Maybe you just didn't talk to them :>
nutrient deficiency symptom in orchids
- Thread starter naoki
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Looks similar indeed! But so much more accentuated! Well my plants have not been given K-lite for a year but low fertiliser in general (some 100ppm=20ppm N) and 50/50 urea/ nitrate. However during the time of spotformation nothing was added to the water. Could be some kind of imbalance I follow you there Lance.
Yes these two plants had very accentuated colors and on successive growths. The mature growths you see on the plants are not the original fans they are probably 3 or 4 fans older than the original from the flask. (Kovachii does not hold old growths very well)
Some kind of imbalance based on the genetics of the individual plant. Something perhaps like one person having an allergy to peanuts but the rest of his family does not or I don't sunburn easily but my brother does.
Stone
Well-Known Member
Bjorn and Lance, What was the pH of the water when then these problems appeared? Were you both using rain/bog water only?
Mike,
I used bog/ rainwater only, think the pH was around 5-6. Do not check too often but think that was checked once during that period. But no calcium in the water for sure. Might have been other stuff though?..
I used bog/ rainwater only, think the pH was around 5-6. Do not check too often but think that was checked once during that period. But no calcium in the water for sure. Might have been other stuff though?..
Stone
Well-Known Member
Thanks Bjorn. I only ask because I noticed the same whitening on some sanderianum seedlings. I was giving them rain water exculsively. When I checked the pH (after months) I found it was about 4.5 to 5. After I started to mix town water with it and got it to around 6.5 to 7, the new growth seemed to improve a lot. Could it be that Ca is unavaiable to the these types of plants (wet and neutral pH) at low pH. I know for a fact that some calcicolous plants (not orchids) cannot!
Mike, that has struck me as an explanation as well. but then, my substrate had marble chips added. But there was seemingly an improvement once I sprinkeled some dolomite chips on the substrate, which led me to believe it could have to do with Mg deficiency, or a combination perhaps? Could be coincidential as well, but these yellow blotches are a bit strange anyhow. And it is true what Lance writes, its only a few out of several that get these things.
naoki
Well-Known Member
Lance's chlorosis seems pretty intense! Older leaves look fine in the photos.
Bjorn, was your stripes white/yellow when the region was coming out from the base of the leaves? Or did it change to the color after it was green?
Mg is highly mobile, so the older leaves will go chlorosis at first.
Pour-through pH is probably more interesting to look at than the irrigation pH, isn't it?
Bjorn, was your stripes white/yellow when the region was coming out from the base of the leaves? Or did it change to the color after it was green?
Mg is highly mobile, so the older leaves will go chlorosis at first.
Pour-through pH is probably more interesting to look at than the irrigation pH, isn't it?
Naoki,
believe the spots were there when they came out of the base, but not sure. Seems not to spread so I really cannot say why. Pour through pH might be more interesting that is right, but has not been done, so...I would expect it to be between 5 and 7 though...
believe the spots were there when they came out of the base, but not sure. Seems not to spread so I really cannot say why. Pour through pH might be more interesting that is right, but has not been done, so...I would expect it to be between 5 and 7 though...
I used RO water at that time.
That is a possibility that the individual plants have a problem with low pH. But my water was never very acidic. As you can see I had a lot of limestone in the media and the pour through was not low pH.
When my MIL cared for the plants she would have used only tap water. Her water there would be higher pH and higher tds but I doubt the media pH would have elevated much.
There would be more chlorides in her water and also chlorine.
Now I'm wondering if the mineral content of the water that hits the foliage may have some additional effect in addition to the substrate. Something on the lines of acidic water on the leaves as opposed to neutral rainwater. When I water I always drench the leaves and that is what I instructed MIL to do. So perhaps acidic water leached leaves and basic water does not?
Except that does not explain why in my plants were variegated in the flask...... back to a genetic condition.
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