Phrag fischeri crown rot.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Thanks. Now, I know that I have to get a small fan. Since the warmer weather is starting to come around, I can leave the window open.

But I'll definitely get a fan by next week at the latest.

Thanks all!

[dounoharm]

what a shame, but def, too much moisture in the crown of the plant....i follow the old rule, whatever you do, do it before noon with orchids.....especially watering....gl on its recovery!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by dounoharm

what a shame, but def, too much moisture in the crown of the plant....i follow the old rule, whatever you do, do it before noon with orchids.....especially watering....gl on its recovery!

Thank you.

It just sucks to have to wait another possible 3 yrs to see this thing bloom. Provided it will even make it till then.

I also wish they weren't so expensive! This cost me $50!

[slipperfreak]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

Thank you.

It just sucks to have to wait another possible 3 yrs to see this thing bloom. Provided it will even make it till then.

I also wish they weren't so expensive! This cost me $50!

Yeah the cost is the main drawback with growing slippers, especially species like this. $50 is a decent price. I'm assuming you got it from OL?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Orchid Babies.

[slipperfreak]

Oh I see. Well at any rate... good luck with it! I'd hate to see you lose it.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Thank you.

I'd hate to lose it too. :/

[LinhT]

May I ask why you chose to use pure pumice? How were you able to keep the "wet feet" conditions with the pumice? Are you keeping the pot in a dish of water? I tried growing all my phrags in Kanuma pumice at one point, about the same size particles as what you're using. I sat the pots in a saucers of water and the pumice had really good wicking properties. Being that the Kanuma had great wicking properties and was so porous I thought it would work well with the phrags.

However, over a few months, the leaves started to die off like yours and I had some root rot. My humidity was around 50 - 60% and temps ranged from 60 -80 (night - day). I flushed regularly with RO and fertilized lightly but they were not happy. I transferred them back to CHC/perlite/charcoal mix and they quickly recovered. I needed a more calcium rich environemnt for the kovachii hybrids so I ended up transferring all the phrags to rockwool/perlite/charcoal mix. Now they are doing fine.

I did have a Barbara Leeann that kept getting the rotting leaves no matter what I did. Finally I threw away the original tag thinking it might have some bacteria I could not clean off. It's been better ever since. Sorry I'm not much help. Just thought I'd share my "phrags and pumice" fiasco. Perhaps it has something to do with the acidic environment of the pure pumice?

[slipperfreak]

Originally Posted by LinhT

Perhaps it has something to do with the acidic environment of the pure pumice?

Is pumice acidic? Sorry, I've never used it before so I don't know much about it.

But to follow-up on this comment, I want to state for the record that Phrag fischeri is one of three known calcicoles in the genus (the other two being kovachii and andreettae). Phrag fischeri is actually more of a calcicole than P. kovachii (which at this point is probably the most infamous calcicolous Phrag), with substrate pH levels in the habitat being measured at 8.4, compared to 7.5-8 for kovachii. So, calcium supplementation and high pH are very important for this species. The pure water and low pH rule for other Phrags does not apply to it.

[LinhT]

Originally Posted by slipperfreak

Is pumice acidic? Sorry, I've never used it before so I don't know much about it.

I guess I'm not sure about regular pumice but the Kanuma, Akadama and Huga pumice are acidic media, according to the bonsai vendor that I purchased the pumice from. At least that's what I was told. So if fischeri is calcio-lo-whatever, it would probably be a good candidate to try in rockwool, right? Since rockwool is high in Ca and Mg...