Phalaenopsis orchids with pitted, blistered and spotted leaves?

[stripyorchids]

Hi everyone, I am new to orchid growing so I have no experience with pests, deficiencies or infections of any sort. Therefore I wanted to ask for help identifying what is wrong with my orchids.

There are four affected by strange blemishes, one has blisters on the new growth which appeared quite recently, another two were bought a week or two ago and looked flawless but have developed strange pitting on the leaves in the short time I have had them and the fourth has one lower leaf with small, mushy looking yellowish brown spots and the two newest leaves have what looks a bit like bite marks on them.

Phalaenopsis problems - Album on Imgur

Anyone know what this is, what caused it and what I can do to get rid of it? 4 of my 9 phals are affected by something strange that developed recently under my care and the 3 that aren't are among my most recent purchases so I am beginning to think I'm incapable of keeping anything alive

[aliceinwl]

To me it looks like a combination of mechanical damage and sun burn. Are those possibilities? One of my Phals hanging outside has similar damage (scrapes and pits) because birds have been using it as a landing pad. The roughened surfaces look like what I’ve seen in response to brief direct sun exposure. Damage like what you’re seeing can take a bit of time to manifest (it may not be noticeable until it scars over) so there’s also a possibility it occurred before you brought them home.

[stripyorchids]

Thanks for the response, my plants are indoors and two of the ones in question (the two with blemishes on the new growth) I've had for about 3 months and the marks developed recently for no apparent reason so I am not sure about mechanical damage and it doesn't look like something the sun would do. Out of the other two, the one with the rough looking streak across the leaf did make me think of sun damage, the other one has yellowish pitting which didn't look like sun damage to me but then I googled some more images of sunburn and found some that look similar so that's feasible.

The phals are facing a south western window but they're not on the windowsill, they're on a bookshelf a few feet away from the window. I live in England in a city so on the rare occasions when the sun does shine, it is not very strong nor are they exposed for long, but to be fair we recently had a heatwave and my new purchases caught the tail end of it, it got as bit hot in my room (which happens to be an attic room to make matters worse!) So I suppose sunburn could explain the two new ones but I am still worried about the other two with the blisters and strange marks on the new growth, I really can't think of anything mechanical that would have caused that I spent too long googling what could be wrong with my plants and after reading about too many devastating diseases I am worried for my babies

[estación seca]

Hi Stripy, I think the small light marks are from scrapes and bumps, not bugs. The band of a different color and consistency looks like sunburn. If a plant has never been exposed to direct sun, even a few minutes of sun when it's hot can cause trouble.

Phals make purplish pigment when they are in strong light.