Your expert opinions and ideas please - this little catt was another of my bargain rack rescues. Has been healthy and happy - and green! - for a couple of months at least. I left it ignored along with everyone else this last week while I was at a sailing regatta and today find its leaves turning reddish purple. Not just spots and freckles, but almost the whole leaves.

It's been on the top shelf of a wire shelf unit that gets some sun for most of the afternoon, through the pool cage screening - reduces intensity by about 20%. All anybody's had all week was a quick misting. None of the others are turning this color. We have had sun, but cool weather for the last 3 days, and it rained Tuesday night very nicely.

Could this be just a reaction to too much sun? Or should I send him to Coventry for a week for quarantine? Already moved him to the shade this morning but that's all I've done. No sign of bugs or fungal activity. (it's been dry and cool, not conducive to either)

Just too much sun, in my opinion. I've got several that look like that.

Looks like sun burn to me too.

Jim

I agree, except I wouldn't call it burn. You might like to add some Epsom salt/Magnesium Sulfate to the fertilizer regime, that might help in Chlorophyll production.
http://www.staugorchidsociety....

Great info, Ursula. Thanks! I buy a product for my palm trees called Kmag. It is a 0-0-22 with 10.80 % magnesium. It is a Lesco product sold at John Deere Enterprises stores. I have only seen it in 50 pound bags but you can always feed it to your palms and they will love you for it. I use a 50 pound bag of it every December to help my palms get through the winter.

Jim

Thanks from me, too Ursula. That's a great article in the link you sent. A whole tablespoon per gallon! Will start a magnesium program tomorrow for the poor guys.

Now that I'm looking, some of my Brassavolas are fairly reddish, too. I thought that was just a normal thing,

I usually add the extra Magnesium in the Spring when I bring the Orchids outside here in NJ, and then regularly until Fall. It is so much easier to fertilize with a sprayer outside for me.

Some orchids show this coloration when exposed to very bright light, but most won't. In my orchid greenhouse, of the several hundred plants, I probably have a half dozen varieties with this coloration. All my orchids get the same watering, fertilizing, and light exposure, so the only variable is the orchid variety. Ken

And on some of them the leaves become speckled with reddish dots due to bright sunshine exposure.

You will definitely know when a leaf has been sunburned. It will be a patch of brown, becoming black over several weeks. It never heals (never turns green). I haven't lost a plant due to sunburn, but it sure does create an unattractive bleamish on the leaf. Ken

Yep, been there, done that already. This poor little phal was one of my first orchids, and I went off on a trip, leaving it and its sister under our mango tree.

Little did I realize that there was a gap in the branches that allowed the noonday sun to hit the little orchids. See the lowest leaf on the left with the big hole in it? Sunburnt.

The magnesium thing is worth looking in to. I think there are some varieties that require that much sun to bloom, but to tend to turn purple/ red. I have several, IE gerberara, laelias and Onc. spledidium ( or what ever they call it now) that do require lots of light, but do turn purple. That includes some of the Laelia Xs such as the one I posted yesterday. Some don't seem to change color, even though they share the same space. So far, the only ones I've 'burned' are some Phals that I was experimenting with. I worry alot more about yellow leaves~!

Magnesium therapy seems to have worked a miracle. If it had been sunburn, the color would not have turned back to green like this, right?

I gave them two douses, about 5 days apart at 1tablespoon Epsom Salts (magnesium sulphate) per gallon. The last was the day before I left on my trip, 11 days ago, and the color recovery today is very evident.

See for yourselves - the little catt is much better, esp. the one leaf on the lower left, and a couple of my brassavolas that were fairly red as well have also recovered nicely.



Here's the "before" shot of the little catt for comparison.

The leaves are greeeenn! You have a little chlorophyll manufacture going on in there!

This happens to some of my plants as well...mostly the ones that are dark red or dark purple.

Good old magnesium. I think I'll start putting it on my cereal in the morning.

Jim

Don't laugh, it's not just for orchids and palms. I take a calcium supplement with added Mg in it, and also soak the ol' bod in it for my aching joints and my feet for plantar fasciitis.

It is great stuff esp. for those of us who can't take anti-inflammatories any more.

Good info, Elaine. I take Mg every day but never thought to use it on my orchids. Ken

Ursula, I have a Ceratostylis philippinense that has turned red this spring. I know you have this type. Think Epsom would help

It probably would! And it received a lot of sun, so you will have tons of blooms....