Ruby Slipper with brown spots

[kaiha]

My Phrag Ruby Slippers does not seem happy these days, could it be to warm? I have it in front of a north window in a bright room, but it can get to about 30c up stairs, later in the day. Could it be to wet? I hand mist them several times a day and have a oscillating fan running all the time.

Maybe it is just one of those plants you can't do anything for.

Any help would be great.

Thanks Barb.

[kaiha]

Here are the pic, I forgot to post.

oops.

[Ross]

It looks way to wet to me. I see signs of rot. Think you may be overdoing the water a bit. Fans are good, but roots and leaves lieing wet are not. Try not keeping it so wet. Not sure what to do about the rot spots though. I generally rely on Thiomyl systemic fungicide to cure rot like this. It is sprayed foliar and seems to do the trick for me.

[slipperfreak]

Hmmm... it does appear as though you have some rot on the leaves... I would definately ease up on the misting as the leaves likely are staying too wet. If the spots are soft and mushy, use a sterilized tool to remove the affected areas and treat with cinnamon or a bactericide. You should take a look at the roots... this Phrag may not respond well to wetness at the roots because of its caudatum parentage, but then again it might because of its besseae parentage. check out the roots to look for rot; if you have rot then ease up on watering too. Also, the bleaching on the leaves is not likely from too much light (that was one of the first things that came to mind) since you have a north window but may be the result of overfertilization or poor water quality. What water/fertilizer do you use? I don't think temps should be a problem if you have a fan running...

[kaiha]

I use r/o water always have, on all my orchids. I use msu to fertilize every other week. I flush with rain water or r/o water once a month. The Paphs are very happy and the other Phrags it just seems to be this one. The spots seem dry, nothing is mushy or smelly, (now I am smellling my plants, )

Pics of the roots, look ok. Some new growth.


I am puzzled.

[slipperfreak]

Well, I am stumped. The plant really seems happy, it just has damage on the leaves, but I have no idea what may have caused it. Unless someone else has an explanation, I would say leave it be for now and see what happens; if the damage spreads we might be able to tell what the problem is. Those spots, if they are dry, shouldn't cause a problem, they must be scorch marks (how that happened in a north window I have no idea though).

[kaiha]

It hasn't always been in a north window and it gets a small amount of west light. I have learned alot more since I have joined the orchid board so maybe it is more from before, I was just concerned as it seems to be limp and not doing much, maybe I shouldn't worry so much.

Thanks Barb.

[Ross]

Maybe you're moving it around too much? I'm stumped.

[Ray]

I don't know if any of this applies, but you never know...

I recommend against flushing or ever watering with straight RO.

When you add an RO fertilizer to pure water, the fertilizer components buffer the solution. As the plants absorb the nutrients and expel their respiratory wastes through the roots, that checmostry changes to who-knows-what.

If you add pure, unbuffered water to that unknown chemistry, it might be a pretty nasty environment that can have some pretty stressful effects on the plants, with that being simply toxicity, or enough weakening that it leaves them vulnerable to other pathogens or environemental stresses.