kovachii leaves

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phraggy

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Acquired two kovachii's via EYOF mid march. They both had previously flowered. In two months they have made fantastic growth. The larger one put out a new growth last month which is now 1" tall and in the time since has started another three growths. The smaller of the two has just one new growth around 2". My question is regarding the plant leaves --is this the correct colour and patterning for this species. As you can see from the pic they look in great condition.

Ed
 

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I see similar things on some of my phrags with leaves that eventually get evenly green. Can be some effect of nutritional imbalance or underdeveloped root system, which probably causes the same, eh? Ok, its not perfect, but might not be a big problem..........
 
After a few weeks in hot weather (highs of 30 C, low circa 20 ), the leaves of my plant look like yours! I was too lazy to install the air conditioner and I wasn't ready to install the plants outdoors for summer vacation!
 
I looked like that the previous week after spraying weed killer for 5 hrs in 90+ temps,.... Glad for the rain and cool this week


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So it could be a sign of hot temps in the greenhouse? Although I have enough air movement I expect this could happen. I open the greenhouse doors when the temp gets over 26c but I have missed doing this on a couple of occasions and the temp reached over 30c. Temp at night always drops to around 15c.

Ed
 
I think so phraggy, but I cannot be sure... I only have one plant and it is the first time I see this problem on it... I must say I give less fertilizer when the weather is very hot so it may be a nutrional problem too... although 2 weeks with less nutrients shouldn't be harmfull to plant!
 
I get this on some of my plants, too. I'm pretty sure it's nutritional. The good news is that, so far, it doesn't seem to affect plant vigor or flower quality in any observable way. I'd read somewhere that low magnesium in relation to calcium can show this effect in the presence of high light, so I added some extra MgSO4 to my fert routine. It helped, but didn't completely fix it. What ferts are you using in what concentrations, how high is your light, and can you find out the Mg level of your water? It's worth a shot.
 
No bug problem It is a little overspill of dolomite lime that I hadn't cleaned off before taking the pic. I am feeding at the moment a weak solution of Epsom salts, calcium nitrate and liquid seaweed just once per month. Every other week Akernes Rain Mix ( similar to you MSU ) and flushing with rain water in between feedings.

Ed
 
My money is on a magnesium deficiency. Once a month is not ideal for fertilising. Ideally you should be using it at least weekly. But in very low doses. Assuming you are using a pure water source like rainwater, you only need about 25mg/L of Epsom salts. Important not to mix this with other things, particularly calcium nitrate.
 
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