Multiple Issues With Orchid Collection

[jts]

Hello all.

My name is Matt. I'm new to the forums and new to the hobby of orchid care.

I'm having several different issues with my collection that I would really appreciate some insight on.

First, my set up. I live in Massachusetts. My plants are located in a humidity tray, maintained at around 70% humidity. They are located directly in front of a SW facing window, in a room that receives additional light from two south-facing windows. I provide them with air flow via a Vornado fan pointed at the opposite corner of the room. They are fertilized once monthly with a 20-20-20 and are watered once weekly (when the substrate is completely dried out)

Until very recently, the plants had been located against the far wall, approx 10' away from any window. They were moved two weeks ago to the new location because the foliage was staying very dark green and I failed to have anything resembling a bloom. I made the assumption that there was insufficient light.

My first plant was a Brsdm. Everglades Hunter 'Swamp Buggy'. This plant which bloomed wonderfully exactly once, then just started to grow exponentially. It rapidly grew into a small shrub (~3' in diamater). I recently split this plant in half. Both splits appear to doing alright, but there are a couple minor problems. First, there are small whitish spots on some of the leaves (these are not raised from the leaf at all). Second, occasionally the middle of the leaf splits, and when this happens sometimes a black spot is formed around the edges of the split.

I have one noid cattleya whose leaves are rapidly turning completely black (though they are still firm and robust to the touch). I have another noid cattleya that seems to be in perfect health.

I have two noid phalaenopsis that are completely failing to thrive, when purchased they had wet feet and significant root rot. I performed surgery and left those roots that seemed healthy, and the roots seem to be doing alright, but the leaves of both of these are limp, wrinkled, and squishy.

Finally, I have a noid that I have no idea what the heck it could possibly be that is currently flowering and appears to be in the prime of health. I *think* it might be something similar to the swamp buggy by the flower. Go figure. If anyone can tell me what it is that would be great.

I know that I might have several issues going on here, but I hope that you folks could lend some insight. I've tried to attach some pictures so you can see the issues that I described. I'm pretty attached to these plants and I want to make them happy.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

White spots, might be scabs from the healing from a mild bacterial infection.

The black blotches might be bacterial. It's very likely that it's bacterial. Remove the leaves with sterilized cutters and burn the cut leaves immediately. When I say burn, I mean char them, don't leave them hanging around until they turn to ash. I'm very serious.

You also need to treat with bactericides (that's right, plural not singular bactericides). Bacteria are incredibly resistant to multiple kinds of disinfectants.

Bacterial infections are very stubborn and very difficult to get rid of.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

You can use a 10% bleach solution on the leaves only.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Forgot to mention...

I consider winning the battle with bacteria, only when all the lesions have calloused over and no spreading of the rot is occurring for several days in a row for up to a week or two (at your discretion if treatment should end after 1 or 2 wks after all lesions have stopped growing and have calloused over). Then and only then, should treatment stop.



No laziness is allowed! No slacking off is acceptable!

If you're tired, that means you're doing a great job, so keep it up until the problem ends.

If not, then another generation of super bugs just got created.

Evolution is very Real and microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses are masters of it due to their exponential growth rates in such relatively short time spans.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Tea tree oil works too.

[trdyl]

I think you are correct that they were not getting enough light. Not sure about your oncidium alliance hybrids but I do grow Cattleyas and Phalaenopsis. If you have any east or northeast facing windows that would be great for the Phals. The south and southwest are good for the Cattleyas. Particuarlly the South will need some shading not to fry the leaves. If you are not groing under lights the need to be on the windowsils or literally right by the windows to get enough natural light.

[Connie Star]

Welcome to OB! I'm a newbie to orchid growing, too, I just post a lot. You will learn a lot here.
I live in Western MA. I have floor to ceiling south facing windows and I supplement with T5 lights and I seem to be doing okay. There are a lot of posts on lighting here, and T5s seem to be the way to go. Do you belong to the Mass Orchid Society? There will be people there who can help, too.

[silken]

The 2nd and 3rd pictures look like sunburn. I brought a large healthy catt home from our orchid society's sale table this past Sunday. It was from one of our top growers and was beautiful looking. However the leaves were darker green than I am used to which to me indicate less light. However it is in spike. I left it on a ledge in a west facing Low E window for all of two days in an effort to isolate it from my other plants for a while. Thank goodness I noticed it when I did because it was already turning black like your 3rd photo from sunburn on the most exposed leaf. It sounds like you did just move them to more light. They may need to slowly adapt if the difference is quite extreme.