Possible Nelly Isler keikis. Poss scale/blisters affecting plant. Help me diagnose!

[astrid]

I was looking at my new Nelly Isler orchids (who are burregarea formerly, but now oncidopsis apparently, but seem to fit best in the oncidium alliance imo) recently and noticed a few things.

1- There are little dots all over the leaves of the plants. I thought these were scale and attempted to treat them as such (insecticidal/miticidal/fungicidal combo spray containing neem oil, along with rubbing them with alcohol), but I could not get them off for the life of me!

It was then suggested to me that they are not, in fact, scale insect, but blisters due to edema of my plant. I would be really relieved if they were not scale- what do you guys think?
There is an article on blistering if you google "St augustine orchid society orchid blistering" that was helpful for me, but I'm still not sure.

2- I noticed as I repotted them (for fear of bad store potting media and for fear of insect infestation) that some of the new growths were so loose that I could almost pull them off the plant. I thought, "How strange," and I've been thinking all day, and I think I may not have one but two keikis coming off these beautiful plants.

I would be ecstatic, but I wanted to know what you guys thought.

3- In the case of these being keikis, what ever do I do with them???

Here is a link to a video I made showing the plants:

[LovePhals]

The third picture does look kind of like scale. I just found scale on my Schefflera that summered outdoors. I was not happy! They came off pretty easy though, they are immobile when an adult.
The last pictures is a new growth not a keiki, it will grow new roots.

[astrid]

Well, the large new growth is not attached to a pseudobulb, which makes me wonder about it. All my other new shoots are firmly attached to the older pseudobulb. Thanks for the input

[paleofreak]

I cant help you with the spots, but I may be able to explain the "kekis."

There are two basic growth patterns in orchids. The first is monopodial. This means that a plant will grow from one growth center, effectively upwards until something prevents it from doing so, or other factors lead it to produce a basal keki. Think of a Phalaenopsis that will go years growing one leaf after the other. Phalaenopsis and Vandas are known for this growth pattern.

The second growth pattern is nearly universal to the rest of the orchids, and is called sympodial growth. in this scheme plants grow along a rhizome outwardly and produce a basal growth that matures and flowers then produces another basal growth that matures and flowers. This leads to an orchid that produces new pseudobulbs each year and grows a new growth, but old growths do not grow taller. This is the type of orchid you have.

To answer your keki questions, although it is he same type of growth as a keki no one calls it as such (and the term keki is usually applied to Dendrobiums and Phalaenopsis). It is a natural part of the orchids growth, and your plant should be producing these basal growths after each flowering. Don't remove them from the older growths, as the new growths will pull energy from the old pseudobulbs which will help it grow.

Occasionally through natural action, damage, or rot new growths can become separated from old growths. Once they're broken there's not really much you can do, so don't worry about it. Once the blooming is over you'll likely see a new growth coming from the old bulbs. Eventually you'll see the new growth mature and look like the old growth of the plant, and the growth cycle will repeat.

Tl;dr: Although they're like kekis no one calls them that. The new growth is good and part of the growth cycle, you should see them after each flowering. Don't separate them from the mother plant, don't worry about the part that is separated.

[astrid]

Hey there!

No, I know the monopodial and sympodial growth patterns, and I am familiar with how oncidium-type orchids grow. The broken off bigger part makes sense to me, but the extreme tininess of the littler "keiki" seems like it isn't a normal new growth. It's so weird! But hey, who knows what happens to orchids from commercial growers before they come to our hands. Hmm. What a mystery.

With your explanation, paleofreak, I am now somewhere on the fence between thinking the teeny tiny new growth is a keiki or not. But it would make sense for the much bigger growth to simply be broken off the older pseudobulb... if the other one was already fully matured. But it isn't! That's why I am so puzzled here. My collection is small, so I can't really say I have the experience to fully know what is going on.

The other thing that doesn't make sense here, though, is that the newest pseudobulb isn't even fully mature and is not even done flowering so it doesn't make sense for it to have such a large new growth yet, does it? If it came off a fully mature pseudobulb, that would make more sense, but this is weird. Weird weird.

I guess I'll just let my plants do what they want, anyway!
Thanks for your thorough reply, paleofreak!

[ula]

Hi Astrid,

congratulations, your "Nellies" look very healthy! Looking at your pics, the growths are just new pbs- I have this orchid too, and mine grows exactly like yours. About the leaf problem: unfortunately with the oncidium/oncidium intergenerics groups the spotted leafs happen a lot (ppbly fungal spots)- I have some too-I've read that they are almost impossible to erradicate and the only thing that helps to prevent them is to have good air circulation. I hope this helps.

[euplusia]

Besides your colourful nail decoration the points on the leave in pic 2 are most probably caused by insects (eventually Thrips).
However pic 3 is scale infection. Use a systemic insecticide and be aware that larvae might hide anywhere.