Cattleya black leaf

[farley101]

Attaching pic, one leaf on my cattleya has turned black. Looks like a newer growth that this is on. It's my huge Pot. Golden Dancer from Carmela's.
Doesn't look like it has quite made it to the pseudobulb so I could probably trim this without much issue. I've not seen anything like this before, the rest of the leaves are fine.

[Roberta]

Definitely trim it. Looks fungal or bacterial - hopefully you can stop it before it does get into the pseudobulb.

[farley101]

Just ran outside and did the snip, looks like I got it just in time!

Thanks Roberta!

[Roberta]

You might want to dab a little hydrogen peroxide on the cut, to zap any bits of the infection that might still be on the surface.

[SouthPark]

Maybe snip a little bit of the pseudobulb too ----- in case anything propagated into or onto it.

Is air-flow ok in the growing area?

Maybe a copper spray could be used - just for something to try.

[Roberta]

Looks quite localized, but just keep an eye on it. I've seen this now and then, usually the leaf just falls off. Cutting it, of course, is safer. As long as it looks clean below the cut, I'd consider it unnecessary to take healthy tissue. But if there's sign of spreading, you'd then want to be more aggressive.

[farley101]

I will for sure keep an eye on it, now that I've got them outside the conditions should be pretty good for airflow and temperature (at least during the day 😆 ).
I don't currently own any troubleshooting chemicals, recommendations on what at the minimum I should have on hand "just in case"? Thanks!

[Roberta]

Living in a non-tropical area, I really don't have a lot of problem with rot, so don't have any fungicides in my arsenal at all except for Physan, which I don't think actually does much for plants, good for the greenhouse floor and the birdbath as an algicide. Otherwise, I just use cinnamon when I have to cut something away. Peroxide can help too... just keep it away from roots. People in tropical areas are more likely to need systemic fungicides, I have fortunately never felt a need for them.

[farley101]

Sounds like I probably don't need much in my less than tropical conditions as well

Update on this, I took a closer look and it seems the black had moved into the pseudobulb as well. Cut it off about an inch from the bottom where I could see it was clean. The cross section showed no black but I'll still keep an eye on it. Back indoors for a few days until the wound dries up. One of the eyes on this one is swelling, hopefully it will still make it.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by farley101

One of the eyes on this one is swelling, hopefully it will still make it.

Odds are good. Here's hoping!