Phalaenopsis leaves with discolored, yellow and brow spots

[Pepenero]

Hi guys!
I'm from Italy and I'm a young girl that love orchid species. Since few months I've problems with most of my Phalaenopsis. I'm desperate, every time I discover a new orchid sick! New yellow and discolored spots, and brown spots on the leaves.. What's happening? What kind of pest is that? A couple of months ago I made a treatment for prevention red mites.
Thank you for your help

Greetings from Italy

[Silje]

Ok. This looks serious.

Immediately remove the infected plants away from the rest of your collection. I'd consider throwing these away. I can't tell you what this is, but I would assume the worst (virus) and try to reduce the damage by making sure it does not spread.

You can of course try to treat for fungi and bacterial pests, but the leaves on the pictures do not look good and I would cut those off, sterilizing the knife after every cut and put cinnamon on the cut edges afterwards.

How many plants do you have and how many of them are affected by this?

[vjo]

YIKES!!! I don't know what it is either but please wash your hands after even touching this plant! You could spread it to all your others if you don't. It looks like there may be more than one problem there.....Jean

[james mickelso]

The answers above are right on the mark. Cut off the affected leaves sterilizing the cutting tool after every cut. Put cinnamon on the cut edge. the third pic looks like ring spot or some other horrible disease and this entire plant should be thrown away washing your hands well before touching another plant. The brown damage was caused by mites and these areas can be cut out with a razor blade. One cut/one razor blade. There may be damage to the roots too. The wrinkled leaf looks to be caused by mites. Multiple treatments are necessary to get rid of the hatching eggs. Good luck and welcome to the Orchidboard. Please come back.

[Pepenero]

With order: the brown spots have hit only P. hyeroglyphyca and only the 2 youngest leaves. the spots are "carved out" and dry.
These have turned from yellow to brown drying up
The other discolored and yellow spots are different, hits ever, one of the oldest leaves of phalaebopsis. First and hybrid, than P. Corningiana, the last with round circles P. fasciata.

---------- Post added at 11:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 AM ----------

But infection is slowly to spread. This desease hits only Phalaenopsis species and hybrids and it seems to prefer hits one max two older leaves. I have in my house about 180 plants, most of they are species. No greenhouse.

[Island Girl]

In addition to all the wonderful advice above, I would also suggest keeping these plants away (far away) from your other orchids... Some of this looks like virus... & if you can replace them easily, I'd just toss them, if not, treat them as if they are virused... b/c even if it's not a virus, they are afflicted with something, & u don't want that to spread (regardless of what it is) So, read up on sanitation & hygiene practices, this should be easy to find on Orchid Board w/ the "search" function. This is important for you, because you have quite a few orchids, and it would be devastating to lose them due to virus, or to mites.

Also, mites are a b*$@% to get rid of, & most of the time, by the time you notice any damage, it's a lot of it, and they've already moved to greener pastures, so.... Whatever u find to treat the mite problem, do the treatment to ALL of your orchids! I had mites last summer, & lost at least 10 orchids, & that's not fun, especially when you have a large collection, such as yours.

Good Luck! Let us know how it goes!
and....
Hope you stick around the O.B.! It's a great place, lots of very friendly, knowledgable people here!

[Pepenero]

Yes, I know what do you mean about red mites.. I had mee too last summer and I lost many orchids!! This summer I made a preventive treatment and it doesn't seem appear till now. I'm worried about this virus.. I don't know nothing about virus, because I thought it was difficult to have it at home. How can I know if it is a virus and if other plants are infected?
thanks for the welcome, it looks like a nice forum!

[SJF]

Hi,
This article may help.
White Phalaenopsis Ringspots
Edited to add:
Impatiens spot virus in Phalaenopsis investigated - Wageningen UR