Whats happening here?

[Sara_Cenia]

To start the leaves have always been super pale but recently those orange patches started popping up. The spots dont appeared after I self pollinated it. Room is 68-70 degrees f and 50-56%rh. Its leaves are about 10inches under a grow light like the rest of my paphs.

 

[big923cattleya]

The orange could ‘rust’, not a real serious disease issue. But to my eye, your plant looks stressed. When is the last time it was repotted with new media?
I have about 100 Paphiopedilums. Many are the same size. They get repotted every year. In fact, Paphiopedilums react very well to being repotted. They produce new roots rather quickly, typically 4-6 weeks later.
How often do you fertilize?
I have found that slippers can be repotted anytime.

 

[Sara_Cenia]

That is good to know. I have quite the collection, but this was the only one showing issues. Most of them are healthy, but I’m still learning a lot about them as a go. I’m very grateful for the people in this forum always helping with information that backs up the books I’m reading. I bought it about 4-5 weeks ago from a greenhouse Its had the light leaves since then but only in the last week or so gone down hill. I will give her a re-potting and good watering when I get home tonight. As it happens I have a shipment of fresh media arriving today as well maybe everyones getting some refreshing. I do not know when it was re-potted last. I had not fertilized it since I got it because it was in bloom.
The advice about the rust? Unlike the powdery rust it does not rub off. It’s discolored or damaged tissue.

 

[big923cattleya]

When the overall cultural conditions improve, fresh media, proper light, regular watering, regular feedings, the rust should disappear.
Good air movement might help. Orchids in general like a nice buoyant atmosphere.
If the rust is internal, it could be due to a mineral deficiency. The overall pale color of the plant could be the result of too much light.

 

[cnycharles]

If you just bought it a month ago and you’ve pollinated it, there are two stresses being put on it like bigcat says. It’s in a new environment and it needs more energy for the seed pod. Usually bronze or tan/copper colors are reactions to a chemical that’s burning a plant. This color often is rust, but usually the rust can be ‘moved’ meaning mostly on the surface.
It’s almost always a good idea to repot a plant you’ve brought into your collection as the media is what works for the vendors growing conditions, and you need to switch to what works in yours

 

[big923cattleya]

I am getting to old for this, I completely missed the point about you pollinating this slipper! How stupid of me. Why are you pollinating a newly purchased orchid? That is just extra stress being placed upon the plant as cnycharles pointed out.
Have you pollinated orchids before? What exactly is the name of this plant?
Self pollinating a species orchid produces certain results. You will get more plants of the same species but unless it is a great clone, superior in some characteristics, the results could be rather poor to mediocre at best.
If the root system is compromised and the mother plant is of less then ideal health, you may be making it produce a seed pod when it is not capable.
Besides, I don’t know if you are aware of this or not but Paphiopedilums in general produce very low counts in terms of viable seeds. A mature Cattleya seed pod can produce a few hundred thousand seeds. A good, healthy slipper, maybe 2-3 dozen seeds. They are famous for that!!

If it was my plant I would remove the spike with the developing pod.
I would make every effort to improve the health of the Mother plant.
Selfing a hybrid opens up a whole new batch of issues. You may only get 25% of the babies to look like Mom, if that. The other 75%, who knows?!?!? It all depend upon the genes involved.

 

[Sara_Cenia]

If you just bought it a month ago and you’ve pollinated it, there are two stresses being put on it like bigcat says. It’s in a new environment and it needs more energy for the seed pod. Usually bronze or tan/copper colors are reactions to a chemical that’s burning a plant. This color often is rust, but usually the rust can be ‘moved’ meaning mostly on the surface.
It’s almost always a good idea to repot a plant you’ve brought into your collection as the media is what works for the vendors growing conditions, and you need to switch to what works in yours

I will keep that in mind as I am repoting a lot of mine coming up as big923cattelya mentioned.

