Interveinal Chlorosis

What Does Interveinal Chlorosis Mean?

Chlorosis is a condition in which plant leaves fail to produce enough chlorophyll. Interveinal chlorosis refers to a more specific type of this condition where the veins of a leaf remain green but the leaf material between the veins becomes pale, yellow, or yellowish-green.

Maximum Yield Explains Interveinal Chlorosis

Plants manufacture chlorophyll in order to transform sunlight into food. This chemical is responsible for the green color of leaves. However, nutrient deficiency and other problems can cause plant leaves to create insufficient chlorophyll. This can cause many problems but is marked by a paling or yellowing of the leaf material. When yellowing occurs between leaf veins but the veins remain green, it is called interveinal chlorosis.

Potential things that cause this condition include everything from damage to the roots to a disease or infection. However, the most common cause is actually a nutrient imbalance or deficiency. The only way to determine the actual cause is to have your soil tested and then compare those tests to the nutrient requirements of the particular plant in question. Interveinal chlorosis can be caused by too much of one nutrient, too little of one nutrient, or an imbalance between two or more nutrients.

Other problems that can cause interveinal chlorosis include soil compaction, poor drainage, root injury, and more. If these are the cause of the issue, then amending the soil will not provide any relief, and it is possible that the plant itself will eventually die if the right corrective action is not taken. In mechanical problems (not nutrient related), aeration and mulching can prove to be beneficial, as can tiling.

If you have determined that the underlying cause of the chlorosis is related to a nutrient imbalance, you can address it in one of several ways. For instance, a topical treatment can be applied to the leaves in some instances. However, note that this will only help improve the health of the leaves that are sprayed. Those that grow afterward will be susceptible to the original problem.

The only way to address the problem for the long term in the case of a nutrient deficiency or imbalance is through soil amendment. Cores will need to be taken and tested in a laboratory to determine which nutrients are missing or incorrectly adjusted, and then nutrient applications will need to be made to the soil to correct the issue.