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This is a discussion on The Gongora curse! within the Orchid Ailments / The Compost Pile forums, part of the Orchid Culture category; I have been battling to get my Gongora armeniaca to thrive for nearly three years ...
I have been battling to get my Gongora armeniaca to thrive for nearly three years now, but something is not going well for it. The problem is that the new grows often does not fully develop its leaves becoming very thin, pale and sometime yellow resulting in premature death. That’s right, scary!
I have tried everything. The first thought was salts. The plant was growing in sphag and was leached, re-potted and watered with rain water regularly without any result. The grows continued to yellow. I tried moving it from high light to less light without any result as well.
I purchased a new BS plant from a different vendor that looked awesome when it arrived. It was nice and green. However after spending some time with me, same thing started to happen.
It is now potted in bark in a wood basket with regular watering and fertilizer, med light (some early morning sun, shady afternoons), moving air and good humidity. The pb look nice and plump, the roots are looking good as well. The plant sends multiple shoots, but once they get about half way in lengths they start to become very pale, thin and partially yellow.
The only thing left that I could think of is temperature. It get in the upper 80s here in summer. But everyone else seem to be fine with it. Even my masdevallia is doing fine. The grow on the same shelf only masdy gets more light now. Miltoniopsis and Coelogyne is up there as well and are looking great. None of the sources I consulted mentioned Gongora Armeniaca being cool grower or even somewhat intolerant of higher temperatures, especially because there is plenty of humidity, air and moisture. It does, however seem to be doing better in fall, when it get cooler, but not that much better. The grows still does not mature well and often become very pale and thin.
I am going to move it to a cooler location for now, but not sure if it will help. Please share your thoughts and experiences on this. Thanks!
I would have tried everything you did...but here is something to consider..
Have you treated the plant with any kind of fungicide? Could it be that some latent infection pops up and "damps off" the new growths? I'd try treating the plant with Physan a couple of times to see if that helps.
Hi Clint,
Thanks! Honestly I haven’t even thought about an infection. There were no signs of rot or any squishy or black areas. It would just turn very pale green-yellow (like it got faded under sun, which is not the case) and sit that way for a very long time without maturing. I will treat it with Physan. Any more thoughts?