One circular yellow ring on phalaenopsis

[KeyWestSunset]

I bought this phalaenopsis over a year ago. I live in South Florida so I grow my orchids outdoors. This one in particular stays hung in my tree.
Its gets morning sun, I thoroughly water it a couple times a week, I get an almost constant ocean breeze by my house so my orchids usually dry up pretty quickly. And it gets some fertilizer here and there. This time of year we've gotten a few very cold days between warm days.

A little extra info; on a whole scale of my collection (about 30 orchids) I started to notice what just doesn't look normal; maybe bacteria, fugal, sun damage, temperature change, pest damage, nutrient deficiency, or could just be regular damage or nothing at all, on about half my orchids.
I say all this because I've been endlessly searching online and I can't come to any definitive conclusions. One website they say one thing on another site its something different. Some of my orchids have different symptoms which makes it even more difficult. Which lead me to Orchid board You'll probably see a post or two on my other orchids in the near future.

Anyways, back to the point. The closer speculation of my orchid collection brought me to notice this phalaenopsis with a little whitish-yellow ring with another little yellow ring in it on the leaf.
I immediately separated this one from the rest of my quarantined orchids since this seems to be what may be a virus!
I took photos of the plant and leaves. It overall seems healthy except the brown leaves which I had thought was sun or snail damage till I saw the yellow ring. It's also getting ready to bloom.

What exactly is it?
Can I cut off the damaged and infected part and hope it recovers?
Should I dump the whole thing in the trash?
And if so, is there a way I can salvage the basket it's in? Like soak in in alcohol or bleach or something?
How do I prevent future spreading (I disinfect my tools and stuff), is my yard going to be permanently tainted?
And if it has spread to another plant how long until I will see symptoms in them?

[Orchid Whisperer]

Originally Posted by KeyWestSunset

I bought this phalaenopsis over a year ago. I live in South Florida so I grow my orchids outdoors. This one in particular stays hung in my tree.
Its gets morning sun, I thoroughly water it a couple times a week, I get an almost constant ocean breeze by my house so my orchids usually dry up pretty quickly. And it gets some fertilizer here and there. This time of year we've gotten a few very cold days between warm days.

A little extra info; on a whole scale of my collection (about 30 orchids) I started to notice what just doesn't look normal; maybe bacteria, fugal, sun damage, temperature change, pest damage, nutrient deficiency, or could just be regular damage or nothing at all, on about half my orchids.
I say all this because I've been endlessly searching online and I can't come to any definitive conclusions. One website they say one thing on another site its something different. Some of my orchids have different symptoms which makes it even more difficult. Which lead me to Orchid board You'll probably see a post or two on my other orchids in the near future.

Anyways, back to the point. The closer speculation of my orchid collection brought me to notice this phalaenopsis with a little whitish-yellow ring with another little yellow ring in it on the leaf.
I immediately separated this one from the rest of my quarantined orchids since this seems to be what may be a virus!
I took photos of the plant and leaves. It overall seems healthy except the brown leaves which I had thought was sun or snail damage till I saw the yellow ring. It's also getting ready to bloom.

What exactly is it?
Can I cut off the damaged and infected part and hope it recovers?
Should I dump the whole thing in the trash?
And if so, is there a way I can salvage the basket it's in? Like soak in in alcohol or bleach or something?
How do I prevent future spreading (I disinfect my tools and stuff), is my yard going to be permanently tainted?
And if it has spread to another plant how long until I will see symptoms in them?

WHOA!!

First, calm yourself.

The firs two are just sunburn. The third and fourth, sunburn again at the leaf tip. The minor yellow blemish in the middle of the leaf in the third photo appears to be just mechanical damage.

The circular dot in the fourth photo, I would maybe be a little more concerned if there was more than one circle. I have seen similar circles that were the result of insect bites (especially scale) and also spot bacterial damage. Keep an eye on it to make sure nothing is growing or spreading, and possibly isolate until you are sure nothing is spreading. If you are thinking "virus", you can't really diagnose virus just based on appearance (you need to test). I would not order a test based on one circle.

There is not much you need to do except keep an eye on it and make sure nothing is spreading. The sunburn may not be attractive, but the leaves are still functioning to feed the plant.

[Roberta]

Loots to me mostly like sun damage. Check on the underside of the leaf where the light yellow spot is... Scale can do that, and likes to hide on the underside of the leaf. I don't see anything that would indicate virus. I would not rush to cut anything... if you're exhibiting the plant, then trimming away the brown stuff makes it look better, but for the plant, the more green leaf that it has to photosynthesize the better, you don't need to cut for the health of the plant.

[KeyWestSunset]

Thank you!
And sorry, I was flustered, I'm not new to orchids, but I've never had to deal with pests or fungus or anything until recently so the past 2 weeks I've been doing tons of research so I've been a jumbled up mess on it.
I haven't found any scales on this phalaenopsis but I have found them on 2 cattleyas and a dendrobium so that could be the issue.
What was so alarming was the shape of the ring since I had never seen that before. But since moving to my new house I've found out many new predators for my orchids so this could just be the sign of another bug.

[Roberta]

When you change abode, you have to re-learn a lot because light is different, and clearly critters as well. When I moved into my house about 11 years ago, and set up new growing areas, I toasted plenty of leaves until I figured out the light (and it takes a year or so to figure it out because it shifts over the seasons) So it's all a learning process, part of what makes growing orchids so fascinating and engaging!

[estación seca]

Find your nearest orchid society and join. They will be very helpful with local knowledge.