Pogostemon helferi turning white

[ceg4048]

Sorry, I meant to address the question to TDI. (duh). 😳

Cheers,

 

[aaronnorth]

Hey Aaron,
Are you sure this is the color of the leaf and not a white coating?

Cheers,

:?: This is planters question or am i missing something 😳

I'm soo confused now.

aww god, i mean TDI to! nearl wrot planter again

 

[Ed Seeley]

Looking at the health of the other plants around it I'd be tempted to say it looks like either a somatic mutation or a viral or other disease that's effecting that plant. I'd keep my eye on it and if it doesn't spread to the others then it's probably a somatic mutation. As Egmel said though I doubt the variegation will be stable or strong enough to survive on its own, but you never know...

 

[TDI-line]

Thanks guys.

I'll try and propegate this in a few weeks, maybe call it Pogostemon Helferi Ukaps var. 😀

 

[JamesM]

How's it looking now mate? 😀

 

[JamesM]

Any updates?

 

[TDI-line]

Hi James,

i've had a complete tank rip out, new ADA susbstrate, so the white version disapperared somewhere, but i have another new white one growing on Sumatra wood. It seems to be another rogue one, with just one plantlet being white.

Pics will follow.

Dan.

 

[planter]

On the subject of Pogostemon colour, Ive read that under the right conditions (nutrients and light) P. Helferi will exhibit purple/pink edges to the leaves, anyone seen it happen? is this a colour variant? I saw a picture of it in an AGA booklet, looked really nice!

 

[Luis Batista]

Digging a 6 years old topic 🙂

anyone get a solution for the pogostemon helferi white leaves?
i have 2 plants like this...

 

[Mick.Dk]

It's not a deficiency, nor a sickness - it's a "sport". Just a branch of the plant, getting white. A lot of plants does this, but Pogostemon helferii does this quite often - we see them (too) often at Tropica, usually discarding them. You can't grow them on, since they allmost allways fall back to green in new growth very fast.
- so......if you don't like the white, pinch it off and the plant will allmost certainly grow new, green shoots!!
Personally I like it, both aestetically.....and as the "joke of nature", it actually is.

 

[Luis Batista]

It's not a deficiency, nor a sickness - it's a "sport". Just a branch of the plant, getting white. A lot of plants does this, but Pogostemon helferii does this quite often - we see them (too) often at Tropica, usually discarding them. You can't grow them on, since they allmost allways fall back to green in new growth very fast.
- so......if you don't like the white, pinch it off and the plant will allmost certainly grow new, green shoots!!
Personally I like it, both aestetically.....and as the "joke of nature", it actually is.

I love it!
Albino Pogostemon helferii
Mine is Tropica, indeed 🙂
Hope it continues healty...

Thanks Mick

 

[Mick.Dk]

The white part needs the green part of plant, to feed it, since the white part can't do photosynthesis (no chlorophyll). This is also why you can't trim off the white part and make it grow on it's own.

 

[Zeus.]

I have been dosing my tank which has hard water which has a pH of about 8.5pH Fe DTPA and Fe EDDHA to combat Fe deficiency with a DIY trace mix with some success. Dosing the Fe EDDHA manually till the water has a slight pink tinge. However due to a holiday I did a Trace mix with the Fe DTPA and Fe EDDHA in and left it for the auto doser to take care of ferts for 3 weeks no WC Light and CO2 as normal. Thought I had the Fe covered! when I got back from Hols I did a little vid of it, at about 2.10mins in you can see the Pogostemon helferii with white leaves



I put it down to the bright light at the time then @dw1305 made a comment about Fe deficiency, which got me think the Pogostemon helferii is telling me something. So started dosing extra Fe EDDHA on Micro fert day and three days later the new growth was green again


Was the white growth due to no WC or build up of ferts/toxins etc or Fe deficiency dunno OFC 🙄 But me thinks its due to Fe

 

[Mick.Dk]

This is still a "phenomena" running in the Pogostemon helferi traded comercially. They all originates from tissue cultured plants and this tendency of variegated "sports" obviosly run in the line(s) of material used in the laboratories. They show up regularly in emerse produced pots and in the 1-2-Grow! cups.......and I can assure you, there is no lack of nutritions in the production of those. ☺ .