Petal Blight on Paph?

[RandomGemini]

After reading someone else's post on petal blight, I'm now paranoid. LOL!

After I got my paph home, this discoloration to this side of the flower began. It seems to be progressing slowly. Since this is my first paph, for all I know, this could just be the flower fading, I have no idea what that looks like on a paph. If it's not... I'd like to know.

Thanks for your help!

[NYCorchidman]

I am not sure what petal blight is. is it a disease of some kind??

How long have you had this in bloom?

I doubt this is a natural aging of the flower.
The drying and browning is happening in a usual manner and the rest of the flower is perfectly fine.

Usually, paph flowers will fade in color over time, then lose the shiny texture, then finally the ugly brown tone takes over all over gradually, then the whole flower just falls off.
I had one exception to this, my vini droped its flower last week while the flower still looked fresh. how strange!

Check the flower up close and see if there aren't any thrips or mites eating it up.
Also, how are the leaves? the stem itself??

I've never had this happen to any of my paphs.
I did have one paph blasting its bud, but it was due to sudden change of environment upsetting the bud.

By the way, it looks like Hsinying Alien, the cross of supersuk and raisin pie. Is it???

[RandomGemini]

Yes it is. I have seen zero signs of insect activity on this plant. The leaves look good, there is one rust colored spot on one of the leaves... but now that I look at it again, I realize that this rust colored spot, is the same color as this discoloration on the flower. I'm thinking this must be some sort of fungal infection. The spike looks nice and healthy.

Petal Blight (Botrytis) hopefully this link works:

Ortho's All about Orchids - Elvin McDonald - Google Books

[NYCorchidman]

Oh, I know what Botrytis is.
I have only seen it on phals and it looked like tiny dark spots rather than drying up. In sever case, the fungus can "eat up" and ruin the flowers, but you should still be able to see dark spots on those dry area to be sure it is Botrytis attack.
This is a fungus that thrive in humid and cool environment. How's your growing condition? At home, this is rarely a problem. but if it is botrytis, the best thing is to remove the affect flowers to keep the fungal spores from spreading all over.

The brown (or red brown) marks can be bruise or bacterial rot on paphs. If the marks are round, it is more likely to be rot than mechanical damage.
As long as it does not spread, it should be fine, but the best is to cut the affected leaf to eliminate the further possible spread as these things do come back persistently at times.
Try not to wet the leaves as much as possible.
The only time I wet my paphs are the large complex with long big leaves. I take them to the tub and soak them good. In the process, water gets everywhere, but I blow it off and dab with kitchen towel to remove all the water on the plant. then put them back to the growing area.

By the way, I just took a picture of a fading paph. This should give you a good idea as to what the naturally aging paph flower looks like.
The one on the left in the first picture is the same flower back in September and the second picture shows how it is going down today.

[RandomGemini]

That browning in the center of the dorsal sepal in the second picture looks very similar to this discoloration that I'm seeing. It's just that it's so odd, that it's systematically working it's way from the left side of the flower, to the right. However, I was reading that paph blooms are easily damaged and this one came from TJs and was sent home in a plastic floral bag and this side of the bloom that is browning was pressed up against the bag in my car on the ride home.

Do you think that this is what's causing the damage to the bloom?

I don't have this paph in my usual growing space yet. I leave my new plants in the dining room or kitchen until their blooms drop, then they get repotted and go up to my office. It gets light from an east facing window, it sits about 3 feet away from the window. There is very little humidity in my house right now. It's been about 19 degrees here for several days, so my furnace is going practically non-stop.

I water this by soaking it in a cup of water when the top layer of the moss (yes, I plan to repot it in bark) gets dry. This works out to be about twice a week. When I go to water it on Saturday, I fertilize along with the rest of my orchids. I just watered it yesterday.

The rust spot has been there for a while. I didn't notice it when I brought the plant home, but when I went back and looked at the pics I took of it then, it does look like it was there. It's very tiny and seems to be about the same size it was then, so it definitely could be a water spot.

