Browning and blackening of leaves

[Ray]

Zoren, Physan definitely kills the microorganisms in Garden Solution, and it does leave a residue in the medium that can kill them a future application.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Zoren

Because I water all my plants communally, in the same water and fertilizer water. I see no problems with my other plants (they are flourishing beautifully).

Zoren ----- there is a possibility that the issue isn't related to the shared water. But I have heard of 1 case where a enthusiast hobby grower lost approximately 30 percent of his collection due to the spread of a pathogen in the shared water.

Do you have fungicides like mancozeb, thiomyl/cleary's 3336, etc?

[Zoren]

Thank you all for your great suggestions, it seems that I probably have a number of different things happening at once. I've decided that I will water my
infected/problem plants separately. South Park, I do not have any fungicides (I've had no need for them before). Ray, do you feel that I am killing the microbes in Garden Solution even though I don't use it often or allot of it. I use allot more Garden Solution more often by far. So can you give me other suggestions to help with my problem. I will be keeping a close eye on the plants I've already treated hoping to see improvement. I have to make a correction I only have 75 plants, looking for more. I'm trying to replace a few plants that I really liked in the Species Phalaenopsis family, I'm also looking for Encyclia, maybe some of the Board members can give me good Orichid nurseries to look into. Zoren........

[Arizona Jeanie]

I can just pass on some second-hand information from the experience of an acquaintance. After losing close to half of her extensive orchid collection to a mystery disease, she had soil and plant tissue tested at a laboratory. This gave her a definite diagnosis of Fusarium. Advice from the lab was to destroy infected plants. Topical fungicides (such as physan) are not effective. She has lost a lot of plants, is now working on intense treatment with systemic fungicides, alternating Clearys and Heritage. Infected plants will never be cured, but she has succeeded in stopping the spread and getting some healthy offsets.
I hope this is not what you are dealing with. If you really want to know, get in touch with a lab that does soil and plant tissue analysis. They will let you know what samples they need, and what it will cost. Many plant problems can have similar symptoms, it's really not possible to tell for sure from looking at it.
Please keep us posted, and good luck.

[Zoren]

Thank you Arizona Jeanie for the information, I will look into a Lab if the problem gets worse, right now I will try to treat the problem ones and hope that they are not like what your friend experienced. Zoren...

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Zoren

SouthPark, I do not have any fungicides (I've had no need for them before).

Thanks for letting me know Zoren. Know what you mean. I didn't have much need for fungicides etc too.

I do keep a bunch of different kinds of fungicides and other goodies --- just in case.

I have only about half the number of plants as you. I grow most of my plants in quincan gravel (local scoria rock pieces), and I use a 9 litre hand-held garden sprayer with hose/nozzle attachment ----- so that I just use the long 'wand' to get the nozzle around the sides of the pseudobulbs, and blast the water on (and around) the pseudobulbs/stems of the orchids. My pots are pretty good draining ones - so the combination of the scoria and good air circulation and good draining pots has worked really well.

But I'm thinking that if I had double the number of plants - it would take me a lot longer to water hehehehe. You certainly have a very nice sizeable collection!!!

[Ray]

One of the nice things about using Garden Solution is that it 1) predates pathogens, 2) inoculates the rhizosphere with antibiotics that prevent future outbreaks, all while 3) beefing up the health of the plants.

Once you start a regular regimen, no disinfectants should ever be used - or be necessary, for that matter.

[Zoren]

South Park, I will back off from buying fungicide for the moment. I didn't recognize quincan gravel or scoria rock, I looked it up saw it is Lava rock (that I know). Do you plant your Orchids out doors, do you have a house? I plant my plants in a 90 square foot Florida room (an inclosed indoor terrace). I live on the fourth floor of a Condominium, my Florida room faces 225 degress SW, I get the most Sun and Heat (the room has had temperatures of 110 degrees F) in the afternoon. I have put in a 14M-BTU Portable A/C, I run the A/C at night from 9pm to around 7am, so that my plants have a change in temperature. During the day I have to keep a eye on the temperature in the room (it's a little better in the winter, but, it's still Florida. I also put in a humidifier to keep the humidity up at night and low humidity days. I seem to be able to grow some of the more difficult types of Orchids (I only grow Orchids). I have Phrags, Maxilliarias, Species Paphs, Species Phals, Encyclias (some species), Bulbifilums, Psychopsis (Mariposa Peloric), a few in the Cattleya Alliance, Dendrochilum (species), Oncda, Oncidiums, Zygos (having problems), Bllra, Miltonia,Gongora, Myrmec,Dendrobiums and Ryncholaelia. I have one Hybrid Phal and no Vandas (I tried they won't grow in-doors). It is very strange that I haven't been able to grow Regular Phals and my species Phals grow like crazy (most are sequential) I have allot of sequential plants. I have a number of Cattleya's but, I had trouble with them blooming (I think I might have some Clones-If they don't bloom soon I will get rid of them and start all over again)((such is the life of an Orchid enthusiast)). I have tried growing Semi Hydroponically with little success (I do have a few left- I used to have about 90 or 100 plants I've lost allot). I grow now in Orchiata, Sphagnum moss, Hydroton and Charcoal (or a combination of all three). Enough about me, let me know what you are planting, what type of Orchids. Hope I didn't go over board with my Orchid Farm (ha!ha!). Looking foward to your next text. Zoren............

