Damage on Phalaenopsis leafs - what could it be and how to cure it?

[cnarciso]

If it is erwinia then I would go for something copper based. You can get copper sulfate at most hardware stores and it will take care of both bacteria and fungi. Whenever I get a spot I usually spray with a 0.24% solution with a couple drops of dish soap added as a surfactant. Seems to work for me. Just be careful not to spray too often as too much copper is toxic. My vote is still on thrips though, especially since you said you saw small black insect moving on the leaves and I have seen thrips cause that type of damage in my own collection; although, looking at the picture more closely, it's not quite as translucent as I would expect for thrips. Still, spraying with a good copper-based fungicide is always a safe way to hedge your bets. Without examining the plant up close and personal it is hard to say for sure exactly what the cause is.

[LuizaG]

Hi

Ok, I got Hydrogen Peroxide 6% from a chemist. I used equal parts Hydrogen Peroxide and water to get it to 3% concentration and soaked 2 cotton pads and let them sit on the 2 places where the damage was and also poured a bit into the crevices of the plant. I left it there 15 - 20 min and then I whiped all leafs on both sides with the same solution.

Is that all I need to to? Should I reaply another time maybe? How will I know if it worked?

[LuizaG]

Hi again

The damade is sperading, not as fast as you would expect from Erwinia. Also it is not smelly like I read that Erwinia is.

I treated with Hydrogen peroxide 3% and 6% in 2 seperate ocasions and alchool in one ocasion and it did not seem to help. I reduced humidity, placed in a stronger (not very trong to burn it) light, reduced temperature. I looked in shops and there is NOTHING out there for disease, only for fungus, no copper based sprays. The neem oil I smeared on the leafs should have helped if it was a bug problem.

I already cut 2 of the small botom yellow leafs - one of them has a similar damade - and getting ready to pull the knife for the big leaf on top. Does anybody have any more ideas before I CUT ?

Pictures:

[LuizaG]

Here are the pictures:
Picasa Web Albums - ChristiLuiza - Share

[LuizaG]

Hope these pictures finally come up:

[Eyebabe]

This is pseudomonas.
Just lost two of my phals last week to it.
Quite a challenge.
Spreads quickly and will kill a plant in 2-3 days if not eliminated.
Phyton 27 is the chemical of choice.
Your best bet (and my preferred method) is to cut off the leaf as far into healthy tissue as possible with a sterile blade.
Good luck!

Side note: Pseudomonas auruginosa is an aerobic bacteria which loves warm wet low airflow conditions. Standing water especially.
It is a gram negative rod with a polar-flagella.
An opportunistic pathogen noted to be highly resistant to most antibiotics.
This bacteria can infect humans and is thus difficult to treat when it does.

[LuizaG]

Hi Eyebabe

It has been about a weak and a half since I started talking here about this problem and since then the plant should have already been dead so it does not spread as fast as 2 - 3 days.

There is no Phyton 27 here in uk garden centres or other stores, you can only get treatment for fungus and that's it. I'll cut off the leaf and cover the cut part with cinnamon. If it dyes.. it dyes...

[LuizaG]

Not only that I has to cut off 3 of it's leafs but today due to a strong wind it fell off the windowsill and the end of the spike broke together with 2 flowers and one just opening bud. On top of that, the middle leaf from the side where it has 3 leafs left it got floppier and floppier - not sure why.
How many more orchids do I have to kill or almost kill to get it right ??

[RosieC]

Oh what a shame that you broke the spike
We've all done it though. Only the other day one of mine got knocked on the floor and the flower spike broke and one of the leaves got badly crushed.

Hopefully cutting the leaf and using the cinnomon will stop the spread of the pseudomonas. I've never had anything like that and don't know what you can get to treat it here in the UK either. I would have done the same as you to try and stop the spread.

[LuizaG]

Hi Rosie

Yes, it's such a shame. It was a new orchid and already looks like it's lost an arm and an eye in somekind of war.

As it still has some good (at least for now) leafs I was thinking , before the last flower dies, to cut the spike down a bit to let it flower again. It might not work in which case I'll have to cut it all off later.

On the other hand, the other phal I have, the one that's been siting in the bathroom it's growing it's new leaf reather than roots.

The leaf is about one inch taller now than in this picture. But the other winckled leafs really get in my way when I try to water it. If I try to lift them the plant comes out as it is not held properly by the only one root. They get in my way when I try to place the pot into a glass of water too. And when I manage that, the water lifts the bark and the plant thereoff. I had to take it out of the pot now to rearange it as it was not sitting properly anymore.

Are those leafs really doing anything to the plant since they look like they are almost dead? Can I cut them off? Would it not be better for the plant to direct all it's energy towards the new leaf and roots reather than keeping those leafs alive too?