It's always the expensive ones who rot!

[fishmommy]

I am having my very first orchid illness and of course it's this obscenely expensive paph I bought this summer!

I have a couple other paphs with no problems. I use R/O water, keep them in the shade, etc.

When I bought this one it had a couple of small black irregular patches on a leaf that were sort of sunken.
Over the past few months they multiplied slowly.
Suddenly last week, two leaves turned yellow, then black, and limp.

I bought Physan 20 and am currently soaking the plant in a 1tbs/gal solution. I cut off the two dying leaves but left one that looks good except for a few spots.
When I depotted and rinsed the roots prior to soaking, I found a weird gelatinous blob - clear - clinging to a root and disposed of it after almost barfing it was so gross.

Anyway, am I doing the right thing? I plan to repot in physan soaked bark. Do you think this is going to cure my plant? What the heck was the jelly thing? It was definitely not a rotten root!

Why do the expensive ones do this

[dounoharm]

wow....sounds horrendous! i think you did right soaking it in physan, i would have done that sooner when i first noticed the spots tho....maybe with clean media and the physan bath you can save it....i would spray the entire collection with the physan also....and repeat in a week.....gl

[RJSquirrel]

aye Good luck. I cant imagine what it is that caused the troubles originally but I do recall some problems you had with a paph some time back. Let me guess the Paph Chiu Hua Dancer ?...

sI havent lost any paphs other than a joyce hasegawa. Crown rot, took the whole plant overnight and then it fell apart. No fixing that one. Wasnt me that crown rotted it .I just didnt know it was rotten when I bought it.

Im just really at a loss as to what could cause this slow death of your plant...Mine die fast. Can you let us see the plant?

you have my curiosity inflamed and I like to look at these things so I can know anyway for future reference..

Sometimes when a plant gets me down like this plant has you down. I just put it somewhere I cant see it until Im ready to trash it.

"Out of sight and into the trash Im feeling good just less some cash"

[Daethen]

Unless more than one of us have had troubles with the Dancer, you have us confused. I had trouble with my Chiu Hua Dancer. The new one he sent me is doing fine. It sat and sulked for several months and finally decided to put out a new leaf. So I am feeling better about it now.

I am not sure what the jelly glob was on your root, but would love to find out so that I know what to do if I ever see one.

[fishmommy]

Originally Posted by RJSquirrel

aye Good luck. I cant imagine what it is that caused the troubles originally but I do recall some problems you had with a paph some time back. Let me guess the Paph Chiu Hua Dancer ?...

Nope, wasn't me!

[Daethen]

Fishmommy, what type of paph are you having trouble with?

[fishmommy]

It's a grex of "Prince Edward of York" and "James Bacon"
It's a multifloral.

I successfully keep a Ho Chi Minh and a Raisin Pie right next to it so I assume conditions are ok, thought this one is a bit different - I'm going to keep it drier from now on because the roots looked ok but not great when I depotted it.

[Eyebabe]

I don't know what this could be either as I really have no experience with Paphs other than a small one I got recently at our orchid society meeting (my "intro" to the species).

I like the idea of the Physan but you might also treat with a copper fungicide as well. Between those two things, you should pretty much be covered.

[RJSquirrel]

It's a grex of "Prince Edward of York" and "James Bacon"
It's a multifloral.

the large multi florals like sanderianums need less light than many other multiflorals but good amounts of bright diffused light all the same..the godefroyae x Conco-bellatulum in it calls for less light, but still around 1500 fc. both do well in east windows. I keep my large multi-florals in the east window for full sun 4 to 5 hours...they get watered twice a day and live in a moss ball surrounded by granite chips. the granite chips wick water away from the moss then give some back when they need it without leaving the roots too wet or dry. both plants have lots of limestone in their heritage

let it dry out some if its too wet and repot it with fresh mix if you havent..fresh mix helps lots of things.

as for the slime ball...hmmmmm


more light, less fertilizer, and more fresh water

[fishmommy]

I can do that