Can you tell which one has cymMV?

[Dalachin]

The first pic is oncidium Sharry Baby. Very vigorous, it’s at least quadrupled in size since I got it a year ago. Leaves are almost flawless, if you look close just a bit of black spotting on some older leaves, but by all reports they are susceptible to leaf spotting in humid conditions.

The second is Banfieldiera Mystic Maze. The old growth is wrinkled, lots of black and rust colored imperfections esp on older leaves.

And the answer is, according to Agdia home testing…

Number 1.

Also interesting for anyone testing their collection… the first positive was part of a batch test, then when the batch was positive, I tested individually to determine the positive individual. This was a “batch” of only two, so the economy of that method was obliterated when the batch was positive… but I am happy to see that it is possible to catch a positive in this method with the Agdia kits.

I regularly do batches of up to 5 plants, and I don’t know for sure if this is effective, but I don’t see why not as long as there is a large enough presence of the virused tissue.

So I will probably keep my Sharry Baby through the summer when I can keep her outside away from my other orchids… still hoping to experience her legendary blooms! Then I’ll probably give her away to an orchid society member who has more space or less plants.

[estación seca]

I want your view.

[Roberta]

This totally supports the "test" done by one of our society members, Kay Klausing, who has done a lot of work investigating orchid virus (protocols and transmission). He put together a series of photos, and presented them to a large number of people with considerable expertise - judges and very experienced growers. Flowers and leaves were shown. The results for trying to identify virus infection visually was no better than chance - they would have done as well flipping a coin to determine "yes or no". You cannot determine, with any certainty, the presence or absence of virus without testing. There are lots of reasons other than virus for a plant's failure to thrive and plenty of plants that are thriving and are nevertheless infected (and capable of infecting other plants).