 

[Sara_Cenia]

I am getting to old for this, I completely missed the point about you pollinating this slipper! How stupid of me. Why are you pollinating a newly purchased orchid? That is just extra stress being placed upon the plant as cnycharles pointed out.
Have you pollinated orchids before? What exactly is the name of this plant?
Self pollinating a species orchid produces certain results. You will get more plants of the same species but unless it is a great clone, superior in some characteristics, the results could be rather poor to mediocre at best.
If the root system is compromised and the mother plant is of less then ideal health, you may be making it produce a seed pod when it is not capable.
Besides, I don’t know if you are aware of this or not but Paphiopedilums in general produce very low counts in terms of viable seeds. A mature Cattleya seed pod can produce a few hundred thousand seeds. A good, healthy slipper, maybe 2-3 dozen seeds. They are famous for that!!

If it was my plant I would remove the spike with the developing pod.
I would make every effort to improve the health of the Mother plant.
Selfing a hybrid opens up a whole new batch of issues. You may only get 25% of the babies to look like Mom, if that. The other 75%, who knows?!?!? It all depend upon the genes involved.

Ive never pollinated any orchid though some have gone to seed from there time in the nursery in the past. I was just curious and exploring. I am aware they take many years to flower but its just an experiment for me. I had also been awarethzt they sent put out many viable seeds and when its hybrid its anyones guess what they will look like. It currently is is repotted in better media, in a bit different light set up and a newly clipped flower/seed pod.

 

[Paphluvr]

As a longtime grower of Paphs I think I can say that I have never seen a healthy Paph that was that pale. It appears to me to be suffering from a mineral deficiency. I think you've purchased a unhealthy plant and you are now compounding the problem by pollinating a single growth, newly purchased plant. Is it potted in sphagnum or is that just a topdressing? Sphagnum can be a difficult medium for most growers. Have you checked the root system? Inadequate roots can lead to poor nutritional uptake.

 

[Sara_Cenia]

As a longtime grower of Paphs I think I can say that I have never seen a healthy Paph that was that pale. It appears to me to be suffering from a mineral deficiency. I think you've purchased a unhealthy plant and you are now compounding the problem by pollinating a single growth, newly purchased plant. Is it potted in sphagnum or is that just a topdressing? Sphagnum can be a difficult medium for most growers. Have you checked the root system? Inadequate roots can lead to poor nutritional uptake.

Oh? it very well could be a poorly cared for plant I and exacerbated it by bring it it to a new environment and after a few weeks pollinating it. It has roots but they are not as healthy or robust as my others. The medium was quite broken down and not healthy looking. I cut the flower off, repotted it in brand new medium that is a bit more fine to keep them moist longer and yes that is a moss top dressing. Of all my papjhs this is the only one suffering. I think I started with a problem plant and just made it worse with some rookie mistakes. I have gotten some great advice in this thread to ponder like repotting more often and unlike lets say my psychopsis, it doest royal upset the plant.

 

[big923cattleya]

So happy to learn that you got some help and good advice!
Wishing you great success with your orchids!!

 

[Sara_Cenia]

So happy to learn that you got some help and good advice!
Wishing you great success with your orchids!!

Thus forum is a great place. There is always something to learn and do better.

 

[annica.jarvela]

It looks like it almost completely out of chlorophyll, very odd. Good luck getting it healthy.

 

[Ray]

Paleness can be either from a nitrogen or magnesium deficiency.

Water it with 1 teaspoon of Epsom Salts per gallon. That ought to perk up the green.

 

[Sara_Cenia]

Its already MUCH healthier. Greener leaves, rusty color is reduced and not showing up on unaffected leaves and its putting out a new growth. Lots of lessons learned. I appreciate all the feedback and critiques.

 

[annica.jarvela]

May I ask from big923cattleya that when you wrote, 'Good air movement might help. Orchids in general like a nice buoyant atmosphere'. Do you mean in this case with buoyant like movement or changing air or what? Sorry I'm being ignorent.

