Too late for pics tonight. I checked on my phals this evening and discovered that they have been invaded by capsicum chlorosis virus. A ringspot virus that quickly spreads and eventually kills the plant. They are all rescues so no great loss although I really liked the flowers and they are all pushing spikes big time. Oh well. But they will have to go. If it weren't so cold right now (29 tonight) I'd just move them to another part of the yard until they frower and then toss them. I hate tossing living things. I'll try and get pics tomorrow so others here can see what this looks like.
bad phals all from Taiwan I bet ya. We got about 50 donated phals in our orchid society back in november. They were all taiwan clones and all virused. Trash canned them spike buds blooms and all. Yeah its hard but you will be better off in the long run. I have a few noid phals that I need to check but they aint worth the 5 dollar test strip. When I need to make some room they will be the 1st casualties.
Thanks David. Interesting reading. I haven't seen any thrips but who knows. No hygene in my environment. Nothing else seems to be affected. Mostly catts and laelias with a few others. the most affected phal lost all of it's leaves by the morning but that may have been the result of the intense (for around here anyway) cold the past week. All the leaves were lying on the floor of the greenhouse the next morning. And the flower spike along with the new partiALLY MATURE LEAF IS NOW A BRIGHT RED COLOR. No big loss as they were rescues anyway. I'll see how much further along the contagion runs. I have 5 more phals. Two had a ring on the older leaves and I cut thiose off. I'll keep ya posted.
Hi james mickelso, it would be nice if you could post some pistures, so that we could learn something from your experience.
I have a Phal whose leaves became like that, then turned yellow all at once and fell off. It was a matter of 2-3 days. The plant's still alive and I have isolated it from the others.
How did you ID the virus? Did you send it to a lab or are you IDing it by sight. The Agdia test strips will not detect this virus. I would love to see pictures of the problem leaves.
Me three - I have heard of this, but would like to see the result. Sorry it's at your cost. I hope that the Cats and Laelia don't have it and it is just not showing yet - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!
Steve
I finally got home from work. Here are some pics of the phal leaves with the virus in question. Sorry for the poor lighting and picture quality. These leaves are a few days old. The green leaves are what the initial symptom looks like and the red dead leaves are what the green turn into in a day or two. very rapid death. So far nothing else has come down with the virus. Also a picture of what the phal looked like before the onset of the disease. Also the last pic is of a catt that has guignardia. So far it hasn't affected the rest of the new growth. Hasn't infected anything else. I keep water off all of my orchids if at all possible. Occasionally I have to water with a hose. But this is very seldom. Helps to keep anything from spreading. Except for the ringspot.
Last edited by james mickelso; 04-06-2014 at 12:35 AM..