Phal disease?

[lefelit]

Hi

I have a problem with all my phal in the last few years. They produce flowering stems but soon the flower bud dries up and the stem dies. It happens to all of my plants. Does anybody can shed some light to what cause this? I stopped spraying water to the leaves in the last year or so because I was worried that this is a fungal attack

[rbarata]

It seems to be lack of water.
Tell us your conditions (max/min temp, humidity, watering frequency and how do you water).

[Ray]

There are a number of possibilities, ranging from insufficient water and/or humidity, insect damage (the damage to the leaves reminds me of thrips), or there is a nearby source of ethylene (dirty or out-of-tune gas flame or ripening fruit).

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

The leaf damage looks like thrips, as Ray mentioned. I think that's likely the cause of the flower bud issues. They are often tiny insects that cause the damage long before you notice it.

I have read of some people dealing with this by spraying an aerosol insecticide on the newly emerging flower spikes weekly, beginning when they are first visible.

[lefelit]

Thank you for all the replies

I water the orchids every 10days by submerging the roots to a water bucket for 15-20min, drain them off before I put them on the pebble tray on my spare bedroom. The temperature ranges from 18-25 Celsius with humidity at 50%. I never heard of thrips. I ll try to find an insecticide avialable in UK to treat them

Thank you

[rbarata]

I never had to deal with thrips. Some more info about them.

[tmoney]

howdy! so, i just gotta chime in and say that if it were me i wouldn't just go get an insecticide and start spraying away. i also agree that it is possible you had some insect damage to the leaf, and thus it is also possible that the spikes are getting chewed. however, i would go slow and try to actually identify some insects before using some commercial chemical product on all your plants.

do you have a cat or something? cause honestly that seems just as plausible given the evidence. maybe they like chewing the sweet growing tips. also, the majority of the leaves and plant parts look fairly decent.

by all means get some spray and be prepared for the inevitable bug finding, but probly not worth it to just spray all crazy right away. at least, thats my take.

perhaps separate one or two, if possible, and try something different for a year and see if that makes any difference. and watch everyday for pest invasion

edit to add, that one plant looks pretty bad, and probly woulda been gone long ago if it was in our house! unless its from your gramma or something, just let it go! me theory on insects is that, like a fire, you can slowly see which plants are the start of an invasion as they are hit the hardest and it spreads out from there. for us, almost no plant is worth keeping if its harboring tons of eggs in the media

[Mountaineer370]

Looking at the photos, I was reminded of another thread just recently here on the OB. I found it, and it seems by the responses that thrips were suspected in that case, too.

Are these insect bites or sun burns ?