Yellowing/Mottling - Culture issue?

[kmccormic]

Hi There!
I'm new to semi-hydro. This is a Phragmipedium Sorcerer's Apprentice in lecca, only plant in s/h. I received it in September. It had been in semi-hydro in lecca, and it seemed to be adapting pretty well to my culture. I put it outside in April in 30%-50% shade. I think there are 2 issues, one is the mottling, another is yellowing/browning at the ends of the leaves that just seems to come back.

Normally I do a rotation of weekly watering with tap water. 2 weeks 1/tsp KLite per gal, 1 week tblsp/gal Klepmax, 1 week plain tap water which is usually 150 tds and 9.5-12 ph and naturally high in calcium and minerals. I then use tiny amounts of citric acid to drop it to 6.5 ph. The s/h gets flushed 3 times, filled to the brim of the beads, before feeding. I was on furlough and starting to research, learning that there's a big difference between regular tap water and chelated calcium in sources like CaliMagic. And that potassium is a good thing to add once in a while.

I noticed that a lot of times my other plants had some yellowing/mottling in their leaves and wondered if they were dropping their bottom leaves faster than normal. I was starting to see some of the same yellowing at the ends and mottling in this plant and browning growing back at the end of previously trimmed leaves in May. I tried adding some epsom salts to water at a little less than 1 tblspn/gal. Then in June I also added CaliMagic for chelated calcium and magnesium. I was trying to keep an eye on the tds to keep it under 250 ppm, when I realized it was a bad meter and needed to be trashed. This week I have a new meter which seems much more accurate. Thinking I may have too much mineral buildup in the lecca, twice this week I used a 2 hour soak and refill with distilled water. There is some brown/green algae happening in the lecca within the water wicking line.

Pictures as I was trimming leaves: