vanda - yellow leaves

[ARANDO]

i would just like to ask if anyone perhaps knows why the leaves are turning yellow

its in a green house gets alot of heat about 30 - 35c, but the humidity is low. i do spray at least once a day , and feed it at the same time

[Mira-Claude]

If I were you, I'd check the root system. See if it is fine.
Here the humidity in the air is low too, so instead of spraying, I give it a good 30 minutes to hour soak EVERY morning. They are very hard to drown... Forgot mine a few times for more than a few hours... once even a full day last year and nobody complained.
Too much fertilizer can also turn leaves yellow, so maybe down the concentration?
But the plants looks fine, I wouldn't be too worried.

[brit6v]

Hi Arando,
I'm sorry, but I don't have an answer to your question. I wish I could help you. I wanted to let you know that I think the cattleya blooms in your avatar picture are so pretty! If you grew them, congratulations.....they are gorgeous. If you wouldn't mind, I would really appreciate it if you would let me know the name.

Again, I apologize that I can't be of help. I've been growing orchids less than 4 years and don't consider myself qualified since I haven't had much experience.
Vicki/aka brit6v

Originally Posted by ARANDO

i would just like to ask if anyone perhaps knows why the leaves are turning yellow

its in a green house gets alot of heat about 30 - 35c, but the humidity is low. i do spray at least once a day , and feed it at the same time

[ARANDO]

i did put a little moss in between the wood for extra moisture, maybe i should remove it, also i did put up extra shade today

[Mira-Claude]

Mine are all grown in baskets with sphag moss for humidity.
And yet I still try to drown them every day of the week!
Someone here told me that with Vandas you cannot give too much humidity, so I went all out!
Vanda also like bright light, some will take direct light other won't. It's a try as you go technique. But I like it!
Good luck Arando!

[willowbanks]

Arando, your set up is a little different, windows on the inside of a shade structure.

You say your humidity is low, what is the floor of your shade structure, concrete, gravel or something else????

i do spray at least once a day , and feed it at the same time

Lets clarify this comment, spraying the plant every day is fine but do you really fertilize it every day as well ???? If you fert every day, what strength do you apply????

Bill

[ARANDO]

it is a wooden greenhouse with wood flooring, today i will put 70% shade nett, the roof is polycarbonate and the sun was burning the cymbidiums - will the vanda grow under 70% shade net?

[willowbanks]

If you have a polycarbonate roof there should not be a need to put 70% shade cloth over it.

The problem is you are worried about the Cym. that takes lower light than your Vanda that likes strong good light. Is there any where else you could put the Cym.?????

A wooden floor, why???? is there any chance you could post a photo of the floor????

Bill

[ARANDO]

i will post a photo later today when i get home. yesterday it looks like the vanda leaves are wilting - i checked the roots but they seem fine, will also post pics of the vanda

[pikkumyy]

so bill are we thinking of spraying the floor to increase humidity?

and bill has some seriously cool vandas

[ARANDO]

here are the pics with the wilted leaves

[ARANDO]

here is the photo's of the floor


Thank you for all the help

[willowbanks]

Yes Michael, I was thinking of spraying the floor to increase humidity but that is really not possible now we have seen the floor.

Arando, thank you for the photos, they are great, your Cyms look well grown and happy where they are.

Looks like you grow quite a few Cyms but only one Vanda so moving the Vanda is the obvious plant to relocate away from the Cyms, totally different growing requirements.

I have no idea of course where you could move it to but it requires good filtered light and more humidity than your Cyms, somewhere where you can splash water around so it will not ruin your wooden floor.

The plant itself, from the photos, going by the position in the basket the growth with the yellowing leaves is the original plant and the large growth on the left is actually a keiki. If I'm right, the yelloing leaves are natural die off from the original growth and are no longer needed to support the keiki.

Your weather is similar to mine over here in Australia so now is the time to feed your Vanda, they are heavy feeders now during their peak growing season, hit your plant with Hi Nitrogen NPK fertilizer one week and then with Hi K NPK fertilizer the second week and keep rotating between the two at recommend strength.

If you have time, a feed of fish (only, nothing added) emulsion fert is also good mid week just as a bonus feed. Seaweed extract is also good if you can get it and mix it into the chem and fish fert at every feeding.

Bill

[SarinahL]

Sorry to hijack the thread;

Bill, what do you mean by fish emulsion fertilizer? What is the added bonus of this? Do all orchids benefit, or specifically vanda's?

