dendrobium cucumerinum white film - Orchid Board

KristenReuel · #1 08-31-2014, 02:57 PM

Hello!

I have a dendrobium cucumerinum that I purchased a few weeks ago. It has been doing well, growing new roots, but I've noticed in the past couple of days that some of the bulbs/leaves (not sure what they are. The "pickle" growths) are turning whitish. It was not there when I first got it. At first I thought it was a white film, but I tried removing some with my fingernail and nothing came off. None of the growths are becoming squishy, but I'm perplexed and worried about the white areas. Has anyone experienced this before?

It sits hanging from another orchid in a south window, next to my dendrobium loddigesii, which is doing just fine. It gets soaked once a day in distilled water, sometimes rainwater. Fertilized once a week.

The "whiteness" is not a heavy opaque, it's more transparent and filmy. Also, none of my other orchids seem to have it.

WhiteRabbit · #2 08-31-2014, 08:47 PM

Ate you able to post pix?

KristenReuel · #3 08-31-2014, 10:12 PM

Couldn't get any better pictures than this at night time. Hopefully they'll help though.

dendrobium cucumerinum white film-img_0988-jpg

dendrobium cucumerinum white film-img_0990-jpg

dendrobium cucumerinum white film-img_0991-jpg

dendro king · #4 08-31-2014, 10:20 PM

The first picture makes me think it's a burn, but the other two make me question that... Good luck

DeaC · #5 08-31-2014, 10:42 PM

I'm looking at info from a set of great books I bought. States that the plant is not suited to pot culture BUT also let it dry before watering again. And those warty growths are the leaves. Hope this helps!

BTW...why are you using distilled water?

KristenReuel · #6 08-31-2014, 10:55 PM

dendro king- the plant is getting a lot more sun that it received where I got it from, but I've never seen white burns. Is that common?

DeaC- Thank you for the info! I also heard that it likes to dry out between waterings, so that is what I've let it do. Sometimes I spray a little water on the roots in the late afternoon if it's been a particularly hot day. I use distilled water and rain water because my tapwater is extremely hard

dendro king · #7 08-31-2014, 11:24 PM

The only reason I could see for white burns is that the sun coming through the window magnifies, and hence focused on that small spot, but again I'm not 100% sure it's a burn! just at a guess.

KristenReuel · #8 09-01-2014, 12:21 PM

Update: some of the leaves are withering away. Others are turning a brownish colour and coming off D: