Virus Testing

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Toadwally

Yep. Seemingly flawless plants tesring positive, and other plants withs suspicious symptoms test negatively repeatedly. I'm testing only for the two main viruses.

Sounds about right! I'm tossing mine that test positive.

Originally Posted by Bayard

Yes, after seeing color break in a Cattleya intermedia it tested positive for one of the viruses. I started doing some more testing and found some of my treasured plants tested positive as well. All got trashed.

Ugh, that must have been really frustrating! I'm just getting started on my virus testing journey and I hope I don't lose too many plants.

Originally Posted by Roberta

Same here. I generally don't test unless there is something suspicious about a plant - failure to thrive, concerning patterns on leaves, color break on flowers (especially on Catts) I have not found a lot of virus problems - growing outside with lots of air circulation around plants and few bug problems helps. But there are some... Of course the classic is Ctt. Porcia 'Cannizaro' ... plant is vigorous, no color break on flowers, but this cultivar has been known to be virused for years. (The original FCC was virused, and it has manifested itself in the mericlones taken from that.) I grow it in an area well away from the rest of my collection. And, along with producing copious blooms in the fall, is very handy for testing my test kits. I use the Rega kits from Taiwan, which don't need refrigeration and have an 18-month shelf life (Agdia is 12 months, and because of the way they are packaged, that's pretty accurate) . But I don't use them all that fast, so it's good to know if a past-expiration strip is still good. There's the test line for sure. But beyond that, just to be sure, I test a sample of the plant now and then. And I have found that those Rega Agitest test strips are good even 2-3 years past expiration. (Yup, plant is still virused...) The difference is that the individual strips are in sealed packages - moisture is the enemy of the tests, and the Agdia strips are packaged with multiple strips in a little tube. So once open, there is air exposure that can't be avoided.

I got the tests from Taiwan as well. I wish they were cheaper!

Originally Posted by katsucats

Except for several (out of laziness), I've tested every single plant that comes into the house, and I've gotten in my opinion an unacceptable rate of virused plants from vendors everyone else think are A+. The vast majority of virused plants have no symptoms, at least for a while. Some suspect plants are surprisingly virus free. If I only tested ugly plants, I would have missed most of the virused ones.

I've actually gotten tired of buying test strips and tossing plants that I'm now only buying flasks and plants from select vendors that I haven't gotten viruses from. In my experience, that's a handful out of dozens. I hate to be like chicken little sounding the alarm. I've seen members in this forum buy plants from the same batch (even mericloned ones) and vendor that I tested positive from, showing off how healthy their plants looked, and I couldn't do anything but cringe. It's gotten a bit stressful, so my solution is that I simply stop buying plants from the majority of vendors. Not even exaggerating. I'm afraid of going to orchid shows from the PTSD of seeing those test strips and the fact that I know most people don't test.

Yikes! I hope my favorite vendors aren't on that list!