Holes in Phalaenopsis leaves

[monivik]

I've been in the process of a long overdue repotting of my orchids.

I found that this Phalaenopsis though has some holes in it's leaves, particularly underneath. The holes don't go completely through, but it's just weird. I looked for "bugs", but I couldn't find any. It's also my only Phalaenopsis with this type of holes, fortunately the others don't have it. Does anyone have any idea what it could be?

Another thing, I've had this one for some years and the stem (where the old leaves used to be attached to) has grown long and brown as you can see on the picture. I haven't placed it under the new bark medium yet, as it was looking black and I was thinking "rotting" maybe? So at the moment I thought let me let it dry out first. My question is, would you cut that brown part? I'd try to cut it without hurting the roots. Can I cut part of it... I mean it's dead material as far as I know and I could cover it under the medium...but what would you suggest? It's kind of unsightly leaving it on top of the medium.

[aliceinwl]

If the tissue is dead it’s fine to cut. The holes can happen if some insect or other critter takes a small nibble. If it happened while the leaf was growing the scar can be larger than the original injury.