Rhynchostylis gigantea leaf problem

[Chris147]

This past Sunday I went to my local home improvement store to see if they had gotten a new orchid shipment. I was in luck. They had tons of bag babies, some of which my Lowes has never had before. I picked up a orange Rhynchostylis gigantea and instantly fell in love with it. I bought it home, took it out of the bag, and noticed that it was packed tightly in moss. I felt sorry for the plant because they need good air circulation around the roots. I soaked bark overnight and the following morning repotted it. The roots looked really good for the conditions they were in.

Today I realized that there seems to be discoloration on some of the leaves. The only thing that I can think of that could have casued this is sun exposure. It went from being in a bag with other plants on top of it to being outside under trellis with plenty of sun. It looks the same as when my vanda rinka got frozen this past winter. Does anyone know what this is and will it hurt my plant? Will I have to cut the infected leaves off? Any input is appreciated.


This is what it looked like yesterday.

Here is the leaf damage.

[Cattleya17]

Looks like the beginnings of rot! or sunburn. if its sunburn it wont spread keep track of the size of the spots.

If its which it probably is seeing how the spots showed up seemingly overnight. treat the spots with Listerine the brown kind on the spots above and below i did that on my plants and it works make sure the leafs dry off quickly to prevent rot from happening again if it keep spreading keep treating. hopefully it does not spread to the crown or the roots then you plant maybe finished..... Hope this helps!

Hopefully someone else chimes in cuz i dont know about cutting the leaves.
Sincerely Sam

[stefpix]

i would cut around the black spots and remove them, including some healthy tissue around them

[Orchidreamer]

Are the spots soft/mushy? Are they spreading quickly?

[Chris147]

No the spots are not mushy. They feel the same as the regular leaf. Whatever it is it's not spreading either.

[glengary54]

It could very well be heat damage, you said that it was a bag baby, so I am assuming that when you transported it home in a hot car that it was still in the bag it came in. I would watch it for a few more days. If the condition doesn't get any worse, I would ignore it. If it starts to get mushy but is not spreading, I would cut out the affected areas. If it looks like it is spreading, I would treat with a fungicide drench.

[Junebug]

That looks like sun damage to me. I'd back off on the sun exposure and then gradually, gradually introduce it to sunlight, but not too much. Rhyncos don't need all that bark either. Just a few big chunks of coal and bark will suffice. Their big fat roots absorb water rapidly and they need to be able to dry within a few minutes or they'll rot. It's good to have lots of air circulation around vandaceous roots. She's a pretty little plant.