Sick leave on Phrag. Eumelia Arias... Advice needed!

[Kavanaru]

My Phrag. Eumelia Arias has developed some brown dry areas on it's leaves. First I thought it was sunburn and cut off the damaged leaves, and gave it a prophylactic bath with a fungicide... However, the brown areas developed again... I can discard sunburn, as the plant is growing under shade, and also my 5 other Phrags (e.g. Peruflora's Cirila Alca, fischerii, lindenii, wallisi and warszewiczii) that are growing next to it (and under the same conditions and regime) do not develop this problem and are growing very well. Any ideas what this could be and how to treat/solve the problem? Note: the leave are not so yellow as in the pics. I used the flash on my mobile phone and it produced the light yellowish tone.


Phrag. Eumelia Arias 1 by kavanaru, on Flickr


Phrag. Eumelia Arias 2 by kavanaru, on Flickr


Phrag. Eumelia Arias 3 by kavanaru, on Flickr


Phrag. Eumelia Arias 4 by kavanaru, on Flickr

 

[Kavanaru]

Note 2: the brownish powder on some leaves is residues of the fungicide bath...

 

[NYEric]

Too much salt/ not enough water!

 

[Kavanaru]

Receives not more than 120 ppm nitrogen every second watering and is always sitting on a 1 inch deep reservoir of water... Same as the other Phrags...

 

[NYEric]

Then check the roots and media.

 

[Kavanaru]

Ok, was planning to repot it this weekend... It is in this pot/substrat since last spring, as I repot the Phrags on a yearly basis...

 

[NYEric]

The schlimii parent needs really pure water, BTW. Good luck.

 

[Kavanaru]

Just curious, are schlimii hybrids more sensitive than fischeri species? I always thought that fischeri was one of the most sensitive ones and was always proud that it grows very well for me

 

[NYEric]

I've never had really good luck w/ fischeri hybrids so maybe you're correct.

 

[Magicboy]

What kind of substrate do you use?

 

[John M]

I had the same issue with my Phrag. Shimmer 'Carlisle'. There are a number of people who've asked me for a division of this plant; but, I could not get it to increase because as new growths came up, I lost the old growths to a problem like this. Also, then the new growths began doing it! Finally, I repotted it into a mix containing 1/3 pea gravel, I reduced the potassium in my fertilizer and I increased the calcium a bit. Now, the plant is growing beautifully with no more browning leaves. I should be able to make divisions in a year or so.

I suggest that you cut off all the affected parts of your plant, well down into the healthy tissue and repot immediately, adding a generous amount of pea gravel. I used to add sand, to try and get some silica in the mix; but, the sand kept the mix too wet. So, I switched to adding the gravel and then I got the improvement in disease resistence that I was wanting; but, the gravel continues to allow for good drainage.

Also, you might want to spray the plant with Aspirin water. I disolve 1 regular strengh Aspirin into 1 litre of water and then thoroughly spray the foliage. The ASA aids the plant in resisting infection. So far, since I've started using this, I have been able to stop all Erwinia problems that I find. Before, I had often lost plants that got Erwinia, because I just could not stop the rot, no matter how much of the foliage I removed; or how much I sprayed with anti-bacterials.

 

[Kavanaru]

What kind of substrate do you use?

Medium bark mixed with perlite... Originally tried LECA, but the Phrags were having problems with it when I moved to GH conditions....

 

[Kavanaru]

What exactly is pea gravel?

Interesting the experience with the aspirin... I know of some studies related to ASA in the jungle c plants are attacked by insects... How often do you that?

 

[Lycaste53]

I had the same problem and after adding some ´Dolomit`(50% CA Co2 + 35% MG Co3) a half teaspoon for a 12cm- pot, things turned and the new leaves look better. Best effort i had with the kovachii.

 

[Erythrone]

I had the same issue with my Phrag. Shimmer 'Carlisle'. There are a number of people who've asked me for a division of this plant; but, I could not get it to increase because as new growths came up, I lost the old growths to a problem like this. Also, then the new growths began doing it! Finally, I repotted it into a mix containing 1/3 pea gravel, I reduced the potassium in my fertilizer and I increased the calcium a bit. Now, the plant is growing beautifully with no more browning leaves. I should be able to make divisions in a year or so.

too bad for the Shimmer 'Carlisle'... Maybe I will get a divivison one day

Also, you might want to spray the plant with Aspirin water. I disolve 1 regular strengh Aspirin into 1 litre of water and then thoroughly spray the foliage. The ASA aids the plant in resisting infection. So far, since I've started using this, I have been able to stop all Erwinia problems that I find. Before, I had often lost plants that got Erwinia, because I just could not stop the rot, no matter how much of the foliage I removed; or how much I sprayed with anti-bacterials.

Thank you for the tip!

 

[Stone]

Be aware that fluoride can cause this problem. Some species such as cymbids are very susceptible. Perlite contains fluoride. It can be nutralized by mixing a little soil with your first watering. Mains water can also contain fluoride. This may not be your problem?

 

[SlipperFan]

I agree with John. Also, Mr. Alfredo Manrique told me that kovachii requires a lot of calcium. I put a lot of oyster shell and chiclid (SP?) sand in my mix, about 20% by volume.

 

[Stone]

I agree with John. Also, Mr. Alfredo Manrique told me that kovachii requires a lot of calcium. I put a lot of oyster shell and chiclid (SP?) sand in my mix, about 20% by volume.

I must say that I'm skeptical about claims that certain sp. require more Calcium than any other plant. Someone may have an experience where by adding lime they correct a deficiency or bring pH up to where it should be, and conclude that this or that particular plant needs more Ca.

 

[SlipperFan]

Well, Mr. Manrique owns one of the two Peruvian nurseries that legally has kovachii. He's done a lot of research on their native habitat, so I suppose he knows what he is talking about.

http://www.phragmipediumkovachii.com/PKculture/PK-culture.htm

I exaggerated the amount of oyster shell. Nonetheless...

 

[Rick]

This looks like classic leaf tip burn.

As discussed in the K-lite threads, K is the positively charged half (cation) of a typical salt. As compared to sodium it is much more potent.

If you are using typical "balanced fertilizers with high potassium concentrations with and "pure" or ionically weak irrigation water then its easy to get "salt" burn from the potassium, with little or no calcium to balance it.

There should always be more calcium than potassium in the plants environment.

It's not a matter of certain species having "calcium requirements". All plants require calcium. And in the environment calcium is generally far more common available than potassium.

Various diseases such as Erwinia and Botrytus are also symptomatic of plants with calcium deficiencies caused by excess K (documented for non orchid species). Several of us that have gone to K-lite feeding have seen significant decrease in Erwinia without the use of asprin.

So you might want to refer to some of the K-lite threads we had running for a while, as your phrag looks classic for things we talked about in those threads.