Requiem in Orchid's house - help needed

[kavanaru]

as I have mentioned in another thread, some of my plants have had a terrible attack of thrips during my holidays, which I am still trying to erradicate... Mainly they attacked my catasetinae (you can see the result on Pics 1, 2 & 3 - Pci 3 Cycnoches haagei, which I do not think I witll be able to save ). Some ofthem jumped to my "Cattleyas"... Result, many of them have developed virus symtoms. Some of them so quick that I just decided to ger rid of them

Lost plants :
Blc. Eagle Eye 'All Victory'
Cattleya percivaliana
Lc. Chyong Guu Swan 'White Jade'
Lc. Chyong Guu Swan 'White Jade'
Lc. Loog Tone 'African beauty'
Lc. Mini Purple var. coerulea

Then I have some other plants, for which I need your help in order to understand what is going on with them:

Pics 4 & 5 (Cymbidium devonianum) and 6, 7 & 8 (Cattleya skinneri 'Heiti Jacobs' ), in these two plants, several brown spots have developed on the leave. They have stayed on teh surface and after spraying with Physan, they stopped to grow. Only the Cymbidium's leave have started to become yellowish... Any ideas what this could be?

Pic 9 (Cattleya skinerii 'Oculata'), some leave have developed these small black spots on the underside... (please don't tell me this is a virus I love this plant so much...)

Pic 10 (Blc. Hawaiian Satisfaction 'Romantic') some leave have started to "dry out" gettingthe aspect of carton and becoming a bit yellow... They seem to have stopped and stayed at this point (picture)... any ideas?

[Gin]

I am so sorry Ramon ,
Did You spray the Catts.? it looks like what happened to one of mine after I sprayed it, some of the spray landed on it not in a fine mist and I missed seeing it . Picture 1 and 2 look almost like mite damage , just a guess I know they really like the thin leaf types .Just my Gin

[smweaver]

Last summer my Cymbidium Len Southward developed the same black spots on the ends of its leaves that your devonianum has. Although I didn't spray it with anything (kind of hesitant to resort to chemicals), I did move it (gradually) into an area where it received higher light. I also increased the air movement around it. The combination seemed to work, as this year's growth didn't have any of the black spotting. It might not hurt to try the same thing for your cattleyas. Best of luck!

Steve

[JennS]

It looks like spider mite or some other mite to me on the catasetum types. I think the one is pic number three is a little too far gone....but I could be wrong.

I don't know about the black spots, but whenever I see them I treat with Physan 20 and that seems to work.

#10, I have seen this on a catt of mine too. I think it had to do with (for me at least) a broken down medium, not enough roots for the size of the plant, and maybe my watering cycle. I repotted it and the old growth did not improve, but the new growth seems much better. Hope some of this helps a bit. I would be so upset to see that happen to my orchids! Good luck.

[camille1585]

Ramon, you told me that you had a thrips problem, but I didn't imagine it that bad! During my research, when I would see that much feeding damage there would usually be 200 to 300 thrips per plant!
I'm not convinced that any of the others have a virus, but it's always difficult to diagnose viruses without a test. I'll go through my phytopathology textbooks and see if I can come up with anything for you!

[nenella]

Hi Ramon,
really , really sorry you lost those especially your Blc. Eagle Eye 'All Victory' as It's one of my absolute favourites

[kavanaru]

actually, all these plants are growing in S/H since more than one year, therefore, it cannot be broke down medium...

The catasetinae, have been attacked by Thrips. Yes camille, hundreds of them I think they have started just before I left to Paris, then I was there for one months and they "really made a party here"

The Cattleyas I have discarded became yellowish in almost all leave, with clear marks along teh leave veins (is this the right word? not sure, sorry, just came back from dinner in France: one bottle of wine each ) They also had clear dark markings on the under side of the leave along the veins too, and one of the plants had started to bloom and the flower had also very clear marking

The ones I kept and am showing in the pictures above have markings I do not recognize at all...

all my plants are automatically sprayed 4 times a day, but only the cymbidium and the Cattleya skinneri have developed those black marks..

I am totally clueless with them...

What really, makes me angry is that I lost my Eagle Eye, my mini purple, and most probably will also loose my Cycnoches haagei

[kavanaru]

Originally Posted by nenella

Hi Ramon,
really , really sorry you lost those especially your Blc. Eagle Eye 'All Victory' as It's one of my absolute favourites

Yes Nenella, also my favorite cattleya hybrid so far

[camille1585]

Is the Cycnoches haagei really truely dead or do you think there's a chance of saving it? IT would me such a shame, it's a gorgeous plant!

For your plants with unidentified symptoms, I would keep them quarantined until you figure out what's going on. It would be sad to toss more plants based just on suspicions!

[Junebug]

Such a shame. So far, I've never encountered Thrips, but after reading your post I did some research and found that they like moist environments and infestations also occur in Florida (my home). I'll be on the look-out from now on. The article also said they're attracted to perspiration on the skin and have been known to bite humans....so be careful.