Joining PlantSense made me realize that some of my plant deaths were not REALLY my fault.  I have bought many beautiful plants, placed them in a sunny spot, and realized about four weeks later that my plants were dead.  Or, even worse, my downstairs neighbor gave me a plant.  After a few weeks, I realized it was dying, and tried to tell her gentle white lies when she asked me about it “it’s doing well”.  One day she came into my apartment and saw it’s near lifeless corpse.  I was completely busted.

Now, after using my EasyBloom Plant Sensor at what I thought was a sunny spot, I realized my problem.  Every morning, I’d make my coffee in the kitchen as the early sun flooded in.  What I didn’t see was that after I left for work, the sun left the kitchen too.  The counter was only getting less than one hour of sun a day!  So what I thought was a “sunny” spot was actually a shady spot where a shade loving plant (like a Bush Violet ) would thrive and not die.   Using the EasyBloom Plant Sensor let me see the actual sun, and helped me pick a new plant.

So now that I have my Plant Sensor, I have no more excuses for plant deaths, and I can buy plants with confidence that they’ll last longer than a carton of milk.

A couple weeks into our new digs, CEO and Co-Founder, Matt Glenn’s friend dropped by for a visit. After a five minute tour of the place, Matt asked her how she liked the new office. “It’s drab,” she replied, flatly. “Drab?” questioned Glenn. “Yeah, you guys need to liven this place up. You need some plants!” While we’d of course planned on decking out the space with plants, Matt’s friend helped expedite the process. The following week, we all set out EasyBloom Plant Sensors to help figure out which plants would thrive in our office environs. It was a great way to use our own product, and get a move-on on the plant buying. After getting some cool recommendations (Plumosa Fern , Spider Plant , Lipstick Plant , and others) we headed to our local nursery to get them.  Next up, we’ll monitor the plants with our EasyBloom sensors, to make sure they are getting the care they need. Stay tuned.

All plants are green, right? Well not exactly. There are some plants that don’t even have chlorophyll. (Chlorophyll is the plant pigment that is primarily responsible for capturing the energy from the sun to perform photosynthesis; it also happens to be green). There are also the deciduous trees whose leaves change color as autumn approaches. Everyone knows about these plants, and the color change is normal and supposed to happen. And then there are those plants that are green when everything is going right, but lose their green hue if something has gone wrong. Those are the plants I would like to talk about right now.

Why is it some plants have yellowish, light green or brown leaves? There are many reasons why this could be, but chances are they all point to some type of nutrient deficiency. For the purpose of this blog, I will make the assumption that the plants we are talking about have yellowed solely because of a nutrient deficiency and not because of some indirect cause (such as pH, water logged soil, low light, etc.).Nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, calcium and sulfur are considered to be the nutrients that plants need more than any other (of course this excludes compounds such as water, oxygen or carbon dioxide). These nutrients have been deemed plant macronutrients since plants have such a high demand for them. There are also many micronutrients, which include nutrients such as iron, manganese, copper, zinc, nickel, molybdenum, boron and other such fancy elements. A deficiency or lack of any of these nutrients available for plant absorption in the rootzone will not allow the plant to fulfill its lifecycle and will ultimately result in reduced plant growth. These symptoms are often times visually manifested in a “yellowing”, otherwise known as chlorosis, of the leaves.

So why is any of this important to the gardener? Well, I’m going to tell you some secrets to help you decipher which nutrient may be lacking in your plant’s rootzone. Of all the aforementioned nutrients, they fall into two different classes: mobile or non-mobile nutrients. Mobile nutrients can be translocated from one part of the plant to another. As for the non-mobile nutrients, once they are moved from the soil to the leaf, they cannot be moved again. If your plant has a deficiency of a mobile nutrient, then you will see chlorosis of the older, already established leaves. The newer and younger leaves will not be as chlorotic as the older and more mature leaves. This is because those mobile nutrients can be moved to the newer leaves, where they may better serve the plant during a period of nutrient deficiency. The visual manifestation of a deficiency of a mobile nutrient often looks like the leaves on the bottom of the plant are more yellow (chlorotic) than the leaves on the top of the plant. Nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, sulfur, molybdenum and magnesium are all mobile.

Deficiencies of non-mobile nutrients such as iron, manganese, boron, copper, zinc and calcium will manifest as young leaves becoming chlorotic.. This is because these nutrients may be in the older leaves, but they cannot be translocated to the new and young leaves. The plant will look like its shoot tips are having trouble, while the older leaves look healthy.

So the overall lesson behind all this science talk is that you can tell what type of nutrient is causing a deficiency by looking at which leaves on your plant are chlorotic. This should help you chisel down the long list of possible nutrients that are causing the deficiency symptoms, which may make it easier to treat.