The Myeonggwanggae Mystery: The Return of Yellowing Leaves

[alecStewart1]

Hey gang, I've posted about this plant before that it was suddenly yellowing leaves and, well, it's happening again.

It's frustrating, because I don't know what's different about this plant compared to the others (hence the title). The mound is hollow, I'm waiting to water until the mounds are completely if not mostly dry, it's warm here (high was about 92 degrees Fahrenheit), and every other Neo is doing fine.

The only things I can note are

• The roots aren't great, but the base plant is seemingly pushing out a new root (try to get it in picture as best I can)
• Maybe I was recently too liberal with fertilizer and probiotic

After that, I'm just really unsure and annoyed with myself.

This morning I specifically watered the plant with some Liquid Copper Fungicide/Bactericide and Thiomyl, and I'm going to let it dry out completely (crispy dry) before I water with the same solution again.

I've unpotted and repotted with guy once already when I previously posted about it, and I don't want to do it again, unless it's completely necessary.

Any guidance?

[Roberta]

I would suggest that you back off with the treatments. This plant may be more sensitive than the others. Plain old water and lots of it, flush out the stuff that you have been using. If it's pushing a new root, it's trying to live. You may lose some of those damaged fans, hope for getting new one(s) going before the bad ones die off. Maybe protect from the heat a bit, especially shade from any direct sun. If it is hot, you should not be drying it out, it needs water! Neos are resiliant, given half a chance.

[Ray]

Be very careful with fertilizer. “Liberal” is not good in that context. Probiotics shouldn’t matter, as there is nothing in them that is harmful to plants.

You have likely killed any beneficial microbes with the cooper and Thiomyl treatments, so I’d wait a couple of weeks and use only water, then resume the probiotics.

[alecStewart1]

Originally Posted by Roberta

I would suggest that you back off with the treatments. This plant may be more sensitive than the others. Plain old water and lots of it, flush out the stuff that you have been using. If it's pushing a new root, it's trying to live. You may lose some of those damaged fans, hope for getting new one(s) going before the bad ones die off.

Got it. Clean plain water only.

Originally Posted by Roberta

Maybe protect from the heat a bit, especially shade from any direct sun. If it is hot, you should not be drying it out, it needs water! Neos are resiliant, given half a chance.

All of the orchids are in the shade now since it's beginning to get in the high 80s - 90s here to prevent anyone getting cooked. Had a close call when it was about 95 degrees here and one Vanda has a leave that got a little burn from being partially in the hot afternoon sun.

I am watering more often for plants in bark, once in the morning and sometimes once in the evening if it's been really hot and the bark has dried out.

For plants in moss, I'm watering every other day, so long as the moss isn't mostly drying out within a day. If every other day, the moss still has some moisture in it but isn't dried out.

Hopefully this is useful information.

---------- Post added at 10:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:20 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Ray

Be very careful with fertilizer. “Liberal” is not good in that context. Probiotics shouldn’t matter, as there is nothing in them that is harmful to plants.

You have likely killed any beneficial microbes with the cooper and Thiomyl treatments, so I’d wait a couple of weeks and use only water, then resume the probiotics.

Got it. I'll give it only distilled or other 0 ppm water for a couple of weeks, see what happens.

[estación seca]

You will rarely have fungal issues. Leaf problems are almost always due to falling short on growing conditions. Don't reach for fungicides; try and improve growing conditions.

[alecStewart1]

Originally Posted by estación seca

You will rarely have fungal issues. Leaf problems are almost always due to falling short on growing conditions. Don't reach for fungicides; try and improve growing conditions.

Got it. I'm guess my liberal use of fertilizer is the cause of the issue. I'm also guessing this guy is just more sensitive than the others, as no other plant has had issues. No yellowing of leaves, no terminating of spikes, no sudden stopping of growth, at most one leave on a Vanda got a little burn from being in the hot afternoon sun, but other than that everything seems fine.

I'll flush out the media with distilled water over the next few weeks and see how it fairs. I'll also be more reserved with fertilizing than I have been.

[Roberta]

Remember that most orchids are VERY light feeders. You won't hurt them by giving too little fertilizer, maybe just slow them down a bit. (If there is a serious deficiency due to lack of minerals in the water, it can take months or even a year to show up) But you CAN harm them with too much. If fertilizing more often, then the strength must be reduced.

[alecStewart1]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Remember that most orchids are VERY light feeders. You won't hurt them by giving too little fertilizer, maybe just slow them down a bit. (If there is a serious deficiency due to lack of minerals in the water, it can take months or even a year to show up) But you CAN harm them with too much. If fertilizing more often, then the strength must be reduced.

Maybe some can confirm this, but yellowing leaves when it comes to any deficiencies it would be some like magnesium deficiencies, starting the on the oldest leaves.

I don't think this is the case for me, as I've been using K-lite and a little bit of tap water when fertilizing. Unless the calcium and magnesium in this mixture has magically not gone to this plant but all of the others, I think this is a safe bet to say a deficiency isn't the cause.

So, given all of that, is it safe to say that one other thing of the many things yellowing of leaves could indicate is chlorophyll damage due to an over saturation of minerals?

[Roberta]

Yes, safe to say that the problem was too much not too little.

[alecStewart1]

Just an update, it seems like the problem is two fold, as I'm seeing some yellowing on leaves of my Akogare and Myeonggwanggae seemingly only getting slightly better. There are leaves on the Myeonggwanggae still, and the new root is starting to poke out more, but most of the keikis are gone now. The issue are:

1. Over fertilized
2. Too frequent of waterings

I can now definitely tell the over fertilization happened because I see little bits of blue from the K-lite showing up on the tips of some of the moss, and on some of the sheath on the roots. I've been watering with 0 PPM water to try and flush all of that out, and will continue to do so. If there's something else I can do to flush all of that out more efficiently than just watering with 0 PPM water, let me know.

I upped the water a little bit after discussing in this post a little bit, watering when the moss feels little like a not-quite dry sponge (like there is a little bit of moisture left), and that doesn't seem to be helping, and I suspect this due to the Akogare have two leaves go yellow, a few days after I noticed and posted about Myeonggwanggae and started watering a little more frequently.

As stated here many times, the biggest issue that I've noticed with my Neos is watering too much. Neos, from my experience so far, seems to like going from (during growing seasons)

wet -> dry -> wet -> dry,

and not

wet -> a tiny bit moist -> wet -> a tiny bit moist.

And yes, before anyone says anything, they don't want to be dry for an extended period when it's hot. I've made sure none of my Vandaceous orchids have been dry for long periods during these warm months.

With where I'm growing, with the plants in moss mounds, watering the Neos every other day seems to work best, so long as the moss mounds didn't dry out to crispy/crunchy dry within a day.

More things to clarify before pointless discussion happens:

• They're all in the shade
• I've not fertilized or done any kind of treatment in over a week now
• All the water they've been given is 0 PPM, be it distilled or from the ZeroWater tank that I have

So I'm going to stick to watering every other day with 0 PPM water. Hopefully that new root on the Myeonggwanggae starts poking out even more in the next coming week. I'm frankly really frustrated with myself, considering the Myeonggwanggae lost pretty much all of it's keikis and now the Akogare is having issues, but I have a feeling if I stick to this plan, both plants will pull through.

I've saved non-orchids in the past from what seemed to be certain death with some TLC and sticking with a single plan and being patient, and I have to remember that and not beat myself up too much.