---------- Post added at 08:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:49 PM ----------

Ray, that is what is so confusing to me, Iv'e been doing the Kelp Max, K-lite and Garden Solution for about a year. Once a month, I think Iv'e only been out of routine a couple of times. I've never had a problem with fungus. The last time we communicated the discussion had to do with Algae in my SH plants, I found you are correct, the algae has helped in the growth of a few of my plants. The algae may look ugly but it is helping. You were also correct that not all Orchids will grow in a SH environment. Thanks again for all your help in the past, the present and hopefully the future. Zoren....

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Zoren

Do you plant your Orchids out doors, do you have a house?

Thanks for describing your growing conditions Zoren.

I grow my most of my orchids outdoors ..... well, it's semi-outdoors as can be seen in the photo taken an hour ago. The sunlight shines on the orchids directly for many hours of the day. I put some plants that can't handle the most intense light further in. Air movement is really quite good. Naturally breezy most of the time.

Most of the orchids are growing in the lava rock (scoria rock) - we call it locally as 'quincan gravel' (pronounced kwing-kun gravel).

My fredclarkeara/catasetum plants have lava rock surrounding their spaghnum balls around the roots. And my paphiopedilums are growing in quincan too -- like a paph. saint swithin 'jill' (in foreground), and two small paph. wossner black wings.

The fredclarkeara (fdk.) plants are currently undecided about whether to go into dormancy or not during the 'winter' here, which doesn't really get much below 15 degree C ..... occasionally could get down to 11 or 12 C ...but that's quite rare. So the fdk have most of the leaves fallen off ..... but having 1 or 2 green leaves that just remain like that --- while 1 plant is even sprouting new growth.

All my cattleya type plants, and vanda, and oncidium are growing in quincan too. One oncidium -- a twinkle, is almost about to flower - flower buds almost opening. A couple of catts are having buds developing in their sheaths at this time.

This photo is not showing my full collection. I have other orchids in other areas around the house.

There's my water sprayer with that watering stick in the foreground. I just use tap water for watering --- occasionally fertilising -- around 1 time per month, and using cal-mag 1 time per month. I'm sure that I could fertilise more ----- like 2 times per month. But once a month has been just fine here.

The catts can be watered every day here --- but I usually back off on the frequency to avoid algae build-up around the roots...... so this is probably where the 'allow to dry a bit' recommendation can be beneficial --- just to avoid some issues of algae growing on roots, then algae decaying or algae suffocating roots, then rotting, then leading to possible issues.

You're definitely a keen orchid grower too! And it sounds like you've generally had no issues for a long time until recently. How long roughly had you been using communal watering or shared water? Had you been doing that for many years?

About the catts blooming. A lot of them need enough light apparently ----- to get their leaves to be a lightish green colour. Lightish green is usually a good thing. If there's not enough light, the leaves often be dark green ----- which is often a kind of visual indicator that there's not enough light, and reduced chances of blooming.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Zoren

Ray, that is what is so confusing to me, Iv'e been doing the Kelp Max, K-lite and Garden Solution for about a year. Once a month, I think Iv'e only been out of routine a couple of times. I've never had a problem with fungus. The last time we communicated the discussion had to do with Algae in my SH plants, I found you are correct, the algae has helped in the growth of a few of my plants. The algae may look ugly but it is helping. You were also correct that not all Orchids will grow in a SH environment. Thanks again for all your help in the past, the present and hopefully the future. Zoren....

Whoa, Nellie! I have NEVER said that algae helps. Unless it gets so bad that it clogs up air flow, it doesn't really hurt anything, but it is usually a sign that you are overfeeding.

I have also stated - opposite of what you wrote - that any plant CAN be grown in S/H culture, but that does not mean that anyone can grow any plant that way, because of differences in other aspects of your cultural conditions.