clearance orchids! "threadbare" spots on leaves, discoloration

[shaelyn]

scroll down for TL;DR.
so Kroger had some interesting orchids for mother's day that I intended to go back for...that I forgot all about until I saw a thread here on clearance orchids at Lowe's XD
so I checked my local Lowe's first this evening, no luck. I'm not sure mine really does discount orchids unless you ask. half their display seems to be half-wilted, bud-blasted or bloomless phals on a regular basis. half price isn't quite the discount I'm hoping for with those.
so I just ran back over to kroger...my heart sank as I saw several orchids with one bloom left each for $17. I scoured the place til a found a handful of bloomless NoIDs in terrible shape...for TWO DOLLARS EACH?! jackpot!

I came home with three. even if only one lives, one full-size phal for a $6 investment is good. if I end up having to destroy them, $6 for the adventure and learning process wasn't terrible either.

so on to that learning process...

TL;DR:
these phals were seriously in terrible shape. I was on the fence on bringing any home at all. I have them quarantined until I learn more about their condition...what I can see of their roots looks okay (through the clear pot, repotting will commence tomorrow), but their leaves...dear lord.

they all seem to have this condition where spots/streaks on the leaves look akin to a threadbare sock. one even has a hole straight through the leaf. some of them also have some strange discoloration.

pics:
overside http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...s/100_2857.jpg
underside http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...s/100_2858.jpg
discoloration http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...s/100_2861.jpg
hole overside http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...s/100_2859.jpg
hole underside http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...s/100_2860.jpg

hopefully it's nothing serious...let me know, please!

[Stray59]

Shaelyn:
There are so many reasons that a plant can show damage such as yours - lack of iron, insect damage, mishandling, etc. And some can be highly infected, but show no outward signs right away.
Some of the "etching" on the underside of the leaves looks like insect damage to me - it looks like it had thrips or similar insect activity at one time. And the mottling can be from being light-starved, as these have obviously been in the store for some time.
I would keep them isolated and, if you suspect an infection of some sort, your best bet is to purchase some test strips, follow directions TO THE LETTER and USE EXTREMELY STERILE CONDITIONS when testing (glove up, disinfect the work area, all your tools, etc). You can contaminate the tests and thus get false reading easily. Or, to really be confident with the results, you can send off to labs for testing.
Otherwise, you just have to doctor the plants, give them the best conditions you have and hope for the best. Always sterilize your tools when you make a cut, then again before you move on to cutting another plant.
There really is no way to definitively tell if a plant is virused just by outward signs. You can highly suspect one, but unless you have test results, it is difficult to say with any confidence that the plant has a particular virus. I recently found one of the first orc's I have purchased has ORVS virus and it is showing NO signs whatsoever, so it is best to test if possible. This can be cost prohibitive, but it really depends on how much you like a particular plant. Otherwise, use care and do your best to keep the plants from contaminating each other.
All my best!
Steve

[james mickelso]

I agree. But then again you can just enjoy growing them. If you have nice plants that may become viruses if these are virused which is uncertain at best, then isolate them for a month. Otherwise just grow them and enjoy the experience.

[shaelyn]

seriously thinking about getting the test strips. most of my orchids, I may not care as much, and I'm not out to sell them or anything...but there's a small handful that I'd seriously like to protect...like the one my mom gave me.

maybe I should stop buying the discounts and worry about just that small handful XD

thanks, guys.

[cattleya80]

All of my orchids were rescues and they each looked alot like yours. Orchids in the big box stores go through hell, and the ones that don't sell never look too pretty. I think your buys are fine and a little TLC will have them winning competitions. Best of luck.