 

[big923cattleya]

Even though I am growing indoors right now, I still am using a 16" oscillating fan gently blowing a nice little breeze across my plant shelves. I believe that good air movement can be important in terms of keeping warmth evenly distributed. I don't want to create pockets of stagnant air. I want to keep every thing buoyant and moving instead of stagnant and still. The humidity levels are 55% here and 55% over there. Everybody gets the same. Even though the humidity in the rest of my house is 20%, it stays about 50% in my plant room. In the summer time, the Great Lakes help to provide 60 t0 70% humidity out doors. I get levels in my plant room of 80, even 85%. Those fans keep that humid air stirred up a bit. I hate to run the a/c. I love my windows open for fresh air. Fresh air is wonderful for my orchids. I only put my few Cattleyas and my 5 dozen Phrags. outside from May until late September. My 50-60 Paphiopedilums stay indoors.
I feel it keeps everything moving, the air fresh is just so nice and I like to spread my humidity around. When I grew in Florida for 9 years, good air movement would cut down on black rot which could kill plants in 48 to 72 hours. Plants would go from perfectly healthy to black and dead in just three days! I used the same $20 oscillating fans, wrapped the controls in plastic to protect them from water and place them under my roof overhang. Those fans were on 24/7 from April through September. My incidences of black rot dropped by over 90%. It is not blowing gale force wind in my plant room but from across the room, bloom spikes are swaying very gently. I think that my orchids like that.

When my orchids come inside from their "Summer Vacation" out side, They look so much better. Being near the Lakes, we seem to always have a little 5-8 miles per hour breeze. I feel that every plant just loves that fresh air.

 

[annica.jarvela]

Thank you so much for your thorough explanation. I do agree with you. I do put most of my orchids outside when it`s warm enough. Sometimes it would be possible already at the end of May, but usually around Midsummer. Then at least the nights get warm enough and, we have plenty of trees, most of them pines and when they begin to flower at the end of May or at the beginning of June, they produce such amounts of pollen that everything gets yellow. It`s so frustrating sometimes! I wash windows more thoroughly first after they stop flowering. Pines are beautiful, but a pain in the *** (pardon my French) The year starts with seeds, then the pollen, and dried flowers, and then from Spring to Autumn the cones, especially the harder the wind blows. Then not just in the Autumn, they always lose the oldest needles. Also, if it`s a long dry spell in the summer, which also causes some needle loss. All the time something, the cones are the worst. They are big and hard!
I do put at least half of my Paphs outside too and all the Phrags. I use also oscillating fans, I just would like to get smaller ones. I must try this year to find smaller ones and plan how to get them hanging properly. But I can`t keep them on all the time. My dear, dear husband would get fit, he already thinks I`m crazy, which is probably true. But to be fair, he has also made for me all kinds of important things for this hobby and helped even much, much more with my garden hobby. Digs holes with an excavator and puts fences around some areas of the garden against the rabbits, the roes and other deer and moose, and that`s just a tiny part of what he does for me.
Thanks once more, that was kind of you.

 

[big923cattleya]

My pleasure. Happy to help.
Moose?! Son of a gun! Moose? Oh dear Lord. I thought I had animal issues.

 

[annica.jarvela]

Oh, here we can see all kinds of animals. My husband hunts, and sometimes we take some of the dear bones home, e.g. when we try to kill the raccoon dogs. It`s different from your raccoons, they are also coming to Finland already. The raccoon dogs have been declared outlaws here and can be killed all year round. They breed quickly, from 6 to 12 puppies per year. Well, because of the bones in our yard, we have had, sometimes a white-tailed eagle (it`s different from in North America) here just a few meters from the house, and this winter also a buzzard eating here. I will try to upload a video here. The fences you see there are there just during winter, when it gets green on the fields, we take them away. Then you can see foxes, birds, and many more.
The video was too large, so I loaded just a picture of it.