Troubleshooting Phrag. besseae
 

Beautiful!

I just picked up a besseae a few days ago. In the greenhouse it seemed they were having some mold issues on the foliage (these were potted in fine fir bark and sitting in a saucer of water). Intuitively, I picked up the one with no leaf mold that happened to have just arrived from Hawaii. It was potted in a very course bark/perlite/charcoal mix. On top of the mix there was some moss and it immediately started growing mold once I got it home.

I freaked out and repotted it very carefully as it was in bud and just about to bloom (don't worry it's in bloom now) in a finer mix with some added aggregate, set this in a glass saucer with rocks and water to provide humidity (bottom of pot is not submerged). This is proving to "control" the mold so far... but I can see small strands of hyphae creeping around, I need to rethink the mix, anyone have any recommendations? Have expanded ceramic available (similar to hydroton, I am considering as I know that no mold will make it in this), charcoal, medium grade orchiata bark, coarse perlite... Just want to get rid of this mold and allow this Phrag. to get as much water and nutrients as she wants...

Any other solutions welcome. I know besseae are very sensitive to water quality so spraying solutions could be out of the question... not sure. New to Phrags.

A bit of mold isn't a huge problem. Phrag besseae like tons of water, so if you keep flushing it, and not allowing it to remain stagnant, most of it should resolve on it's own.

You could spray it with Physan 20 to tap down the issue, I just wouldn't allow that to become a permanent solution.

I just got one also - never seen mold on it though. Mine came in coarse perlite and med size fir bark - seems pretty happy. yeah, I'd just pick the mold off - I don't think it will hurt the plant at all unless it smothers the bark / leafs

Ah thank you both, yes I thought the flushing fresh/pure water through frequently would resolve it. Needed some extra confidence before starting though. Prefer no spray unless absolutely essential.

You cannot over water this plant. Give it as much as you'd like to flush it out.

Noted, I will be sure to get it flushing multiple times in the day. Thank you much :)

I've seen photos and read about them growing next to streams where their roots grow right in the water. Of course, it's running water, so that helps. When I was in SF I grew mine where I had a stream trickling down into a goldfish pond, it seemed to love that, always had water splashing on it, and probably got a little extra fertilizer from the fish being in the water (though I don't know how much there would be after going through the bio-filter). At some point down here I want to have a similar stream going to some koi or goldfish and arrange a shady spot in the stream to grow them that way again.

That sounds like a great setup, I wish I could have something outdoors like that... Up here in Philadelphia our temperatures have been going wild the past week or so ranging from the coldest in 20 years 7 degrees F to 50 degrees F the very next day... it's making me question if my hardy plants will even be impacted!

---------- Post added at 10:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:53 AM ----------

Okay now this time, I couldn't help myself but to pick this baby up because I just love the bloom... there seems to be some minor leaf spotting going on... the grower I picked it up from once again had it in standing water and I'm thinking an easy solution will be to run pure water with very very light feed and a little Kelpak (once) through it daily as opposed to having it in standing water.

Also the grower had it in 100% medium grade fir bark, I am thinking of putting it in a more coarse mix of Orchiata/Lg. Perlite/Charcoal.

Anyone have any opinions on this one? The grower also recommended making a cinnamon paste and brushing it onto the spots.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...-leaf-spot.jpg

---------- Post added at 10:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:00 AM ----------

Forgot to mention this particular besseae is a 'Haven' x 'Smokin' self-hybrid.

I only have 4 Phrags but one is a primary besseae cross and all of mine stand in about an inch of water. I pot them all in a course mix of bark, perlite, charcoal and try and change the water often and flush water thru frequently. As mentioned above, these love water and it seems hard to over water them. I find mine do prefer rain water to our tap water which has a high pH. They don't seem very picky for me and are good bloomers.

I have a phrag Supergrande that is doing so well in s/h in lava rock that I am planning to put my Eric Young that I just got into s/h as well. There is no mold or rotting to worry about. I flush the Grande a couple of times a week with clear water and add a little fertilizer now and then, usually about once a month.

Hmm... this definitely gets me thinking, I have some larger lava rock readily available... also have some DG (Decomposed Granite) that I use for bonsai growing maybe I could make an orchiata/charcoal/coarse perlite mix with a small amount of DG in there. Sounds like this will take care of itself, like I mentioned, it came with these spots from the grower. Bloom is nearly fully opened right now and it is pushing a second bud so it doesn't seem to be too crucial or anything. Might have to wait on the repot unless I am extremely careful.

---------- Post added at 12:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:07 PM ----------

Anyone have any idea what in particular causes those spots? I.E. Do you think they are more of a fungal or bacterial problem?

The grower quite likely got water on the leaves which sat there too long. The one I just bought has rotting at the base of the 2 outer leaves and from what I understand, that is also caused by water getting down into the leaves where they meet with the stem, and sitting there too long.

Makes a lot of sense, thank you Vanda_lover

I have heard these guys are not heavy feeders and don't do well cause of the salts in the water from feeding too often. Sounds like once a month works well??? I was thinking every other week at like 1/4 tsp per gall, but maybe I'll plan on every 3 weeks.

I do 40ppm about twice a month.

I was planning on using a very gentle Neptune's Harvest 2-3-1 at 1/4th strength (even less, maybe a few drops per qt.) every other watering or even every third, especially with it being in an organic substrate, but I can't imagine that a little bit of hormone treatment once per month wouldn't help them out.

The times that it's not getting anything but pure water, I'm going to be sure to thoroughly flush it, at least 1-2 qts. of water going thru the substrate.

---------- Post added at 03:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:38 PM ----------

That was another problem with the besseae I just received from the grower, upon looking in the fine grade fir bark that it's potted in there is a poly-coated fertilizer in there... all I can say is I'm going to take the risk and repot while in bloom.

I got my Supergrande as a seedling and it took 8 years to bloom. I'm pretty sure that the problem was that I was feeding it the same as I was feeding my phals. Then I started noticing that some leaves were getting brown tips, so I cut way back on the fertilizer. I also found that it likes more light than I would have thought.

Have mine about 3' from a 4 foot, 4 tube fluorescent unit rated at 20k lumens... maybe I'll bump her up a little bit in the future and see how she responds.

Between the last post and now, I yanked her out - in bloom :-/ - and mixed up some Med. grade orchiata, Coarse Perlite, Med. grade charcoal and some DG (decomposed granite for non bonsai-ers) I did this at a rate of about 2:2:1:1 in the order listed above. Hoping for the best.

Figured to throw in the DG due to their potential for being partially lithophytic if my books aren't mistaken.

That sounds like it should work fine.

Thanks again Vanda_lover