HELP, Rot, strange rot.

[Tindomul]

I got this one a few weeks ago, and was doing great until about last week. I noticed the new growth was turning yellow. Today when I looked closer the bulb had turned black and the new growth was brown. What happened? I don't understand it because this thing has healthy roots growing from the rotted bulb. And the rest of the plant also has healthy roots. Very strange.
When I touched the bulb, my finger got smeared by a sticky yellow substance. Almost like gellatin.
I was growing it in sphag, and the sphag around the rotted area had little white dots, almost like a fungus. Has my Bulbo been attacked by a fungus?
Thanks.

This is a Bulbophyllum orthoglossum

[Intruder]

For me it looks like a bacterial infection.

[Tindomul]

How in the heck did it get that, and how do I stop it? Antibiotics?

[Intruder]

Leave the plant out of the sphagnum. Withdraw entirely the sick part and cauterize the wound with a little charcoal powder. Put the plant in a plastic bag with a little sphagnum new and wet on the basis of bulb. Hold in a shaded and hot place. Maybe a sleeping eye at the base of the bulb will give new growth.

[Tindomul]

Thank you intruder! I already did this and used powdered sulfur on the advice of an introductory orchid book. I hope that is good too. I'll see if I can scrounge up some charcoal.

[Shadow]

I think those white spots have nothing to do with the rot. I have the same spots on the dead covering leaves ( or the leaf is the wrong word? I mean that thing that covers new bulb) on some of my plants.

[Charles]

The white is probably a fungus, but the black..bacterial is as good a guess as I could make. Unless it's parasitic/viral.

[Gin]

I think it will be ok tindo , keep the cut dry and watch the bulb next to it , the #*&!( can go systemic (enter the plant core ). When you cut off a bulb because of rot take a close look at the cut on the remaining bulb if there is any discoloration, softness remove it too . Good luck with it .. Gin

[orchidexpress]

The white is probally mealy bugs.
I would be sealing a cut/sore with cinnamon.
Try the bag trick and see if you can get a 'new eye' to start over with. Or sometimes I will just hang it up with a wire, or string, and just dry hang it like a vanda.

[Mahon]

Here's my look at it... I think it is rot.

The reason: old sphagnum moss. It looks like the plant was potted tightly with wet and decaying sphagnum moss. The more mature bulbs also look over-hydrated, which typically shrivel (ironic?) and discolor some...

You can usually tell that your sphagnum needs to be replaced when you have those "little white dots". Those are actually pieces of sphagnum moss. They sometimes looks like scale, mealy bugs, or other pests. Sometimes, they don't readily come off, which makes one think they are pests.

When this happens to me (just did on one of my Bulbophyllum species too!), I remove the plant from the pot and all the sphagnum moss from the roots. I then cut away all rotting parts of the plant (sterilize at least with a blow torch on EVERY cut made). I tend to let the plant dry and lay on its side on a piece of aluminum foil, and water VERY lightly (a couple teaspoons, once in the morning and once at late afternoon). After about 2 days of this cruel and unusual punishment, I'll pot it up in fresh, loosely packed sphagnum moss, or another media. Live sphagnum moss also works very well, if you can get a hold of some.

In my personal opinion, I don't think you have to much to worry about, except blooming that plant!

-Pat