Vanda Mimi Palmer with yellowish streaks on leaves

[Mimimimipalmer]

Hello all

I got a vanda/papilionanda mimi palmer 3 months ago in August. So far it seems to be doing very well as it grows quite quickly and puts out many new root tips. It has never bloomed. However, i noted that the new leaves (top 5 leaves) have yellow (or lighter shade of green) spots that seem to coalesce into linear stripes distributed along the leaf axis. These spots are not present on the lower leaves that grew at the nursery. I figured it could be a cultural issue but cannot pinpoint what exactly. I also considered thrips (?) but i cannot see any of them.

I grow the vanda in a basket with large pieces of charcoal. This was the setup used by the nursery and i did not change it. I soak it in a pail of tap water almost every night for 6 to 12 hours. I use MSU fertilizer (1/6 of the spoon per gallon) almost every day. Tap water here has an average TDS of 145ppm. The pH after adding fertilizer is 6-7. The temperature is 26 to 30 deg celsius (79-86 F). Humidity is 60% to 100%. Sun exposure is lacking with only 1-2 hours of direct sun from 10am to 12pm, then the orchid is shaded for the rest of the day. None of my other orchids show pest damage... or at least to my untrained eye.

Would appreciate if anyone has any idea what the spotting is due to! Thank you!

[TomThumb]

it looks like it's normal leaf variegation to me but i'm not familiar with this cross. Some plants have variegation in their younger leaves that fade out as the leaves grow.

I have a vanda mimi palmer x ascda and the leaves are a plain green. However i have a different cross where the leaves don't look like either parent and at first i was worried it was a disease since the leaves were curly! I looked up pictures of other crosses between these two types and one person showed similar curly leaves so I'll just assume it's a fluke of genetics.

Honestly the leaves look healthy to me. There's no pitting and the leaves are plump and strong. Someone else here might know better but it looks like natural coloration to me.

EDIT: I just looked up what a papilonanda is and it's actually a (neofinetia (now vanda) x papilonanthe (now vanda)) hybrid. I actually think neos are different from vandas and while i'm not familiar with papilonanthe, i do have neos and have researched them a bunch. Some of these types are known for having variegated leaves on new growths only. Conversely some develop variegation on older leaves only and etc. So these markings could very likely just be very unique variegation on the younger leaves. Sometime variegation can show up with higher or lower light as well and if your culture is different from the nursery, the variegation would only show up with the change.

[Mimimimipalmer]

Thank you TomThumb! Very happy to know that it can be normal colour variegation.

[MattWoelfsen]

Very nice plant. Water or mist regularly. Ensure it gets warm, fresh air and bright light.