Dendrobium victoriae-reginae leaves turning red.

[BrassavolaStars]

Hello all,

I do not know what is wrong with this Dendrobium. All the leaves mottled and turned red. Since this photo was taken, most of the leaves are now a deep crimson red (similar to maple leaves in fall). Could this be a virus as it started out rather patchy? It appears mostly on the top side of the leaves whereas the underside of the leaves is more yellow and brown.

Most of the leaves have begun to fall off now even on the newest canes that hadn’t finished developing.

[estación seca]

What are your temperatures day/night? Humidity? How much light is it getting? This is supposed to be a cool or cool/intermediate grower.

Any signs of spider mites?

[Shadeflower]

hey brassavola, how you doing?
Haven't seen you on the forum in a while. Have you been neglectig this poor one?
It's certainly something I haven't seen before.

It's meant to be semi-deciduous so maybe it is like autumn leaves turning red, looks a bit worrying to me though

[BrassavolaStars]

Originally Posted by estación seca

What are your temperatures day/night? Humidity? How much light is it getting? This is supposed to be a cool or cool/intermediate grower.

Any signs of spider mites?

I apologize for not responding. The notification emails have been going to my spam folder.

I have had issues with mites in the past. The humidity bounces around between 40 and 80%. It gets decently high light but it is also subjected to very warm temperatures above 95f. Maybe it is getting overheated? Most of the leaves have dropped off now unfortunately. These canes were still developing so new leaves are still coming out as well. Maybe I will take it in to an air conditioned room.

---------- Post added at 03:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:29 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

hey brassavola, how you doing?
Haven't seen you on the forum in a while. Have you been neglectig this poor one?
It's certainly something I haven't seen before.

It's meant to be semi-deciduous so maybe it is like autumn leaves turning red, looks a bit worrying to me though

I would say it is probably fair to say that many of my plants are being a bit neglected right now. My fan needs to go out for service so they’ve had to suffer with somewhat more stagnant air and high temperatures.

Most of my plants are outside for the summer but this one was still in the greenhouse. I am having a bit of a virus issue lately as I am having a few plants test positive.

I hope I bought them that way as I haven’t ever shared non-sterilize tools between plants (or for that matter even used tools at all on the plants that are positive).

[Shadeflower]

I was only joking tbh.
My thoughts are always to inspects the roots when something goes wrong with the leaves.
All I've seen is how a few people have struggled with this one which put me off wanting one.

Pests can unfortunately transfer viruses so worth checking this one if you have the capability to do so.

[Roberta]

The color change looks like dying leaves... so the next question is, "why"? I can't say what's happening under your conditions, but here are the conditions that work for me, maybe there's a nugget in there where a difference with your situation may stand out. I grow it mounted, but in a big hunk of sphagnum, rather shady. So, damp but drying out during the day. (I water daily, it's pretty dry by afternoon) Potted, aim for the same result not necessarily the same procedure. They also are somewhat picky about water quality. Mine is doing much better with RO than with tap water, but I'm in southern California, tap water is pretty high in calcium carbonate. I use MSU Cal/Mag on it but not often. Someone who grows in your area would be better able to suggest whether it's deficient in something like calcium... I can't advise on that, where I live I have never seen a sign of calcium deficiency but have plenty naturally. Everybody doesn't have that.