Dendrobium in trouble, please help

[cjposada]

Hi everyone:

This is our first attempt in this wonderful site.

We got bitten by the orchid culture virus around 4 months ago. We have had some success and a lot of help has come through you guys but signs of trouble are over our heads.

We recently acquired an old dendrobium plant. It shows a beautiful very dark purple inflorescence but it is old. Fortunately enough the youngest cane is producing apparently a new keiki or something purple.

Here is the problem: The leafs are developing what seems to be a round darker green kind of watery spot and in the center of it some kind of darker brownish spot. There is only one leaf, the freshest that seem to be clear but the illness seems to be progressing very fast.

What should we do?
Please help.

[WhiteRabbit]

[awest]

Unfortunately I have no good news. If it is indeed a virus infected plant, there is no way to fix it. You can get a test kit to confirm the virus (or send it to a lab), but it seems very likely a virus is the cause. If it definitely has a virus then you have two options.

A) keep the plant separate from all the non-infected plants, be very careful about sterilizing any tools that you use and grow the plant with its condition.

B) throw the plant away. Sterilize anything you used on it.

It looks like it has really great flowers so it's up to you. If you have had trouble with the virus spreading to other plants, I would recommend removing all the infected plants.

[Island Girl]

Originally Posted by cjposada

....We got bitten by the orchid culture virus around 4 months ago....

Do u mean that u think the orchid has a virus, or you do? (in the being addicted to orchid-collecting way?)

Cuz, if you do, then that's ok! (@ least to us it is! )
But, if the orchid does, then I suggest doing what the previous poster suggested, sorry there's nothing to do about orchid viruses

And, can you take a pic of the whole plant? That would help ppl assist u better I think. I would also suggest cutting off the affected leaf, and dusting the cut edge with cinnamon (the kind u would use for cooking). I also can't tell (sorry if I'm just being slow! ) if you mean that the Den. has only one leaf total, or if only one leaf is affected? I think u mentioned it has a new growth? As long as that is unaffected, it should be ok, but pics would help us to tell u whether u need to use something like Phyton 27 (a great bactericide/fungicide... But will not work on a virus, if that's what you have), or if it is fine, and just needs proper care from here on...

And last, but not least! WELCOME to the site! We are glad to have you join! And please come back, so we can help you! There are lots of wonderful, helpful people on this site, and they r just waiting to help!

[cjposada]

Well... we got the virus! Unfortunately the den apparently does too. When we detected it it had 4 leafs, 3 of them with the blisters and one unaffected. I did cut the 3 and did the cinnamon thing, the fourth leaf did not get the blisters but is drying up. I will take some pictures tomorrow to post them.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

We think we are here to stay.