Please help identify these leaf spots - Brassidium Dr John

[mrphilips]

i'm a bit new, so i'm not confident - is this the bacterial spotting or the fungal?

i bought this Brassidium (Nittany Gold "Dr John") and failed to notice the spots or the old-man pseudobulbs - the lovely spotted flowers gave me rose-glasses and i threw money at the guy cause i've been wanting a spider orchid for months.

there were about 7 pseudobulbs (2 large, 2 medium, 3 small), each with a few long leaves. a few of the leaves had these spots along them - a few were pretty bad and one was yellowing toward the tip, so i trimmed them off before i took pictures (darn). but now i see there are a few more leaves with the spots.

also the bulbs seem really heavily wrinkled, though they are firm to the touch. they have speckles all over them but it appears to be more of a colouration... they are not depressed spots and have a reddish hue. more freckles than spots.

i've gone through the posts and all over the web and though there's lot of suggestions, i can't tell if this is the bacterial brown spot or the fungal spots, and therefore not sure how to treat it!

can anyone with more experience advise?

(sorry if the pictures are a bit blurry - camera phone isn't great)

[WhiteRabbit]

Oncidium alliance are often prone to leaf spotting (fungal, I believe) - it usually does not affect the plant, other than cosmetically, nor spread to other plants. Your's is much less than I have seen, or have on some of my Oncidiums that I consider to be "not too" as far as the leaf spotting goes ...
Yellowing leaf tips could be age related - leaves that are getting ready to be shed.


Pbulbs will wrinkle with age, some types getting deeper grooves than others. It could also be possible the plant went thru a period of insufficient water.
How do roots look?

From your pix, at least - it looks good to me.

[james mickelso]

Just like most things in life, stuff gets spots. Not to worry. Yellowing leaves just like Sonya said. It happens. I think this is potted in too large a pot. Is that sphagnum moss all the way to the bottom? Be careful. It will stay water logged and kill the plant. Ifg there are no new growths I would repot carefully into something a bit more coarse. The brassias have thin numerous roots that rot easily. Here's a brassia that I have and notice the size of the media. I let this dry out thoroughly before watering again. Lots of air flow to the roots. It grows like a weed. If you repot, I would put something under the central part of the roots under the largest pbulb like a rock or small inverted net pot to splay the roots out so they dry more evenly. I know long winded. Here's one of my brassias.

[mrphilips]

you guys are making me happy! thanks, that's great to hear! acne is better than measles.

i just got this one about 2 weeks ago, maybe 3, and yes - it came over-potted and packed in spag. i do intend to re-pot it in bark but have held back for a few reasons:

a) it has (had) a really nice inflorescence with six flowers when i got it and i wasn't keen on re-potting while in bloom. but they've been dying off - i only have two or three left on it. i think it suffered blast after coming in from the cold. it was about -10c (14f) out the day i got it and it went in and out a few times and drove in a car for an hour. i hope that's the reason they're dropping...

b) i have this fungus gnat problem and i wasn't keen on re-potting if i may have to toss the new bark soon enough anyway - need to figure out my game plan regarding that and re-potting this fella and all the others with those bugs... i'm seeing spots in the air AND on the brass.

but thanks for the support! i will post healthy pics when everything is back to normal.

(now i wish i didn't trim all those leaves off!)

[james mickelso]

You can easily and safely repot most orchids in spike. Here's a good example. This was repotted a couple weeks ago in bloom. It hasn't skipped a beat. Just take care and don't disturb the roots too much. This was in packed sphagnum moss. I posted the process on the board last week. Easy.

[dounoharm]

my dermatologist calls the spots on me, 'the barnacles of life', lol....I guess the same is good for plants!

[WhiteRabbit]

I'd be hesitant to repot while in spike - I don't know if this type endures it as well as many Phals ... I haven't repotted an in-spike Oncidium alliance ...

[james mickelso]

I have and if care is taken to keep the roots from too much stress like excessive bending the spike continues to elongate and flower. But if you're not experienced at repotting then wait.

[mrphilips]

not sure if bringing a very old thread back to life is considered uncouth, but i have some questions about how my specimen is doing a year and a half later...

so the older pbulbs are brownish and deeply grooved, and it never rebloomed, but it has produced at least four new pbulbs in the last 18 months. the problem as i see it is these new pbulbs are very small - almost diminutive - compared to the originals. i read somewhere that these conditions suggest the plant is unhappy?

i get very little leaf loss, maybe two brown leaves this whole time. it gets watered whenever it feels dry (i read it likes to dry out somewhat between watering) and i check that twice a week. fertilized lightly every fourth watering in the summer, every 8th in the winter. repotted annually. it gets a fair amount of bright light - some is actually bordering on direct, but through a slightly tinted pane, and it has not shown any definitie signs of over-light as far as i can tell.

truthfully, i have just moved here in june, so this particular light situation is only 4 months old... prior to that it got what i think is good indirect light, never direct, but the conditions don't seem to be improving much here... the other orchids are all doing great in their new home!

anyone want to give me a suggestion on how to revive this guy? i figure the plant should flower when happy, and produce reasonable pbulbs, instead of these wee threads.

is it just too dry?

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by mrphilips

not sure if bringing a very old thread back to life is considered uncouth, but i have some questions about how my specimen is doing a year and a half later...

so the older pbulbs are brownish and deeply grooved, and it never rebloomed, but it has produced at least four new pbulbs in the last 18 months. the problem as i see it is these new pbulbs are very small - almost diminutive - compared to the originals. i read somewhere that these conditions suggest the plant is unhappy?

i get very little leaf loss, maybe two brown leaves this whole time. it gets watered whenever it feels dry (i read it likes to dry out somewhat between watering) and i check that twice a week. fertilized lightly every fourth watering in the summer, every 8th in the winter. repotted annually. it gets a fair amount of bright light - some is actually bordering on direct, but through a slightly tinted pane, and it has not shown any definitie signs of over-light as far as i can tell.

truthfully, i have just moved here in june, so this particular light situation is only 4 months old... prior to that it got what i think is good indirect light, never direct, but the conditions don't seem to be improving much here... the other orchids are all doing great in their new home!

anyone want to give me a suggestion on how to revive this guy? i figure the plant should flower when happy, and produce reasonable pbulbs, instead of these wee threads.

is it just too dry?

You are the lord and master of your own thread.

Your instincts are correct. A happy plant will make new pseudobulbs at least as large as the previous ones, and will flower in season. So we have to figure out what is not right.

How warm is it in your growing area? Brassias tend to be fairly warm-loving orchids.

When you say you water when it feels dry... what exactly do you mean? The top of the medium? Do you stick your finger into the medium? About how often does this wind up being in your growing conditions? If you search this thread for SKEWER you will find a method some people use for checking inner wetness.

Specifically what do you mean by fertilized lightly? You can read a lot about fertilizing orchids on the First Rays Web site.

If you put your hand between the window and the plant, is there any shadow at all? Do you feel heat from the sun on your shadowing hand?

My guess from looking at the plant is that it isn't being kept warm enough and it isn't getting enough light. But these are only guesses.