What’s going on with the Philipinese seedling?

[Aurelia]

I got this a few months ago from eBay. It’s a paph philipinese x sib album. It came with the brown. I put mancozeb on it (thinking it was fungal) also that’s the white you see. Now i noticed the big leaf has a non smooth surface. I’ve checked for bugs. Nothing. It’s not changed since I got it, maybe the leaf is a tiny bit bigger is all. What on earth is it? Will it be a problem?

[estación seca]

This is a very slowly growing plant. I think the brown spot was mechanical damage, not fungus. I don't know what is causing the leaf irregularity.

How are you watering it, and how often? Are you fertilizing?

[Aurelia]

Yes I’m watering every few days I’m in Melbourne Australia. I am fertilising weakly every few weeks. Mechanical damage sounds about right btw!

[estación seca]

They prefer never drying completely. If you use Advanced Search, above, on keywords Lam and DVOS with my partial username Estaci you will find lecture notes I took at a Paph talk given by the orchid curator at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in Los Angeles. He feeds his plants 10 parts per million of nitrogen at every watering using calcium nitrite.

Recently Jason Fischer of Orchids Limited spoke to our Society. I haven't edited my notes yet. He said he feeds Paphs at every watering or every other watering all year round with full-strength MSU formulation fertilizer - that is 1 teaspoon/5ml of powder per US gallon/3.78 liters. He also puts a Jobe's Plant Spike in Paph pots. He said they grow and flower better with heavier feeding than most people give.

[Aurelia]

Thank you. I’ll check out the lecture notes. I was always under the impression not to go heavy fertilising the paph. I look forward to reading up about them from your notes. Thank you so much