Yellow Spots And Drooping, Dying Paph Collection

[orchidbri]

aha... my checklist so far is:

Phyton 27 and cinnamon
Cut infected parts and buds off plants
Turn on humidifier, maintain +/- 50% humidity
Slide plant pots into larger plastic pots, to better retain moisture around roots
Consider using RO rather than municipal, potentially fertilizer and root stimulate
Keep cinnamon off roots

 

[The Mutant]

aha... my checklist so far is:

Phyton 27 and cinnamon
Cut infected parts and buds off plants
Turn on humidifier, maintain +/- 50% humidity
Slide plant pots into larger plastic pots, to better retain moisture around roots
Consider using RO rather than municipal, potentially fertilizer and root stimulate
Keep cinnamon off roots

And cover up the roots.

Btw, I also move all my plants away from the windows during night. It seems to help with the condensation mine get inside the pots.

I would not use any fertilizer, not even with RO-water, but possibly a root stimulate until they've started growing some roots.

Good luck!

 

[Justin]

dont put the pots themselves in larger pots...repot the plants with a finer grade mix or add moss.to retain moisture and cover up all the roots. for removing infected parts be sure to flame or bleach sterilize your tool in between cuts. dont use fertilizer for.now...just water those plants

 

[Secundino]

Oh my...
Keep in mind whatever you do, it should mate with your watering regime and the humidity you want to ( or can) give your plants.
One example: bigger pots do retain more humidity, naturally. But a sick plant generally does not have lots of healthy roots that can absorbe that humidity, so, if only one or two roots sit in a big pot, they will be too 'wet'.

37% rel. humidity is desert. Even 50% are - in my perspective - not enough. During winter, I prefer to have the substrate on the dry side and the humidity high (70% and more without wetting the leaves).
In my opinion, plants without a functioning root system, should not be fertilized, nor soaked. They can not take that water and the risk of losing the roots that are left due to high salt content in the water is high.
Clean the leaves gently. Dry plants mostly have a mite-problem too. With a cotton pad, slightly wettened with some water and soap, you will get rid of most of them (if there are); it also helps to rehydrate the leaves without wettening the whole plant. If they have been as dry as they look, there won't be rots, but: a weakened plant that suddenly gets much more water, can easily rot! And that is the problem: you must rehydrate the plants without giving them to much water. A challenge...

 

[PaphMadMan]

Unlike some others, I'm not convinced you have an ongoing fungal problem. I think your weakened plants would have been overcome long ago if there were, but a precautionary treatment won't hurt. Better water and humidity management is definitely needed, and you have plenty of advice on that.

Like at least one other, I would advocate repotting now, better media, better pots. Let your plants recover in the right conditions rather than a temporary fix.

If your pH question got answered I missed it. pH is pH. Any accurate test will work equally well on any water - municipal, aquarium, with or without fertilizer - within the intended pH range, with 2 exceptions...

A strongly colored solution (some concentrated fertilizers) can interfere with a color change pH test, and...

A pH test on highly purified water, including very good RO water, can be misleading. If you are certain of the water quality with very low total dissolved solids, a pH test is pointless in that case. It will either be unstable, or misleadingly low due to dissolved carbon dioxide in water with no buffering capacity. Whatever you add to the water, or the potting mix it goes into, will determine the final pH no matter what the apparent pH of pure water.

 

[gonewild]

Unlike some others, I'm not convinced you have an ongoing fungal problem. I think your weakened plants would have been overcome long ago if there were, but a precautionary treatment won't hurt.

I agree I see more of a dehydration problem than fungal. I would not cut off any green leaf tissue., The plants need all they have now.

 

[reivilos]

Honestly, if I were you I'd send everything to the dustbin. Start over and try not make the same mistake(s) twice:
* overpotted
* underwatered
* mix is too coarse for indoor growing
* I guess would have low humidity also

As an indoor grower, my advice to you would be to grow in a more compact space so as to have higher humidity around the plants.

 

[MaryPientka]

I agree with most people above, but I don't think you need to toss them. Definitely repot-better pots/better mix. All of the orchid suppliers sell Paph. blends. You will need to maintain humidity between 50% and 70%. This is especially hard to do in Winter. I use cool mist vaporizers. I agree with not fertilizing for awhile but I think something like Super Thrive might help. Rain water and RO are best but in a pinch you can pick-up gallons of distilled (not filtered or spring) water at any grocery store.

 

[TyroneGenade]

Thank you all!
First off, that is 37% HUMIDITY. Haha. In that room the temperature is 23.3C, or 73F, with little variation.

