New Phalaenopsis Compot- Need Help!! Leaves Fell Off of One Plant

[Island Girl]

I got this Phal. Memoria Margarete Buchholz (gigantea x corningiana compot on tuesday (maybe monday?) and (as of Tuesday) they had some spots on their leaves, (one of the spots looked like it had "dried" up into a light brown color, one looked like it had started to dry up, while the other two spots looked like they were "wet" looking and had clear looking outer margins around the darker brown clearish wet looking centers that area-wise were close to being the same size) out of the four seedlings, plant #1 was free of any spots; #2 had one "dried" spot, w/out any clearish looking outer margins; #3 had one "wet" spot that looked wetter before, but was drying up (Tues) and had the "clear" outer margins; #4 had the worst "wet" spot, with no clear-looking outer margins, and another drying "wet" spot with no clear-looking outer margins... i hope that makes sense...

As of last night, all the spots seem to have dried, with no more clear looking margins, and the one plant that had NO spots whatsoever- has now as of tonite lost all of it's leaves!! i dont know what to do! if i sprayit with Physan 20, will that kill it?! If i do spray it, how much Physan to how much water?

They have been kept outside, close to the house on my screened-in porch, with temps not exceeding 92F, and the humidity has not dropped below 80% i've been checking regularly... i put them in a big jar last night, so they would get more humidity... not sure if that was right, but the spots dried up, so i figured it would be okay until i could post this thread... and they have been kept moist, NOT wet at all! i have gotton NO water in the crown, if i did, i dried it up-very gently with a paper towel. they are in a 3 and a half inch wide (and 3 inch tall) pot of loosely packed sphag. and they have styrofoam peanuts in the lower third of the pot, the roots look nice and green, and happy... they r just kinda floating around in the top inch of the pot. i have put a little bit of SuperThrive in their water- a couple drops in about a liter of water... I can't figure out what i did wrong!

Can anyone help me please? I am worried that they are gonna die!

the first 7 pics, are from the first night i had them, the rest are from last night, and tonight...

EDIT: the pic of the porch, is the screened porch they are on, and the compot has been on the skinny metal table against the wall, with the yellow skirt around the bottom (of the table) and the porch faces SE, but NO direct sun hits the table they are on

[Island Girl]

Here are more pics from tonight: where the leaves on the one (what i thought of as the healthy seedling- with no spots on its leaves) have all fallen off... my finger shows where the crown is... where the leaves used to be
*EDIT: the pic after that (one with my finger in it) is the same pic without my finger, it shows the leaf-less crown... and the last photo in the post above is the leaves that fell off yesterday, and there is a pic in there (dont remember which one it is... sorry) is of the crown with the one leaf left that fell off yesterday*

and some more pics of the leaves with close-ups of the spots from last night as well...

the last pic is of the compot in the jar

Sorry if there's too much info, i am just really worried!

[rangiku]

Mary Linn, the best thing to do is put it in a container like you have it, but also put other seedlings in with it. Make sure to mist it lightly in the morning (instead of watering it) to help with root growth.

[james mickelso]

They look way too wet. Just my opinion but the wet areas just look like rotting leaves from the media being too wet.

[OzPhal]

Hey Island Girl, to me it looks like a bacterial infection - similar to crown rot and caused by, most likely, an infection getting in to nicks or scratches on the leaf surface... I'd give them a good hit with the Physan 20 as per this info from Rays website:

ORCHID - ROT (such as Erwinia)*Remove compost from plant, then soak entire plant 10 minutes or more. Cut away all rot with treated tool. Soak plant wounds again for 10 minutes. Repot in PHYSAN 20 soaked compost.
USE: 1 Tablespoon PHYSAN 20 per gallon of water.

Although I wouldn't worry about pulling them out of the media etc - just give them a good spray with the 1:20 mix - it can't hurt... if, after spraying a few times, you notice that in a few days it keep spreading then you might need to take the infected areas off but i wouldn't be too drastic at the moment...

With the jar i'd hold off on putting any others in there until you have this infection under control - i would put some stones or sphagnum moss in there though and put some water in with with lid open to keep some humidity in there - then elevate the pot off that so that no more moisture soaks in to the sphagnum moss - also, water by allowing water to wick up through the bottom rather than through the top... just some thoughts - others might have additional/alternative suggestions

Reference: Physan

[Vina]

If it spreades so fast, it seems like beacterial infection that isn't easy to fight. Doing some sanitation and watch.
I agree with OzPhal, watc carefully and don't put them together with other plants.

[Island Girl]

Ok thank y'all so much for your quick responses!!! They came to me with the spots, so I am pretty sure it wasn't me... And when I get new plants, I keep them separate anyways, but I was still not sure, b/c these are the first seedlings I've ever had, so... Anyways... I will def. try the physan 20 in the morning!

And I haven't watered them with anything other than a spray bottle, but maybe the nursery did... Cuz when I ordered there was one compot left, and the website said that there were supposed to be 7-8 seedlings in the compot, but there were only four in there when I got it

[Vina]

I wouldn't be so sure about spray watering. When there are signs of leave rot, better watering is allowing water to wick up.

[lambelkip]

I would reccomend asking for a refund. No reputable vendor would knowingly sell plants like that. It's hard to tell what condition plants are going to be in when you order from a website, but if you ordered 7-8 plants and only got 4 rotting plants, they definitely didn't hold up their end of the bargain.
If you do plan on keeping them, OzPhal has posted some good suggestions about how to care for them.

[Vina]

Originally Posted by lambelkip

I would reccomend asking for a refund. ............... if you ordered 7-8 plants and only got 4 rotting plants, they definitely didn't hold up their end of the bargain.

100% agree!