My Phrag. Uranus hates me!

[kentuckiense]

Ok ok, let's get all of the Uranus jokes out of the way.

Ok. Is everyone done?

Are you sure?

Good.

About a month ago Nynaeve generously sent me two nice little Phrags. A Cape Gold Nugget and a Uranus. As of late, the Uranus has been mighty pissed. The tips of almost all the leaves (except for the newest one that isn't full grown) have started to brown. Nynaeve has been awesome at answering all questions I've had, but I just wanted multiple opinions. She says it's leaf tip dieback due to the plant adjusting to it's new surroundings at my place. It's in hydroton and I'm speculating that the roots aren't doing too hot and that's what's causing the dieback. I'm willing to yank it out of the media and check if that's what's recomended.

Basically, I just want to here what you all think. Here are a couple leaf shots:

Let me know if you want some root shots... I'll yank that sucker up.

 

[Heather]

If it is all the leaves, I would probably yank it - you can always just put it back in there you know...

 

[kentuckiense]

Lots of downy mildew and the roots felt quite moist. I think it's just too darn wet.

Here's my plan:
wash off roots (I have Physan too, if you think I should use it)

and here are my options:
A. put it back into hydroton in semi-hydro container
B. put it back into hydroton in Aircone pot
C. put it in a coarse, fast draining fir medium in Aircone pot

Decisions, Decisions.

 

[kentuckiense]

Heather, come baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

 

[Ross]

I've had some success and some failure with S/H. I'd vote for 'C', unless you have several new root tips just starting, in which case, I'd vote for 'A'. Good Luck.

 

[Heather]

I also vote 'C' on this one.
Not sure about Phrags in S/H - again, heard mixed results.
That webby stuff is usually the sign that all the media wasn't removed when the plant was put into S/H. If you put it back in hydroton, make sure every SPECK of organic material (except the roots of course) is removed.

 

[kentuckiense]

Ok, I repotted it into an aircone pot with a medium consisting of mainly coarse fir with a little bit of perlite and a handful of hydroton mixed in. Hopefully it'll take to this better than the s/h hydroton.

 

[lienluu]

When i switched to S/H. I found Phrags to be the most difficult to switch over to. Multifloral paphs were the eeasy and all took off right away, but the Phrags just sulked and sulked and sulked. Which surprised me. I thought they would be the easiest.

I found that I had to fertilise very carefully and in minute quantities and increase it very gradually, over the course of a few months.

I had a lot of leaf tip burn like you show. Everytime, I noticed it progressing, I would flush it with R/O water and stop fertilising altogether and that would halt the progression.

 

[bwester]

I agree with lienluu, I think you should flush with distilled water and halt feeding. Do you have any KLN rooting solution you could add to try to encourage some new roots? Or maybe it just enjoys being a pain Uranus :rollhappy: Sorry, I didnt have it all out of me.

 

[Jmoney]

very interesting...it's exactly the opposite with me. phrags grow like weeds in my s/h setup. then again NYC water is rather pure and I don't fertilize heavily mostly due to laziness.