Hello all....

I am hoping I can get some advice for a paph I have that is not doing too well. It is a cross of Lady Isabel x Delrosi. The last three lower leaves have rotted and fallen off in the past three months. I know lower leaves can fall without worry but three in a short period concerns me. It is growing a new leaf but very slowly. Should I be concerned? When I was changing my set-up from flourescent to HPS the plant was without light for three days with no air circulation.... thus I had a bit of rot I cut off... you can see it in the pic.

My conditions.... temp high 88-88, low 70... HPS on for 13 hours a day. Plant is 2.5 feet under the light. Lumens are about 2200 fc. Watered weekly with weak Dyna grow fertlizer. The HPS system is new though; only been active for 2 weeks.

Should I be worried?
Christian, NJ

http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/270/img1693small9xf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/3369/img1694small8wl.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/1706/img1695small9zo.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

First thing comes to mind, have you checked the roots?

Peter,

I just did.... the vast majority of them have active green growing tips... they look great. None of them were rotted.

Just another side note.... if you look at the pics again... on of the leaf tips have new rot on it. I just cut it off and put some cinnamon on it.

Grrrh... I guess it is just getting used to its new conditions. Any other ideas?

Christian

Possibly mites? Dehydration?

If roots are in good condition; you may want to give epsom salt.

If the roots looks fine, then I agree with Peter, could be bugs? Even some kind of rot? I don't know. Hope you find the culprit and solve the problem soon! Keep us posted.

you may want to make sure that there are no long tailled mealybugs hiding where the leaves attach

What's the air humidity at?

To me the plant looks dehydrated and like it has had too much light. Delrosi crosses should be a dark green in my opinion and yellowing top leaves usually me too much heat and light from the HPS.

I would move it to about 4 feet from the bulb, like off to the side and not directly under it and water it a bit more often. Humidity should be relatively high, and if you can check it at different lengths from the bulb you may find the humidity drastically lower directly under the bulb.

Jon

Thank you all for your suggestions.

I gave it a huge watering on Saturday morning and after reading some of the post I checked it and it was almost bone dry. I couldn't believe it. Obviously, it will take a while for me to get used to my new light set up. I watered it and most of my pther plants under the light and will keep a very very very close eye on them.

On a positive note, there is a new leaf forming and starting to show its head.

I'll give it a month or two before I undersatdn the pros and cons of HPS growing... grrh

Thanks for the support....
Christian