# Iron deficiency

- URL: https://backyardgrapes.com/diseases/iron-deficiency/
- Scientific name: Lime-induced chlorosis
- Category: Disorder
- Affects: Leaves
- Severity: moderate
- Favored by: Alkaline, high-lime (calcareous) soils; waterlogging; cold, wet springs — all of which lock iron up.
- Easily confused with: Magnesium deficiency, Zinc deficiency

**Summary:** Yellowing of the youngest tip leaves with green veins — usually a high-pH soil problem, not a lack of iron.

**What to look for:**
- Interveinal yellowing of the youngest leaves at the shoot tips; the fine veins stay green.
- In severe cases new leaves turn cream to almost white and the margins scorch.
- Older, lower leaves stay green — the reverse of magnesium deficiency.
- Weak shoot tips and reduced growth when it is severe and prolonged.

**Treatment — Cultural / prevention:**
- Improve drainage and avoid waterlogging, which is a frequent trigger on heavy soils.
- Don't over-lime; test and avoid pushing soil pH higher.
- Build organic matter, which slowly improves iron availability.

**Treatment — Organic / low-toxicity:**
- Chelated iron (choose Fe-EDDHA for high-pH soils) as a soil drench or foliar spray for a quick fix.
- Long term, manage soil pH rather than repeatedly dosing iron.

Iron deficiency, often called lime-induced chlorosis, is the mirror image of magnesium
deficiency: it strikes the youngest leaves at the shoot tips rather than the old ones,
because iron doesn't move around inside the plant to be recycled into new growth. Those tip
leaves go yellow between fine green veins, and in bad cases turn almost white and scorch at
the edges.

The crucial point is that it's rarely about how much iron is in the soil — it's about
availability. On alkaline, high-lime soils (and in cold, wet, or waterlogged conditions)
iron gets locked into forms the vine can't take up, so simply adding ordinary iron does
little. A chelated iron formulated for high pH (Fe-EDDHA) gives quick relief, but the real
fix is managing drainage and soil pH so the iron already present becomes available.

**Image credits:**
- Lime-induced chlorosis: pale yellow young leaves with green veins at a shoot tip — [Photo: Karl Bauer, Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chlorose_Weinrebe.JPG) (CC BY 3.0 AT)
- Iron deficiency in grapevine: pale yellow interveinal chlorosis on young leaves while the main veins stay green — [Yara UK](https://www.yara.co.uk/crop-nutrition/grapes/nutrient-deficiencies-grapevines/iron-deficiency-grapevines/)
- Iron deficiency: grape leaves turn completely yellow — [PowerAG](https://www.powerag.com/deficiencies/grape-iron-deficiency/)

**Sources:**
- [Grape (Vitis spp.)-Iron Chlorosis](https://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/host-disease/grape-vitis-spp-iron-chlorosis) — Pacific Northwest Pest Management Handbooks (OSU / WSU / Univ. of Idaho)
- [Viti-notes: Grapevine Nutrition - Trace Elements](https://www.awri.com.au/wp-content/uploads/4_nutrition_trace_elements.pdf) — Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI)
- [Monitoring Vineyard Nutrition](https://extension.oregonstate.edu/crop-production/wine-grapes/monitoring-vineyard-nutrition) — Oregon State University Extension