My home humidity is 28%. Not good. I cope by standing the plants in large plastic tubs with high sides. (About 1-2 inches above the pot height.) I keep the plants standing over gravel that is standing in water. This keeps the humidity up---enough to actually grow and flower the plants. I also grow in hydroton/LECA that avoid issues with over/under watering as the substrate is always wet. This also helps maintain humidity. I don't suggest tossing your plants and starting over from scratch. The advice you have got here is really good and should be able to get you to the point where the plants start to grow. Once you have the growing issues solved, then go bananas and buy more plants.

 

[PaphMadMan]

My home humidity is 28%. Not good. I cope by standing the plants in large plastic tubs with high sides. (About 1-2 inches above the pot height.) I keep the plants standing over gravel that is standing in water. This keeps the humidity up---enough to actually grow and flower the plants. ...

I completely agree on the usefulness of plastic tubs, and not just for humidity enhancement. I don't know what I would do without them.

 

[orchidbri]

The mixture the plants are in is a paph-specific blend from repotme.com, here if you want to see: http://repotme.com/orchid-potting-mix/Orchid-Mix-Paph.html
It consists of Orchiata, lava rock, sponge rock, and hydroton. If I end up repotting, I will mix it with my standard unfertilized orchid mix of fir bark, charcoal, and sponge rock. It was more alike what the plants originally came to me in.

TyroneGenade, I believe humidity trays to be virtually useless there is some height to them. I use leftover 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 gallon tanks for this purpose. I had siblings with excessive freshwater fish hobbies haha. If I cannot use a tank, I put a large plastic bag over the smallest ones, then place that plant on a humidity tray.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Justin]

also suggest doing a web search to see if there is an orchid society in your area. check out a meeting and get some hands-on advice from people who have successfully grown in your neck of the woods.

 

[PaphMadMan]

TyroneGenade, I believe humidity trays to be virtually useless there is some height to them. I use leftover 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 gallon tanks for this purpose. I had siblings with excessive freshwater fish hobbies haha. If I cannot use a tank, I put a large plastic bag over the smallest ones, then place that plant on a humidity tray.

Thanks again guys!

Perhaps you did not understand. TyroneGenade was not talking about "humidity trays'. He mentioned plastic tubs at least as large and deep as the largest tank sizes you cite. If you don't have siblings with excess tanks to donate, plastic storage tubs are a much more economical alternative.

 

[Paphman910]

The mixture the plants are in is a paph-specific blend from repotme.com, here if you want to see: http://repotme.com/orchid-potting-mix/Orchid-Mix-Paph.html
It consists of Orchiata, lava rock, sponge rock, and hydroton. If I end up repotting, I will mix it with my standard unfertilized orchid mix of fir bark, charcoal, and sponge rock. It was more alike what the plants originally came to me in.

TyroneGenade, I believe humidity trays to be virtually useless there is some height to them. I use leftover 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 gallon tanks for this purpose. I had siblings with excessive freshwater fish hobbies haha. If I cannot use a tank, I put a large plastic bag over the smallest ones, then place that plant on a humidity tray.

Thanks again guys!

You may have to water your plants every other day with that mix of yours. Does not retain moisture for a few days and your roots will probably stop growing.

The base of the plant should be about 1 cm below the level of the mix. I would add about 20% moss to the mix so keeps moist for longer period.

Do not have fan blowing directly on the plants, otherwise they dry out too fast.

Not sure what kind of light you are using. Better make sure mid day sun is not heating up the leaves. If leaf feels warm then the sunlight is too strong and you will need shading.

 

[Secundino]

TyroneGenade, I believe humidity trays to be virtually useless ...

Thanks again guys!

That's fun, isn't it.:rollhappy::rollhappy:

 

[NYEric]

Sterilite trays from Walmart.

 

[NYEric]

As an indoor grower, my advice to you would be to grow in a more compact space so as to have higher humidity around the plants.

True but... Where does the water fall after watering..??

 

[orchidsimplicit]

Great thread!! Thanks Orchidbri for all the questions. I have learned a lot.

 

[The Mutant]

About humidity trays and their worthlessness. I had to go and investigate since I have almost all my Paphs standing on trays with leca pellets and water (I have humidifiers too, but anything to help increasing the humidity directly around the plants) and I don't really think an increase of 6-7% of humidity is nothing to sneeze at. It's not amazing but it's something at least.

 

[NYEric]

aha... my checklist so far is:

Phyton 27 and cinnamon
Cut infected parts and buds off plants
Turn on humidifier, maintain +/- 50% humidity
Slide plant pots into larger plastic pots, to better retain moisture around roots
Consider using RO rather than municipal, potentially fertilizer and root stimulate
Keep cinnamon off roots

Um... more water!?
Yes, humidity trays are good only for keeping water off the floor.