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Magnesium Deficiency in Orchids: Signs, Symptoms, & Secrets
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Oct 3, 2024
Magnesium Deficiency in Orchids is very common due to the fact that most orchid fertilizers do not include magnesium. When you fertilize with just Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium (NPK), your orchid gets deprived of Magnesium. In this video, I explain several symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency and how to treat it. I usually point each video to it's specific website article, but this is one of the few videos that doesn't accompany an outline from Orchideria.com. I'm working on that and will have an article in the future. On Orchideria.com, you can find more in-depth guides and all the access to our information, tutorials, guides, and much more... all for free! Happy Cultivating! ______________________ HASHTAGS: #orchidcare #orchid #Orchideria #AmandaMatthews _______________________ SOCIAL MEDIA: Website: https://orchideria.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orchideria.orchid.terrariums Instagram (Orchideria): https://www.instagram.com/orchideria.orchid.terrariums/ Instagram (Amanda Matthews - personal): https://www.instagram.com/amanda_june_matthews/
View Video Transcript
0:00
This gal right here has extreme magnesium deficiency and today I'm going to show you how to identify that
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and especially how to treat it because in this series no orchid gets left behind and what the heck
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happened to my orchard or I don't know the title of this series but we're going to nurse this little
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girl back to life. So in this video you're going to learn about magnesium deficiency and how you can
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treat that to save your orchid. Hi, I'm Amanda Matthews and thank you for watching this video at Orchidaria
0:39
If your orchid has been dropping leaves like crazy, I mean I'm up to 10 now
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and these are this little shopping spree I did in the middle of winter to my construction store
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Got five orchids, got tons of problems. Okay, from a former video you are
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already know how to identify if a nutrient is mobile and immobile. And that's extremely important
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when it comes to magnesium. Because magnesium is a mobile nutrient inside your orchid, the orchid can
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take it from where it has a higher quantity and transport it to where it's needed inside the orchid
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So if it has an overall deficiency inside the orchid, the older leaves are going to already have a higher
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deposit of that. The younger leaves are not. So the signs and symptoms are going to be in other places
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So in a magnesium deficiency, the older leaves are going to start to turn yellow. And that's what we
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call chlorosis, because chlorosis is actually the chlorophyll that's dying inside your orchid leaf
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So the symptoms in a magnesium deficiency in a plant, in any plant, actually, it doesn't even have to be
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orchids is going to show from the bottom up. You're going to have the bottom leaves turning yellow
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And this is a hard sign to tell sometimes because orchid leaves on the bottom naturally turn yellow
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So there has to be something else to identify that the orchid leaf is turning yellow because it's old
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or the orchid leaf is turning yellow because it has a magnesium deficiency
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To identify this, we have to understand what the function of magnesium is inside an orchid
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The function is to produce chlorophyll. So if you have a magnesium deficiency, what's going to happen
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Your chlorophyll is going to die. Now the chlorophyll is what's give it this beautiful green color here
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And if you don't have it, it turns yellow. And some orchids already have a deeper, purply reddish color to them
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So if they don't turn yellow, you'll see a reddening of the leaf
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So that's also magnesium deficiency. See, you can see it on the stem of the orchid here
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It's turning red. So that purplish red will be in the stem
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Now if you put your orchid in too high of a light it will also give these purply color spots to it But you notice that this purple is not spotted It not freckled It like an underlining hinged tone to it It all purple
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Another thing that magnesium does is it activates enzymes. So it's going to really put those enzymes to
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work and make the orchid healthy. So if it's lacking magnesium, this orchid is going to be overall sickly
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and just it's going to turn limp on you. And without enzymes, the orchids can't be strong and firm
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They're going to start to cup and curl. Now look at this poor orchid
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It's been without nutrients, several nutrients. This is not only magnesium deficiency, by the way
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This poor thing went through a lot. So talk about midlife crisis
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Sorry. So what's going to happen is those cells aren't going to be firm
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anything that comes in contact with this and twist this poor little leaf this way, it's going to stay that way
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It doesn't have the resistance or the resilience to back back, to bounce back out of this bad situation as encountered
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So the leaves are going to twist and curl. The very tips of the orchid leaves are also going to curl
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You notice these are curling back up. Another way to identify a magnesium deficiency is if the veins in the orchid, they're staying green
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The yellowing is more the intervainal part of the leaf. Unlike a sunburn, it won't be a distinct yellow like from here to here
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It's going to pull, the orchids trying to pull this magnesium out of places because it is a mobile nutrient
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So it's going to pull it from the middle cells and it's going to pull it from the middle cells and it's going to pull it from
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the vein at the end last. So it will be a molded patch colored where here's yellow, here's green, here's yellow, here's green
5:06
And you'll see these veins. I know it's hard to see in the video, but the veins are still nice and green, but the
5:13
other patches around, I'm scared to turn this and break it off
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The patches around it are not. Another way to identify magnesium deficiency is that the other
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The yellowing will start in the center of the leaf and the outside of the leaf will be still green
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So it's the opposite of a halo effect. The halo effect, the yellow is on the outside
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and the green is in the middle. This one is yellow in the middle and green on the outer rim
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because it's pulling it from the center of the leaf, not the center of the vein, but the center of the leaf
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like here, the center of the leaf is yellowing and then it starts to yellowing
