Leaf drop in my phallies

[malleeboy]

Over this past winter I've experienced some drastic leaf drop in quite a few phallie seedlings. These are all one or two year old plants and had been growing quite nicely. I keep all my phallies indoors, generally in a bright north-facing window but little or no direct sun. We live in north-wet Victoria, Australia.

I suspect that I may have burnt the roots by adding small amounts of granular fertiliser but there are other possibilities perhaps? ....

1. Watering at evening rather than morning?

2. Too cold? It's been a long cold winter and they are in a room with no heating so the nighttime temp may get down to under 10 deg C.

3. Any other ideas?

Other and older phallies seem unaffected by any of the above and continue to grow and flower well.

Cheers,
Keva

[brookn]

10 C is awful cold for a Phal. I have some varieties that if the temp gets under 16 C they get sick. In general Phals like to stay above 16 C, and 18 C is better.

[patticake]

I agree with brookn. They don't like cold feet. Cold, wet feet, really spells trouble. If there's an occasional cool night, then they should be a little on the dry side to help them through it.

[Anton]

G'DAY and welcome here, we have a lot of Ozzies on board.

Toooooooooooo bloody cold for them mate !

You need to keep them to a bare minimum of 18C, preferably around 21C will make them happy chappies.

NEVER, never water at night, always water in the morning and let them dry out by night, otherwise you'll encourage crown and root rot, and if you read posts on it here, you'll see what a bugger it is to cure.

You would also be better off feeding them with a dissolvable fertilizer because, as you mentioned, it will burn the roots, but also you don't know what the break down rate of the granular fert is and how much it will build up if you don't regularly flush your pots through.

Liquid fert (dissolved food that is), you can control dose rate and know that it gets diluted and washed out through subsequent waterings between feeds. So that the next time you feed, you can be assured that there isn't too much build up.

Granular ferts work best at set temperatures also, and I know that at 10C, you may as well have put sand in there because at that low temp the granules won't be working as they should.

This is something they don't publicize on the container it comes in, and if they do, you need a microscope to read it. I only found out when Nutrog gave a presentation at our club earlier this year, and it was only through an astute member pushing the point that the rep admitted it.

Warmth and humidity is what you need for Phals. Mine are in a warm house which never gets below 21C and averages around 23C - 24C with around 50% humidity and you can almost see my seedlings grow.

[malleeboy]

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice. Looks like some extra heating for next winter! :-)

Cheers,
malleeboy