Water on Phrag Leaves

Slippertalk Orchid Forum

Help Support Slippertalk Orchid Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
E

Ellen

Guest
I have in the past had problems with phrag leaves turning brown (rotting) whenever water got on them, especially in the crown, so for a while was avoiding getting any water whatsoever on the leaves when I watered them. As I have acquired more phrags, I have noticed that the brown leaf problem happens only on plants that are growing indoors, in my solarium, and does not happen on the ones I have outdoors or in my greenhouse. Today I just realized that the only plants that have this problem are the ones that I got about a year ago from Oak Hill Gardens' "Phrag Blow-Out Sale". It has never happened to phrags from other sources, even seedlings that I mist every day in hot weather and adults that get rained on outside for days on end. Is it my imagination, or is it possible that those plants were on sale because of a predisposition to having this problem?
 
I water very early in the morning when my phrags are indoors or out doors. This gives them plenty of time to dry thoroughly. Some of my phrags crowns tend to hold a lot of water, almost like a cup, those I will give a little shake or use a paper towel to soak up some of the water.

Ron is right about the air circulation. You may consider adding a couple of fans in your solarium.

Maybe you should try putting some of these phrags out doors with the others, or in the greenhouse. See if the problems continue. Also, you may want to repot the plant. Check the root system, use a new media, and resize the pot to the appropriate root system size. Sometimes I think that commercial growers will have a "blow out sale" because they don't want to repot. Also the media that they use may not be appropriate for your culture. As soon as I receive a new phrag I repot, and use the media that works well for me. But, sometimes I am just shocked what these growers grow these orchids in...

Good luck!
Claudia
 
All good suggestions, but I'm not sure it's any of those things. It's not the solarium because the other phrags that are in there don't have that problem, just the ones from Oak Hill. I have a fan going in there, so the air circulation is pretty good. As far as I can tell, the water evaporates within a short time from all the plants. Water often stands in the crowns of the plants that are outdoors, especially when it rains - and they don't rot. I repotted the OHG plants right after I got them because they were in bad medium. They're in the same medium as my other phrags. Many of the OHG plants have put out new growths, and it seems the new growths are not as susceptible to the rotted leaves as the original growths. Beats me why this happens, but it's very consistent.
 
You could be correct in that certain plants from a certain source or pre-disposed to a condition but you should concentrate on the solution. There are a few lengthy threadds here about watering plants. I personally have changed my culture from not watering the leaves to running a lot of water through the leaves, this washes out any dirt and stuff that could help the spread of 'crown-rot'. If it does appear I remove the browned-out leaves and treat the plant at the location of the problem [w/ Natural and Manmade treatments]. I can't put plants outdoors [I live on the 20th floor in NYC] but I leave the windows wide open and get plenty of air flow.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top