fusarium=death

[Clawhammer]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

Yes, I have been through it so I understand the distress that you feel. I did really great with the orchids for many years before the Calcium deficiency 'Black Plague' (around 2005/2006?) but after my own string of orchid tragedies, I just grow some mini-Cattleyas and a few favorites... currently, a total of around thirty-five orchids. I find some orchids are really worth growing so I will probably always have those but never the large collection that I once had.

I have other tropical plants that I find very rewarding so I have been focusing on those more lately. Orchids are nice but they do not produce delicious fruit and they are not nearly as wonderful as Jasmine sambac.

I just bought 3 sambacs! (Belle of India, Maid of Orleans, Grand Duke).

[Roberta]

I have seen "purple rings" when dividing high-anthocyanin (red/purple) plants that were perfectly healthy. And fusarium is very unlikely in my dry climate. So the purple-ring thing is not likely to be an indicator of anything. That was a Miss Orchid Girl video made some years ago. I think that she has learned better in recent years but the videos are still around. (Stuff on the Web tends to stick around forever)

[Leafmite]

Originally Posted by Clawhammer

I just bought 3 sambacs! (Belle of India, Maid of Orleans, Grand Duke).

You are going to really enjoy them!

---------- Post added at 10:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:40 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Roberta

I have seen "purple rings" when dividing high-anthocyanin (red/purple) plants that were perfectly healthy. And fusarium is very unlikely in my dry climate. So the purple-ring thing is not likely to be an indicator of anything. That was a Miss Orchid Girl video made some years ago. I think that she has learned better in recent years but the videos are still around. (Stuff on the Web tends to stick around forever)

She seems to indicate that something went through her orchids and did a mass eradication.... I have heard of fusarium doing that to other collections in the past. It can be very discouraging when it happens. A good systemic fungicide like Clearys 3336F Fungicide is the only thing that can stop it. I know that I nearly gave up orchids after I lost so many to Calcium deficiency (some fungus just went right through them).

[3rdMaestro]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

I am so sorry to hear what you have experienced. I lost most of my orchid collection many years ago due to Calcium deficiency (the 'black plague'), more when growing orchids under lights for the first time

Wait, what's this about growing under lights and calcium deficiency? This is new to me

[Ray]

Originally Posted by 3rdMaestro

Wait, what's this about growing under lights and calcium deficiency? This is new to me

There is no correlation, unless “growing under lights” means that the plants are now getting sufficient light, but we’re not before then.

Calcium must be supplied regularly to newly growing tissue. Plants in an environment that permits them to grow more need more calcium.

[Leafmite]

Originally Posted by 3rdMaestro

Wait, what's this about growing under lights and calcium deficiency? This is new to me

No link there except both were extinction events in my orchid collecting. From pictures I have found, I seem to have begun growing orchids around 1993. All went well for many years and then I broke down my pond and started using rain water and an orchid fertilizer instead of the pond water. I really have no idea when this was, exactly...would have to look through the pictures to find when the barrel pond appears. A couple of months later, the effects of Calcium deficiency hit, the new growths succumbing to some bacterial or fungus issue that began in the new growths and spread to the older growths.

Some years later, after all had once more been going very well, I needed to grow under lights and I probably put the lights too close to the plants or did not have enough humidity and I lost a bunch then, too. No obvious drying or anything...they just declined. Perhaps they were just too warm.

Maybe eighteen months to a year ago, I bought a few new plants from a vendor I had trusted and had an outbreak of Bush snails in the terrarium where I was growing my collection of miniatures. They completely consumed the pleuros and nearly consumed some of the others. The survivors were rootless.

So...I understand the frustration of the OP. I seem to always learn from experience.

[mvmgems]

Speaking about fusarium, I’ve had this phal that’s been sickly since I got it two months ago. Looked like root rot from the dense sphagnum, so I repotted it in bark/moss. It’s only declined since with very wrinkly, but not leathery, leaves. Checked the roots today and all but a half inch was dead. Upon cutting found two purple rings, one thick on a freshly dead root, and a faint one on a more dried out root. No trace of purple on the leaves otherwise, though the flowers were pink-purple. I trashed it.

Would you attribute this to fusarium?

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by mvmgems

Speaking about fusarium, I’ve had this phal that’s been sickly since I got it two months ago. Looked like root rot from the dense sphagnum, so I repotted it in bark/moss. It’s only declined since with very wrinkly, but not leathery, leaves. Checked the roots today and all but a half inch was dead. Upon cutting found two purple rings, one thick on a freshly dead root, and a faint one on a more dried out root. No trace of purple on the leaves otherwise, though the flowers were pink-purple. I trashed it.

Would you attribute this to fusarium?

Not enough information. What were your temperatures? Humidity? How were you watering? That looks like a struggling Phal whose root zone was too dry.

[Roberta]

Fusarium mostly occurs in tropical areas. In northern California, I doubt it very much. Root rot from bad sphagnum? Very likely. The wrinkly leaves are indicative of the plant not taking up water - which is what happens when the roots are dead. (Underwatering can do that too, but here, I think it was the bad roots making it impossible for the plant to get water, even if the medium was wet. ) Looking at the stubs of roots, I doubt very much whether it was salvageable, at any rate. If there WAS a viable root, cutting it removed that option, however. But if it was in poor condition when you got it, chances are that it was on its way out from the beginning, from poor culture long before you got it. Time for a new, healthy plant to give you pleasure and a good chance for success.

[mvmgems]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Not enough information. What were your temperatures? Humidity? How were you watering? That looks like a struggling Phal whose root zone was too dry.

Humidity ranged from 31-50%, daily temperatures 65-82F. It was in a 3" slotted pot with a mix of medium bark, perlite, clay balls, and sphagnum. I watered by soaking ~10-15min once or twice a week, and used the bamboo skewer + pot lightness to water once the skewer was barely damp.

Originally Posted by Roberta

Fusarium mostly occurs in tropical areas. In northern California, I doubt it very much. Root rot from bad sphagnum? Very likely. The wrinkly leaves are indicative of the plant not taking up water - which is what happens when the roots are dead. (Underwatering can do that too, but here, I think it was the bad roots making it impossible for the plant to get water, even if the medium was wet. ) Looking at the stubs of roots, I doubt very much whether it was salvageable, at any rate. If there WAS a viable root, cutting it removed that option, however. But if it was in poor condition when you got it, chances are that it was on its way out from the beginning, from poor culture long before you got it. Time for a new, healthy plant to give you pleasure and a good chance for success.

Wise words! There are so many orchids I'd like to tend, and only so much windowsill. I shall chalk it up to a learning experience.

Though as for fusarium occurrence, I'm not sure a low endemic rate in California necessarily rules it out? I only had this plant a few months and purchased from a grocery store who could have imported them from a tropical nursery (Hawaii or Taiwan). Given the short period of time I've had it, Occam's Razor would suggest it could have contracted an infection from the nursery and been asymptomatic until the multiple stresses involved in getting it to my home.