Thank you very much to WhiteRabbit and The Mutant for your replies!
This is probably going to be a very drawn out answer, so I apologise in advance to anyone who dares read it, but I think it's worth mentioning (maybe):
Both Edema and e.g. fungal infections from water on the leaves require water to be present, yep? In the case of this orchid, I had not watered it in 6-7 days or misted the leaves. The only water that could have been present would have been from
misting other indoor plants. In the two days before the problem “began” the weather had been really hot and dry - so even if a few droplets of water had made their way to the phal, surely they would have evaporated quickly (or even run off from the near-vertical leaf)? Adding further to the confusion/mystery/horror, whilst watering my two other phals during this time period I ran water all over their leaves to refresh them, placed them on the same table and these were absolutely fine…
However, I think what actually caused this is a deeper underlying problem with this plant (hopefully not caused by me – I mean, you’d think if I didn’t kill my other two phals in 1yr+ , this one would survive 2months in my “care” ahaha…
)
To re-cap, originally, it had two flower spikes. Shortly after its unfortunate arrival, it went flying from a bad case of open-window-curtain and the spikes snapped. I cut them off cleanly and applied cinnamon. One of the spikes began to grow again and seemed happy, the second spike looked unchanged i.e. deep green, healthy etc…
HOWEVER (*cue foreboding music*) when I went to amputate the sick leaf sections yesterday, I accidentally brushed against the second spike, and to my absolute horror, the outer layer of its “skin” came away, revealing green, watery mushiness…The spike had been rotting (??) all the way to its base this whole time!! I think it’s understandable that I now feel paranoid about every other flower spike I’ve removed recently and whether I applied enough cinnamon.
Furthermore, whilst staring at the sick phal in a near panicked state (hahah) I noticed the following odd black hole…almost as if a leaf has been pulled out? (On the same side/directly above the rotten spike)
Do you think it’s possible this phal has previously suffered some sort of rot (which has returned?) Or that one spike became infected, because I didn’t apply enough cinnamon to the wound??!
At the end of the day, I am just curious what could have happened. I have removed all of the sick tissue that I could find, being short of fungicide (and with no physan20 in AUS) I have covered the entire phal in cinnamon (apart from the roots, which can = desiccation) and given it 24hrs to rest…It seems alright for now and there is probably nothing else I can do for it. If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them. Otherwise, let’s just wait and see and I’ll post on here whether it survives or not (for the future reference of anyone who Googles, “cover entire orchid in cinnamon”
)
Here’s hoping.
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Brown and clear spots or blisters on Phal leaves?!
) (we have very kind neighbours
)
The scenery is on par with New Zealand (identical?) and our natives orchids are stunning (by which I mean elusive
))
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