Wierd clear beads on phal leafs

[Gage]

It is probably from a sucking insect or mites. Virus don't cause things like that as far as I know, but unfortunately one may accept that most orchids grown in mass commercially are likely virused. There have been extensive discussions about this in other threads, maybe someone can post a link here.

[Tim P.]

i did double check if the sap beads were sticky and they were. I am thinking this plant is battling a touch of crown rot in one of the bottom leafs also. I unpotted it tonight and took off the spike and checked out the bottom leaf and roots closer. The roots are yellow but firm, some of them got punctured by the spike skewer. the base of the plant has some black spotting where the bottom leaf meets the base, also there is some black inbetween roots. I got a q tip and put some Hydrogen peroxide on the leaf blackness on the base. They are all getting a new home in the living room tonight. Even if cool tempatures to make spiking easier, it is not worth it to me to lose my orchid collection. Im pretty tied to some of them.

[NYCorchidman]

Paul shared a good information. It is not necessarilly the lower temperature that help phal initiate spikes.
It is the increase of day/night temperature difference. I wish I kept the source, but the material from a phal greenhouse keeper showed that 15-20F degree difference between day and night works the best.
In the home, as the fall and winter approaches, the night time temperature naturally drops a little (unless there is a excessive heating going on in the house) while the day time temperature doesn't drop off that much due to the heat provided by the sun ( assuming this is the south facing bay window).
So as far as phals are concerned, you really don't have to worry about dropping night temperature unless your house is kept very warm with a heater.
It's the increased difference of day and night temperature, not just a cold night that does the trick.
The black area could be harmless mold, which you can wipe off with damp tissue or alcohol swab. If it doesn't come off that way, then you need to worry about it.
Lower temeprature can bring in particular mold disease as well, so move your phals somewhere warmer if you can. They really don't appreciate that at all.

[Tim P.]

I did try to get the mold off and it is definitely not surface mold, but it isn't deep either. I think that water got in the leaf joint at one time and caused some damage. I put some hydrogen peroxide on it. I'm hoping for the best.

[Tim P.]

Update: the bottom leaf that was yellowing is now dead and taken off the plant. I wiped off the leaves and the sap came right back :/ getting a little worried. It is now in a 75 degree room for over half a month and is still angry at me. I hope it lives... ill spray it down with some insectiside just to make sure that it is not bugs, but i have inspected it from head to toe to no avail. At this point I wish it was bugs so that I could just stop thinking about it

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by NYCorchidman

Paul shared a good information. It is not necessarilly the lower temperature that help phal initiate spikes.
It is the increase of day/night temperature difference. I wish I kept the source, but the material from a phal greenhouse keeper showed that 15-20F degree difference between day and night works the best.
In the home, as the fall and winter approaches, the night time temperature naturally drops a little (unless there is a excessive heating going on in the house) while the day time temperature doesn't drop off that much due to the heat provided by the sun ( assuming this is the south facing bay window).
So as far as phals are concerned, you really don't have to worry about dropping night temperature unless your house is kept very warm with a heater.
It's the increased difference of day and night temperature, not just a cold night that does the trick.

I've read that it's not that either. Spike induction is triggered by an overall temperature drop of both day and night. Not cold nights, not high day/night difference. It doesn't even have to be a strong drop either, nor very cool. I had found some great papers on this topic, and also articles from the Orchid magazine when I got interested in this topic a few years ago. Have a look at "Growing the Best Phalaenopsis. Part 3: Temperature and Light Requirements, Height, Insect and Disease Control". There's some good info.

[JerseyGirlBecky]

Funny but I just had one with the little beads, like sap, but only on the bottom of the leaves on one of my Phals. It is in with the others. I have 9 of them, and all but one is blooming. I have them in an east window and keep it about 70 day and night. But, back to the one with the beads. It just did not look healthy, but I could find nothing on the leaves to indicate any kind of bugs. I thought it might have mites. So, I took it out of the pot and poured brown listerine full strength on it, roots and all. Rinsed really well. Then I sprayed it with the Bayer and put it on newspaper til it dried. I repotted in new bark and put it back with the others. The change is amazing. It looks much better now. None of the others is affected at all and I check them under the leaves every day, believe me. Oh, and it had very nice roots. Also, when you repot do not put them too deep in the bark. Makes it harder for the water to get between the leaves. I did this over a week ago.

[Rowangreen]

Not sure abut the circular marks, but to me it looks like there's a lot of water marks on those leaves. I have hard tap water and I get white deposits on leaves if they get wet with it. Have you been spraying them or letting water get on the leaves when watering? If so that could be the cause of some at least of those marks, and the rot.

[Oscarman]

At first it looked like water deposits, but after enlarging the pic I can see the clear spheres - weird. I have not seen that before.

If there are no bugs present - it doesn't look like a bug issue to me, I think it is a cultural issue. Lets get those phals in a warm environment that they like, flush the media out well with plain water and wash the leaves top and bottom with soft cloth.

Are you fertilizing, how much, how often? Is there something else in you water? Something that the plants are trying to expel from their system?

[NYCorchidman]

As long as you don't see or find any bugs of any kind causing this and your plant is fine otherwise, I don't think this is something to worry about.

Plants sometimes release some sap although I find it odd that those little clear beads are on the leaves.

I just went around and checked all my phals. Nothing on the leaves, front and back, but three of them have clear beads (sap) along the spikes.
They are mostly very very small, and a few are of decent size like ones I see on my oncidiums and dendrobiums. (which taste really good by the way!

and I don't have any bugs, at least nothing I can see with my naked eyes. I have pretty good eyes!