When do you give up when it's sick?

[Blondie]

I've been all over this board wondering about this den that I got exactly one week and three days ago. It looked PERFECT when I bought it. 30 buds. Healthy. Beautiful!

I brought it home and it had mites and immediately the leaf turned yellow, spotty, and fell off. Then it spread like wildfire up the cane. Now it's onto the next cane. I pulled it out and repotted it, washed it down with 70% rubbing alcohol, and gave it some cinnamon. Nothing is helping. All buds blasted.

Now I found a spot on a healthy phal that was growing a spike. I really don't want this to spread everywhere. I don't know what to do. I live in a small town and didn't have luck finding a good fungicide, but I'm not even sure that is needed or would help. I am THIS close to pitching it in the garbage so it doesn't kill my other orchids. Dead orchid walking. Thoughts?

[Tindomul]

Try oil and soap. Oil to keep the mites from breathing and soap to get the oil to stick. Repeat as necessary. Separate the plant, far away from the rest of your collection. If you are really really worried throw it out. Make sure it is mite damage. I couldn't see any from the pic, only yellow leaves with green spots. Mites usually leave sunken surfaces on the leaf that are not too deep and very wide spread. Looks like someone scraped the plant without leaving scars. Then the leaves turn yellow. Its tricky with these Dends. SOmetimes they just go dormant where they shed their leaves.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Your Dendrobium may still be salvageable. And your Phal is not affected by your Dendrobium.

I bet you bought your Dendrobium from The Home Depot or your local supermarket. The employees they hire to take care of them don't neccessarily know how to grow orchids. Remember I told you how orchids have a delayed reaction to bad treatment or improper growing conditions. Don't forget this piece of advice. It goes a long way to begin to understand them.

When you bought it, it looked "great", which buds and flowers. Think about it. After your local supermarket or Home Depot bought it from a professional nursery, it most likely was about a month or so old. During the period of time the store you bought it from, their employees probably was just told to water it whenever they have the chance. Sometimes they don't get to. Sometimes two or more different employees will water the plants during the course of a week. Come on, they don't know better, they work for a pay check and do what they're told. They don't have time to baby thier orchids. Heck, have you been to Trader Joe's? They put on air conditioning to keep their produce fresh! If the Dendrobium hybrid has Dendrobium lineale or its relatives in it's bloodline, the plant is most likely intermediate to warm growing, but employees from Trader Joe's have gotta put it in their market shelves to make a sale. So by the time the orchids have been through all that nonsense, the plants are slowly deteriorating.

By the time joe-shmoe or jane-doe buys it, the plant may have green leaves, succulent pseudobulbs, and huge flower spikes with buds and blooms up top, but the roots were probably ruined. Plants are nothing without their roots. It may live, it may not.

As your Phal, some people including me have had success potting Phals depending on where they live. But I'll tell you one thing, I had success growing Phals potted before I moved to a different city in the same county only about 10 or 15 miles away from the city I now live in. Funny thing is, where I live now, I only grow Phals successfully when they're all mounted. Ten or fifteen miles isn't far away for us humans, but the change in environment made a huge impact.

For the Phal try mounting it if you've failed multiple times potting them. Same goes for the Dendrobium.

I also mentioned Dendrobiums like to be pot bound. I often mess up certain orchids in my collection because of overpotting. Keep this into consideration too.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I forgot...

Quit treating the symptom you're just making things worse!

You've done enough. Let nature take it's course.

[caseydoll]

Just in case Blondie doesn't reply right away, she purchased the den at an orchid show. So you would think that it would of been treated fairly well before she got it. I guess you never really know though.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Oh yeah, and Tindomul could be right about the Dendrobium going deciduous. Many Dendrobiums do this.

But I think your hybrid most likely has Dendrobium johannis or Den. mirbelianum (or some other Dendrobium in section Spatulata). Which are more evergreen.

The following are links to a few examples of Dendrobiums in the Spatulata section:

http://www.orchidspecies.com/denjohannis.htm
http://www.orchidspecies.com/orphotd...asianthera.jpg
http://www.orchidspecies.com/orphotd...roblineale.jpg
http://www.orchidspecies.com/denmirbilianum.htm

If your Dendrobium has Dendrobium nobile in its blood line then it is for sure deciduous.

Here is Dendrobium nobile:

http://www.orchidspecies.com/dendrobnobile.htm

Most Dendrobiums are out of dormancy already at this time of the year.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Oh...orchid show huh??? Wow. Curve ball. I guess you never know then.

Who was the grower?

I often check for healthy roots when I make a purchase. Goes a long way. There's obviously still room to goof even after being careful with selection.

[Blondie]

Yes, I got this from an orchid show. It's D Thongchai Gold 'Toon.' I bought if from an orchid show by the Omaha Orchid Society. The tag does say it's from Kalapana Tropicals though, which is in Hawaii. It appears to have had quite a journey.

I suspected it was affecting the phal, which has been fine for over a year, because the phal suddenly developed two spots that ate through the plant overnight, leaving holes. Could that be from a drop of water?

I've never had a den and I've heard they are hard. I agree now. And, I admit, I've become quite obsessed with what is wrong with this thing. It has 3 canes. The smallest/newest one is almost all dead now, though you can't really tell from the photo because its leaves are in the way. The second cane has 3 leaves with spots. I really don't want to throw it away, I just want to make sure it isn't something I can't control that will hurt the other babies in my family.

I should try to find it a smaller pot again. But if I repot, will I be upsetting it more?? I like the suggestion to just kind of leave it alone for a while. But. Can't. Stop. Staring. Should I cut off the baby cane that is almost all the way dead now? I must stop my obsession. I'm getting mad at myself.

Meep.

[Blondie]

PS: The mites are completely gone. No mites. No bugs. Just spots. Oh, and the spots eventually turn solid black, which isn't captured in the photos.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Remove baby cane, or anything mushy with sterilized cutters.

I would repot or mount (the better choice) the plant anyways. The plant will adjust if it's strong enough.

If you like Dendrobiums try easier to grow Dens like Dendrobium kingianum, Dendrobium unicum, Dendrobium peguanum (cool mini, grow mounted and humid), Dendrobium canaliculatum, Dendrobium virgineum, or Dendrobium victoria-reginae. I've either had them or currently grow them and they're all cake. Hybrids seem to be a pain, probably because of the section Spatulata Dens.