Phrag leaf tips turning brown

[Connie Star]

I have a Phrag cariaciaum x sargenteanum that I bought in bloom. It flowered sequentially for me for 3 months. The leaf tips have been turning brown for about 2 months now. I water it, usually 2x per week with distilled H2O, keep it in a saucer filled 1" with water and fertilize "weakly weekly". I do mix the fertilizer with my hard water. The newer growth on the plant looks very healthy.
I also have a Phrag klotcheanum which I brought to flower myself . It is right next to the other Phrag and gets the same treatment. It's leaves got much worse before I trimmed them away, and the remaining plant looks good.
So my question is, is this normal or am I doing something wrong. I love phrags but has my initial good luck in getting one to bloom given me false confidence?

[Melody]

I'm still very new to orchid growing, but I've heard that you are not suppose to used distilled water because you are robbing the plant from nutrients and minerals

[Becca]

Hi Connie! How is your humidity? What I have learned about things that cause brown leaf tips with Phrags are two things: 1) Low humidity, and 2) to much fertilizer. I think the weekly weakly may be to much. I water my phrag (yes I only have one) every third watering at about 1/4 strength fertilizer. It seems to have stopped the leaf tips from turning brown. Perhaps backing off on the fertilizer might help or your humidity is low?

[slipperfreak]

This is probably from too much fertilizer. I agree with Becca - cut back on the fertilizer. Also consider using half and half distilled and tap when you mix your fertilizer.

[slipperfreak]

Originally Posted by Melody

I'm still very new to orchid growing, but I've heard that you are not suppose to used distilled water because you are robbing the plant from nutrients and minerals

This is a misguided statement. Orchids (like all plants) need minerals, but in small amounts. Often times tap water is too hard for orchids. Phrags in particular are sensitive to hard water, so it is common practice to use rain, distilled, or RO water for them. Some people use pure water for all their plants. As long as they get frequent, weak doses of fertilizer they get what they need.

Of course if you watered with only pure water (or for that matter, only tap water) and never fertilized you'd have dying plants!

[slipperfreak]

After looking more closely at the photos, I'm concerned about the third one. Is this the same plant (it doesn't look like it)? It appears to be browing from the base of the leaves towards the ends. It may have crown rot - I'd check it out.

[Becca]

Originally Posted by slipperfreak

After looking more closely at the photos, I'm concerned about the third one. Is this the same plant (it doesn't look like it)? It appears to be browing from the base of the leaves towards the ends. It may have crown rot - I'd check it out.

Good catch Joe! I agree....does look like it is from the base of the leaves!

[Izzie]

I agree with the too much fertilizer- I've seen the same thing on some friend's phrags.


If it was another kind of houseplant, I'd say it looks like fluoride poisoning from unfiltered tap water.

[Melody]

Originally Posted by slipperfreak

This is a misguided statement. Orchids (like all plants) need minerals, but in small amounts. Often times tap water is too hard for orchids. Phrags in particular are sensitive to hard water, so it is common practice to use rain, distilled, or RO water for them. Some people use pure water for all their plants. As long as they get frequent, weak doses of fertilizer they get what they need.

Of course if you watered with only pure water (or for that matter, only tap water) and never fertilized you'd have dying plants!

Well, I was just repeating what I was told, which makes sense to me. I know that some tap water is not usable for orchids, and I can see where you could use distilled in combination...but I still don't think straight distilled water is the best option (in my opinion). I know the pain of finding good water sources as I have kept aquariums for years and use to have tap water with a lot of copper in it that was unusable. If I was to use distilled water in an aquarium, I would first add minerals back to it, otherwise the fish would die, or use it in combination with tap. So it makes sense to me that this would be the case for orchids as well. A lady named Linda Thorne from Seagrove Orchids spoke about her struggle with finding a good water source for her plants and said to never use straight distilled. So that's where I'm getting this from. Like I said before, just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt since I am new to this.

[slipperfreak]

Originally Posted by Melody

Well, I was just repeating what I was told, which makes sense to me. I know that some tap water is not usable for orchids, and I can see where you could use distilled in combination...but I still don't think straight distilled water is the best option (in my opinion). I know the pain of finding good water sources as I have kept aquariums for years and use to have tap water with a lot of copper in it that was unusable. If I was to use distilled water in an aquarium, I would first add minerals back to it, otherwise the fish would die, or use it in combination with tap. So it makes sense to me that this would be the case for orchids as well. A lady named Linda Thorne from Seagrove Orchids spoke about her struggle with finding a good water source for her plants and said to never use straight distilled. So that's where I'm getting this from. Like I said before, just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt since I am new to this.

Like I said, you can't use straight distilled, or even tap, if you don't fertilize - orchids (along with all plants and all living things) need minerals and nutrients to survive. But you have to be careful not to provide more of these things than the plant can utilize. Brown leaf tips - as we see on this Phrag - are caused from an accumulation of unused salts in the plant's cells, which kills them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using straight distilled - as long as you are fertilizing the plant properly. Some fertilizers don't have calcium and magnesium in them (which are present in tap water but not distilled), so you either have to use tap water or get a cal-mag fertilizer (or supplement with lime/oyster shells and epsom salts). Some people have tap water that is so hard they have to use pure water and supplement cal-mag as I just explained. When it comes to Phrags, which are sensitive to minerals, almost everyone gets better results with pure water (tap water does vary in quality).

You seem to be offended by my initial reply - I didn't mean to be confrontational or rude or anything... I'm just stating fact. If you're new to orchid growing then you can trust me here - I've been doing this for 9 years and Phrags are one of my specialties. If you ask any accomplished Phrag grower they'll tell you the same thing. I'm sure Linda Thorne is a great orchid grower, so there had to have been some kind of miscommunication here.