ok I know worst time to post this topic or maybe a good time to get swept under the carpet?
I have sort of made my conclusions already but my conclusions stump me....
So this is all about phal leaf color. What leaf color shows that a plant is healthiest? A dark green shiny leaf or a dull lime green color?
In order for anyone to get a good idea of what sort of colors we are talking about you need to watch one of Rick L's video's showing some phals he treated with magnesium.
You will see some dull lime green leaves pre-treatment and some dark shiny leaves post treatment. To give you a good idea. Or just skip to the 15 minute mark where they are all in the frame and have a quick look:
Ok so this is what stumps me. I have come to the conclusion by now that ultra dark green leaves are a symptom of a problem. Shiny leaves mean the leaves are reflecting light away from them as a defense mechanism like purpling of leaves. This is my personal opinion by now...
Leaves that absorb light are healthy and leaves that look all shiny and glossy on the pictures are in fact reflecting light like a mirror when they should be absorbing it to photosynthesize!
So... why did the leaves go all shiny after rick fed a lot of magnesium? And more importantly is he right that dark shiny green leaves are a sign of good health or were his leaves fine all along?
Well, I believe like I said shiny leaves are not a good sign. It has taken me several years to come to this conclusion and I could be wrong. Leaves should be absorbing light.
So, ok lets say I'm right, why did Rick's leaves turn shiny after feeding magnesium.
I believe it caused a Phosphorous deficiency(increasing magnesium directly increases the demand for phosphorous in plants). A phosphorous deficiency is responsible for darker than usual leaves. I'm guessing the shinyness is also a symptom. As people probably noticed on my pictures over the past year my leaves were getting darker and shinier and initially I thought it was a good sign, people even told me how good my leaves looked but in hindsight this was only because they had darkened up so much thus even hiding other "blemishes" just by being excessively dark.
If you look at another one of Rick's video' and compare the leaves of his Cattleya in this video he this time correctly identifies the problem as a Phosphorous deficiency, all the symptoms including the dark leaves are symptoms I have observed. Now taking what I have just been talking about if you look at his Cattleya leaves "I bet you something looks familiar". What do all his dark phosphorous deficient Cattleya leaves have? That's right leaf shine. Reflecting the light from the leaves.
Ok do I still have an audience? I hope so lol.
So like I mentioned I have been following the tips of other youtubers and trying out Rainmix for the first time this year and I was optimistic everything would improve, initially my leaves got a great shine to them, they looked great and I thought things were good, till I noticed that actually leaves were starting to not grow as long, they were starting to grow shorter, leaf purpling was creeping up in places, older leaves got far darker than new growth making me think the new growth had a problem but it was the old growth that was the problem.
I have compiled a list of about 10 more symptoms I have observed but Rick has covered a lot in his video.
Anyway so here I am trying to get my phals back on track after I watched them darken up for the past year....... Yes the picture is a bit shocking! And it has been hard to a) come to the conclusion I have come which contradict a ton of magnesium related video's online
and b) stick to my treatment with my phals growing very nearly yellow looking at times (compared to the darker leaves)
But I have stuck with it and my initial observations are:
1) leaves are no longer growing stunted
2) growth has accelerated
3) flowering has increased
4) root growth has improved
5) leaf issues (weak plant syndrome) have dissapeared.
So early days still and like said I am a bit stumped by my conclusions and the pictures are not very convincing but I think you can see although the latest leaf looks a bit weird it is actually growing very long, it's just what a transition from a dark leaf to a lime green leaf looks like I think...
But I would love to hear what others think a healthy phal leaf should look like. Was Rick right or am I on to something?
ps ignore the white leaf spots, thats previous light damage.
you can see on my leaf the dark bit is shiny and as it transitions to the lime green the leaf shine dissapears.
ideal phalaenopsis leaf color!
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