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Yellow leaves: shortage, waterlog, spray injury or disease

Which leaf yellows first tells you more than the colour.

Nutrient shortageWaterloggingFertiliser burn
Speed
  1. Split new versus old leaves, uniform versus interveinal, then ask spray, wet, disease.
  2. One yellow leaf is not a fertiliser order.
  3. A tell-apart page is not a prescription. Each element has its own guide.
  4. Disease is often patches, with lesions or insects; shortage is often a sheet by leaf position.
  5. Don’t greet every yellow with urea; don’t treat four yellows with one micronutrient bottle.
  6. This page does not hand out a bag: This page hands out no kilogram for any element. Sort it first, then open the matching guide
  7. Name what you see before you feed.
  8. If leaves, roots and the surface disagree, stop.

What you see in the field

Split new versus old leaves, uniform versus interveinal, then ask spray, wet, disease. One yellow leaf is not a fertiliser order.First the leaf position: new or old, even yellow or between the veins. If that does not match, do not fertilise yet. Pull one plant and read whether the roots are white, brown or foul.

A sketch. Do not fertilise from the picture alone.

Tap to enlarge. The caption says what to photograph. Missing field photos are marked as to-be-added.

Why it looks like this

The field looks like this because the root cannot take water or nutrients the usual way. Fix the soil condition first — drainage, salt, acidity, compaction or a salt of fertiliser — then a thin feed. Rates live in the range on this page; confirm with a local station and the label.

Easy to mix up

  • Looks like “One nutrient-shortage recipe”

    A tell-apart page is not a prescription. Each element has its own guide.

  • Looks like “Disease yellowing”

    Disease is often patches, with lesions or insects; shortage is often a sheet by leaf position.

Do this / don’t do that

  1. 1Compare the worst plants with a neighbour ridge. Photograph whole plant, close-up and soil surface before you add fertiliser.
  2. 2Match roots, leaves and the soil surface to this guide. If they do not line up, do not copy a bag count.
  3. 3Use the rate range on this page only as a range. Confirm with a local station and the product label.

Don’t do this first

  • Don’t greet every yellow with urea; don’t treat four yellows with one micronutrient bottle.

Rate range

This page does not hand out a bag

This page hands out no kilogram for any element

Sort it first, then open the matching guide.

This is a diagnosis guide. Rates live in Nitrogen: old leaves yellow, new leaves still green

These are ranges. Confirm with your local extension station and the product label.

Which leaves

The first cut on mobility

Old leaves / new leaves.

The soil surface

The mark of salt, flood or drought

White crust, standing water, cracked dry.

When you see Split new versus old leaves, test. Take soil from the bad patch and from a greener neighbour, separately.

Lesson video

2026-05-16 · Li Zeyu · For learning. Serious damage: local agronomist or a soil test.

For learning only. Fertiliser and pesticide decisions need a local agronomist and a soil test.

Not sure? Photograph the field to identify the problem