weren't, all happily on it., So I thought since all my zinnias, cosmos, parsley and sunflowers have been killed why not try these.. And when I released 3 of the monarchs yesterday 2 stayed about 30 mins on the coneflower, BES and the milkweed. That made it all worth it -=]

The monarch look-alikes may have been viceroys.

"Purpleinopp, is there a way I could check it?" Not sure what you're asking?

I don't know about parsley but zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers have very short life spans and may have lived through it already, not necessarily killed. If you still have or can find some seeds, there should still be time for another 'round of these, at least the zinnias and sunflowers.

"I am disappointed because its not working! And all of these kids are quickly losing their patience" What is not working? At the end of the paragraph you said you released 3 butterflies. Not bad for a 1st try, very cool! It can take a few years to develop a butterfly garden.

This pic is from 10 years ago, my daughter taking some outside to release.

Sorry, should of Bee specific. Is there a way to check to see I'd the roots are being smothered?

Ill look into gathering seeds from the zinnias. I will do that IfI can find seeds.

What's not working is the garden for the butterflies, to attract them. Thr only one that came was the white one and that one didn't even find my stuff interesting.

I actually bought monarch eggs for my son. He wanted them for a birthday present. I have 6 in a cage. Ill releae them when the weather is good. But 2 stayed around for a bit. :)

Great picture by the way.

Since it's an awkward time to traumatize your plant, I probably wouldn't attempt to check the roots unless I was unpotting it anyway to put it in the ground. To compensate, you can let it get much more dry. See how long it takes for the plant to look like it's about to wilt (leaves feel thin and limp, but not actually drooping yet.) If that's much longer than 1 day, it's reasonable to assume excess moisture is there if watering every day. If, for example, it took 4 days, then you could know you can go at least 2 days before you start checking again. When it's gotten dry, feel how much lighter the pot is. If you're unsure in the future, feel how heavy the pot is. If heavy, there's plenty of moisture. Your goal is not to get to the point of "about to wilt" before watering each time, but to find out once how long that takes so you can avoid both wilt and constantly soggy roots.

This is only a general guideline though. Fluctuations in temps and humidity, sun intensity, natural watering from rain, are all factors that can affect how long a pot takes to dry. Assuming plants grow larger and conditions are stable, they will use water more quickly as they grow larger since there are more leaves to need moisture.

Your son sounds like an interesting guy! Glad you liked the pic. We ended up releasing just under 80 that year.

Attracting butterflies can take patience also. There has to be some in the area to notice your garden, and they have to notice your garden. Be sure not to use chemicals that could harm them. There's a butterfly forum, if you'd like to check out some of the info there. I feel like I'd be trying to reinvent the wheel if attempting to write a tutorial on attracting butterflies. You might investigate the fruit angle too (which can also lead to interesting lessons in decomposition.)

NCSU butterfly info.
Morton Arboretum.

So many other great articles out there. Doing everything "right" doesn't necessarily mean clouds of butterflies will suddenly show up. An exercise in patience is a good one, especially for kids. Tell them all of the cool stuff you've learned, we need more people with any kind of understanding of nature.

Lower leaves yellowing and progressing upwards -- nitrogen deficiency. And your plants look dry. Nitrogen is mobile in plants and moves upward. When there is a deficiency, it first shows up on lower leaves.

Hi Mulchmama, welcome to Gardenweb!

When soggy soil rots roots, all nutrients and even water will have difficulty being delivered to the foliage. Rotten roots don't function. Just before death by such, wilt will occur.

Fertilizer is a good issue to explore. Have you used any so far, Cgh? If the soil had a time-release fertilizer, it may be diluted and flushed after a few months outside. There are different amounts of time for which the time-release can be effective, and should say on the package if you still have it, or know which one you got to check a new package.

Just realized I never asked, do these pots have drain holes?

Thanks for the advice.

I had skewer sticks i used to stick all the way down by the roots. It wasnt wet.Stick came out bone dry after 2 days of not watering. The stick was down atleast 18 inches. The leaves are still turning yellow and falling off. I dont use any chemicals on the plants.

The soil I used is MG potting mix.. not the moisture control. the original one. I use plant food, is that the same as fertilizer? The pots have drainage holes.

Thank you, my son is amazing.. 8 years old..

I have gotten alot of good advice that worked from the butterfly forum since I have been doing this. I am seeing a few different butterflies around the corner, so i hope more come just besides the monarchs i released the other day.. A few are hanging around still.. =]

That sounds dry, alright. Yes, fertilizer and plant food would be the same thing. It's possible to use too much, especially in a pot. Too much fertilizer/plant food can be toxic. You've probably been getting a ton of rain in VA, so that would help wash away excess (out of the drain hole) if so, so I don't know if that might be an issue or not.

Do you happen to have a large male dog? When our dog pees on pots, plants can go yellow like that. I can't put pots on the ground in the back yard because of that.

Hey, my son is 8 too! He's been wanting to have butterfly caterpillars too. Can't find any milkweed but the passion vine cutting I planted last year has taken off. Hopefully some gulf fritillaries will find it.

The rain has been heavy here. Way too much. I haven't been above to collect it all lol. If it is light rain then I let the plants be, but if its heavy for too long than I move them under the balcony.

No dogs here. I live in an apt so no animals (that's why everything is in pots). There are pesky rabbit's, squirrels and chipmunks though.

I've been using the Mg plant food as it says on the box. Ugh. So annoying...

I had a really hard time finding mw. But I eventually found them. A few have developed the seed pods. I can send some swamp and tropical seeds to you if ya want.

We actually fixed a butterfly wing today. The monarch was so happy to fly.

Hey that wing-fixing is really cool!

Thanks so much for offering to share your seeds. That sounds great! When they've ripened, we can sort out the details. I should have something you'd like in return.

I've been shuffling plants out of the rain and back into brief periods of sun too. If the sun ever comes back, everybody's plants should improve. There was a sunrise today, so that's a good sign. Hope you get some sun too!

I was kinda nervous to fix its wing because I didnt want to ruin it. But hey I did it! I let it fly in my bedroom before I let it go. I had to make sure it could fly good enough.

The rain has helped so much with the larger pots. Most of them are 5 Gal pots. Takes alot of water! So i wont have to water for 2 days.. The hanging baskets, sometimes 2 times a day because they get so dry.. and i can not even remember whats in them, i had them labeled but... uhm the ind or something took it away!

Sun has been out all day long! =D

I have the mesh bags over the seed pods just in case something wants to eat them or I do not catch them in time.. About 8 swamp mw have seed pods. The other 10 are still blooming, getting so tall.

How cool!

This has developed into quite an interesting discussion. Possibly over-analyzing a few yellow leaves. A plant producing flowers, seeds and new leaves is performing about as well as can be expected in a pot. Not that there's not room for improvement, but it just doesn't sound like there's any cause for alarm, or trying to do something different, with at least the milkweeds. Gardening is rarely perfect, and often surprising!

Hanging baskets can have a divider at the bottom that, if removed, can allow for more soil to be added, giving the roots another inch or two. If trying that, just make sure there are holes at the true bottom of the pot, not just a central hole recessed about 1/2 inch above. Getting the plant in/out can be too tricky to bother, but if the hanging thing is removed first, it's sometimes do-able. Most of the hanging things can snap on/off. Sometimes I break them or just get pots that don't have one so I use fishing line or wire to get it hanging. Love hanging baskets! They don't blow away, and the swaying motion is relaxing to behold when it's windy.