Edited to Add: I've had this paph since November 13th. It was in bloom when purchased.

[NYCorchidman]

Nope.
Notice how yours has dry browning happening on one section of the flower while the rest is perfectly fresh? It is not natural aging for sure.

Then look at my second picture. The whole flower lost its vibrant color and texture. Then the browning comes in all over while the flower is not dry at all.

Anyway, mechanical damage is possible, but these flowers are not that delicate, and the mechanical damage usually show up as short cut mark or irregular shape where the damage was done rather than the whole section of a flower drying up brown like that.
Was the flower totally fine when you first bought it? and is this getting worse? then it is definitely not mechanical damage.

These are made up of species from mainly tropical Asia, so you want to keep it warm. I wouldn't subject it to temperature under 60. They will not die but the plant will be negatively affected when kept too cool. Shoot for above 65 minimum at all times but 60 or even slightly lower won't kill it when kept dry if you have no options.

My apartment gets quite dry during the winter, but I do not run heater as my place gets as warm as summer time during the sunny day thanks to large windows, and even at night, it is hardly ever under 65 or 60. With this, lady slippers grow year around with short stop in the heat of summer.

During the winter, I do have either humidifier running or at least a large wet towel hanging which seems to help me breath better at night.

You might want to encase the plant with clear plastic bag with some wet kitchen towel around. leave the top open for vent. This may help, but I find these plants pretty sturdy.

They will show signs of life when spring retunrs anyway.

The spots on the leaves, check them every so often in case they increase. You never know.

When I first started to have paphs, I thought they are so clean and nice, but the more I have, the more issues I run into.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Any chance that one side of the plant got too hot, too cold, or too much light?

[RandomGemini]

Ah ha! I see your point! I didn't notice before that my flower is drying out as this browning moves across!

The petal on the left side of the photo looked sort of wrinkled when I bought the plant, but there was no discoloration on the bloom like this.

The browning on this bloom is definitely growing. It started out as a little sliver on the left side of the dorsal sepal and is gradually moving toward the right side.

We have a programmable thermostat and one of our dogs has severe arthritis. The house does not go below 65 at night for her sake.

So, do you think the lack of humidity is the problem? I can fix that by moving it up to my grow space, which has a humidifier in it, but if this is fungal, I don't want to take it up there. The plants that are in my office are more sensitive to humidity and honestly... I have more money invested in them than I do in this paph (8$ at TJs. I'll just go up there and see if they have another one, before I decide to fight a fungal infection and risk my collection). I can come up with a humidity tray for this guy pretty easily tho.

[NYCorchidman]

It is spreading, then I would cut off the entire spike and throw away. really.
I mean it is being ruined anyway, and just in case it is something bad, you can only save it now you know.

Why don't you get a humidity reader? I use a cheap simple one, but works for me.

Usually, if you breathe fine without your nasal cavity and back of your throat being too try or even slightly painful, the humidity is above 40% and that is fine for both you and plants.

In the winter, many home may experience humidity much lower than 40%. you will definitely notice when you breathe. so whatever fix you try, it is only beneficial for you as well.
It is not just discomfort, but by being too dry, you can get sick more often. The mucous lining in the nasal cavity can only stay so moist, and when the air is too dry, it cannot function properly and things can get into your system more easily, which is one of the main reason people catch cold often in the winter time.

You have furnace going, so I suspect the humidity might be quite low.

It is more for you than the plant. The plant will not die due to low humidity. You might get sick badly before the demise of the plant.

[Bud]

petal blight is a warm weather disease and normally does not become severe until May. It's those muggy, misty, rainy days that all the petal blight fungus go berserk and rot all those flowers that you waited a whole year to see. Since it is at the height of autumn, your flower must have been wet and the fungi feasted on it. Since it is fungi=you need a fungicide spray. I usually do a mixture of liquid cinnamon extract and soap combination with tepid water....but this must be done when you see it start a discoloration but your picture shows almost half of the flower is infected.