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yellow all the way to the tip and it starts yellowing. Now this is something else. This is the
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extreme reddening of the leaf which is hard to tell. But the yellow will start in the center
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and it will move up toward the end The edges will be the final part of the orchid that will die off For example here now this orchid leaf like this orchid leaf that just fell off
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you can see this also has bacterial brown spot in it, so ignore that
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You can see that the yellowing has started in the center and finally grew to the outside of the leaf
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which then the leaf has no more resistance and falls off. If this gets severe like this orchid has
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it will get what's called bacterial brown spot. As you can tell here, the underside of the leaf
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is much more clear. You can see the bacteria sets in. Why
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Because the magnesium is not there to give it a healthy, strong cell structure
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to fight off these infections. So the enzymes aren't being produced because remember magnesium will kick these enzymes forward
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It will give them the boost that they need. to really get these enzymes going. So the leaf is overall vulnerable to bacteria. So your final
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stages before the leaf falls off is these necrosis spots and there'll be little black spots that
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if not treated will actually grow on your organ and they spread extremely fast. You have to, if you see any
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black spots on your orchid, treat it with hydrogen peroxide, treat it with fizaan 20, treat it with cinnamon
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or treat it with something, I mean, don't just let it sit there because it will spread through the entire orchid
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And once it gets to the crown, it is extremely hard to treat
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As you can see in this little orchid right there, it has stem rot
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It's in the beginning phases. You can tell it's very yellow. I don't know if the video is picking that up
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But anyway, now, the most important part of this video. I need to get rid of this
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The most important part of this video is how do you treat magnesium deficiency
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Now, adding a normal fertilizer does not work because fertilizers only have nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, N.P.K
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You'll need to add something else, and the best thing for that is Epsom salt, because Epson salt is made of magnesium sulfate
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So if you want to know more about magnesium sulfate, go to this video up here, which is Epson salt
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And one thing a lot of people asked me in this in that video was, well, what are the proportions
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Because I never said it in the video. Well, that's going to be depending on, well, what's your
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potting media? What's your, what is your climate like? What is your watering schedule like
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How many parts per million does your water have? There's so many variables that I can't give
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a specific answer to that. But if I had to, I would say one teaspoon per gallon or one piece per
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for four liters and mix that up in the water water your orchid with that in about three weeks
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which would be three waterings you can return some of the green to your orchid now good healthy orchid that has lots of magnesium in it For example is this one right here You can tell the green color I mean this has this is actually
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in a high light. It shouldn't be, but it is. And I keep it there and it is so green
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but that's just because it has a lot of magnesium in it. Now, don't get carried away because
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you can get a toxic level of magnesium and then the other nutrients won't
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be absorbed because it builds up. Nutrients are like little kids in a playground. They're fighting
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for their toys and the strongest bully wins. So if you give a lot of magnesium, it's going to lock
10:06
out or block the other nutrients inside your orchid. It won't be absorbed. No matter how much you give
10:11
it, it will not be absorbed. Another way to do this is actually to hold the leaf up to the light
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you'll actually see the discoloration in depth of this orchid. So when you hold this orchid leaf up to the light, it's going to become translucent
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You'll see green pigments stronger and lighter, depending on where it is in your orchid
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The bacterial spots that form on it, they start out extremely tiny
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They're not as big as the bacterial brown spots that you'll see if you'd missed it wrong
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There'll be teeny tiny spots and like little, bursts of ink and they'll just be dotted around that leaf
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These patches on the orchid leaf are called modeling. So if you have like a green yellow, green yellow and it's asymmetrical
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that's a big sign that it's magnesium deficiency and it's on the older leaves
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It's on the newer leaves. It's not magnesium. It's probably calcium. But we'll get into those in other videos
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Another thing that you can do that I forgot to mention is you can do Epsom salt soaks
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Instead of just watering your orchid, you can soak your orchid for about 30 minutes in a solution of water with absent salt
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And this really gives it a kickstart in recovering from magnesium deficiency
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Because remember, any deficiency we're going to talk about in the next few weeks are not going to be curable in one application
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Fertilizer is not a Band-Aid type treatment like we put it on once and then it's going to be curable
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So it's going to take time. It's going to take patience. Orchids are slow growers
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While you are waiting to get your orchid back to life and nursing it back to life
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take a look at the website at orchidaria.com. Link in the description. And if you want to track the progress of your orchids
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there is a page called Orchid Journey. You can type it in. And it's my new book that is going to be released pretty soon, hopefully
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But let's get back to magnesium. If this video did provide you with any information that helps you in your orchid care
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because we are trying to save your orchid, please give it a thumbs up. If it did not, just tell me in the comments what needs to be better so I can make better videos
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This only helps you in the long run. Happy cultivating, and we are going to save your orchid in this series of
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what is wrong with my orchid. Happy cultivating
#Health