[ARANDO]

Thank you very much willowbanks - the floor is treated with a sealant, and i am using a hand spray everyday on all the orchids. The handspray is filled with water and 18:20:20 or 27:10:15 and once a week clean water. i can move the vanda to the window to get strong morning sun - will that be ok? must i remove the keiki (im not sure how to do that properly) i will get fish emulsion hopefully tomorrow

im just worried about the wilting leaves and the roots outside the basket looks dried up???

[dounoharm]

i would soak the vanda for 30 min a day in a bucket.....longer wont hurt either....with a hand sprayer you will never get enuf moisture on all the roots to be of service to the plant....soak soak soak! gl

[willowbanks]

SarinahL, fish emulsion is a common, readily available mild organic liquid fertilizer made from fish, the one I use at the moment has an NPK of 2.5N .3P .25K plus trace elements.

The BONUS FEED, well maybe I should have said EXTRA FEED. Vanda types are heavy feeders and where I live they are coming out of their winter slumber, now is the time for me to push them to get the best I can from them.

As for this working with other orchids, well I grow outdoors all year round and do it to my Catts, hard cane Dens and Tolumnias and I'm very happy with the results that I get. For those that grow indoors, my methods may be too extreme, it's a different ball game.

Bill

[willowbanks]

Arando, even with the floor being sealed it would not be advisable to keep the floor wet for extended periods of time, over time the sealant will break down resulting in damage to your floor.

I suggest the first thing to do is reverse your watering and fertilizing, only fert once per week (twice if you have the fish fert) and use water on the other days.

Second thing, remove the sphag moss from the basket and replace it with the largest chunky orchid bark you can get. Then drape some old mans beard (Spanish Moss/Tillandsia usnoides) over the top of the basket and let it hang down on the outside of the basket. The old mans beard will create some humidity around the root area and allow good airflow, you aren't getting that from the wet sphag moss.

Your fert 27-10-15 is ok for your Hi N but the other one, 18-20-20 is not what I would call good, not even sure what field crop it is meant for. For a Hi K application I suggest something around 15N-6P-20K. The 20% Phosphorus in your 18-20-20 is way too much and probably doing more harm than good.

Until you get the roots going I would not disturb the plant by removing the keiki, be patient, this will take time.

Example of how to put the moss on.



This is happy growing moss, if you can grow this, it is a good indicator that your conditions are right for Vandas.

[ARANDO]

Thank you Willowbanks for the good advise

i will have a look at the orchid nursery for old mans beard havent seen it before,

here is a pic of the 18:20:20 it is called orchid foliar feeding (kickstarter) - but i will stop using it imidiately and keep on looking for fish emulsion. also i have installed a misting system and that keeps the humidity at about 60% - the vanda still looks a bit wilted but hopefully now it will be better

[ARANDO]

Thank you Willowbanks for the good advise

i will have a look at the orchid nursery for old mans beard havent seen it before,

here is a pic of the 18:20:20 it is called orchid foliar feeding (kickstarter) - but i will stop using it imidiately and keep on looking for fish emulsion. also i have installed a misting system and that keeps the humidity at about 60% - the vanda still looks a bit wilted but hopefully now it will be better

[ARANDO]

with great luck i got spanish moss today. and one nozzle from the misting pipes is spraying the vanda everytime i switch it on

[willowbanks]

That's perfect Arando, looks really good.

Might be a good idea to straighten your basket so the plant grows straight up, nothing worse than having to straighten a Vanda after it has started growing sideways.

Thanks for the pictures of the fert, I see it is labelled kick start for orchids and understand why you bought it. Lawn grass is what I would use that stuff on.

How often are you switching this sprinkler system on????

Bill

[ARANDO]

the mysting system i use everyday when i see the humidity is low about 20 - 30%, i still have to figure it out it does whet the floor , and im not sure if its really just misting or if i have created a irrigation system - i do water the plants alot less now - any suggestions will help (im also wondering if all this water is killing the phaius - its not looking to good)

[willowbanks]

Sounds like you have "created a irrigation system", if you turn it on too often when the humidity is low you are going to be over watering your plants.

Micro misters are sprinklers, fogger heads are for creating humidity, they do not wet the leaves.

Here are some photos of two different brands of four directional foggers.




they have a stop drip valve and are best kept at constant pressure so they come on and go off instantly when the timer kicks in and out.

There are plenty of brands out there and they come in 1, 2, 3 and 4 directional heads.

Bill

[ARANDO]

i have looked for those misting systems but so far not available in south africa, but the chinese nursery is going to import a portable misting system hopefully in about 2 weeks we will know prices and availability

[ARANDO]

ok the vanda is still alive not really growing but green and alive - i see with all the problems i have lost all the roots, i do water alot and only give fertilizer sparingly