Dark Spots on Phal

[RosieC]

While watering I noticed this.



There is a dark spot near the center of the pic. It looks sunkan, and looks like it sinks through a couple of layers of the plant.

Just below it there is another dark spot. Thre is also a similar dark mark on the dead end of an old flower stem on the right of the pic, on the underside of the spike end.

I have also noticed very very tiny dark raised spots on the base of the next leaf up and two similar raised tiny spots on one of the leaves. These tiny spots are about 0.5mm (or arround 1/32 of an inch).

The sunken spots are somwhat larger, between 5mm and 8mm (maybe arround 1/4").

The plant also feels somewhat limp compared to what I would expect for my Phals.

Any ideas what it could be?
Any ideas what I should do?
I really want to save this Phal as I love it's spotty flowers (it's the one in my avatar).

[nenella]

Rosie,
My 2 pence worth, could It be crown rot? If it were mine I'd give it in zap of hydrogen peroxide...although, I have never done this myself but have read about it on many posts..
Hopefully other more experienced members will chip in. Keep us posted & Good Luck!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I don't know what it is. Try mounting this one.

[mspatt]

I've had the same spots and sunken areas on a few of my phals. I just douse the area with H2O2, like Nenella said--they seem to grow and bloom just fine. Whatever it is never spreads and doesn't seem to jump to the other chids. I'll be watching this thread in case someone can give a more definitive answer...

[camille1585]

Don't worry about the bumps under the leaves unless they start spreading. Some of my phals have those, and they just seem to be the result of a sucking insect feeding on the leaf when it was growing. As for the black spot, has it been spreading? Did the limpness start around the same time? Don't forget that if a plant becomes limp from lack of water, it will firm up, but never become as firm as it used to be.
Some H202 and maybe a bit of cinnamon should help. But if it doesn't seem to spread, i'm guessing the plant will be fine.

[RosieC]

Thanks everyone.

Camille (great to have you back by the way, hope you had a great summer ), The tiny bumps have been there a while and did not seem to be changing or spreading.

I only noticed the dark spot a couple of days ago so I'm not sure about that and I noticed the limp leaves at the same time. I don't think it was there a couple of weeks ago and I was worried that the bumps were related and that I should have done something about them before.

I had scraped off one with my fingernail and it did not seem to be a bug or anything (although they seemed to small, I was originally worried they were something like scale). They just seemed to be a blister of some sort and I dabbed cinnamon on the one I had scrapped and left them. When I saw this I was worried that I had made a mistake and it was some sort of bug which had eaten in to the stem.

I don't think it's crown rot, the crown seems fine and this is a more defined spot on the side. I wish I could get a better pic of it.

I can't decide if the leaves have firmed up since it was watered a couple of days ago when I noticed this. They may have done.

I don't have H2O2 as I've not needed it yet, but I will dab on some cinnamon and try to get hold of the H2O2 to try that.

I really hope it's nothing too serious as I love this NoID.

[RosieC]

Well the black spot DID spread, but very very slowly and this Phal is now on it's way out.

See this thread about it now.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...tml#post323431