weird black spot on leaves

[johnny31623]

hey there:

I just received my orchid today
when I was trying to clean it and repot it, I noticed that there's some weird black spots/dots on the leaves and they don't look like sun burnt or regular bacteria/ fungus infection because those spots are a bit convex.

does anyone know what they are?
should I be worry about it?

thank you

[rbarata]

Scale?

[Lacie]

Hard to tell from the photos but it looks like it might be a pretty bad scale infection. Can you scrape the dots off? Try scraping one off and wipe it on a tissue. If it comes off easily and looks slightly red a mushy when you wipe it on the tissue, it's probably scale (insects that form little hard cases over them). Definitely keep it away from your other plants until you are sure!

If it does turn out to be scale, throw it out and get a refund. It's possible to get rid of them, but with that many, in my opinion, it isn't even worth the effort.

[johnny31623]

hmmm, I scraped one off.
I can tell when I scraped it off, the skin of the leaf came off too......
It's dry and no red or any residue when I wiped and squished it.
it's like a dry scab on our skin attached on the leaf.

[estación seca]

Nobody should sell a plant looking like that. I would return it. Where did you get it?

[johnny31623]

I got it from motes orchids
they have good reputation as I know
and they answered my message right away saying that's insect damage and I don't need to worry about it.
well, I'll keep my eyes on it for a while.

[Lacie]

Did you try scraping off one of the small darker colored dots, or one of the larger brown ones? The large brown ones look a lot like scale to me, the smaller very black ones look different, maybe damage from the scale. I would try scraping off one of the larger brown ones, if it is scale it should come off easily (if scraping it off seems like it will damage the leaf then it isn't scale). I circled one of the ones I'm talking about in your picture so you know which ones I mean.

Another question, are there any clear droplets on the plant that feel sticky? This is another sign of scale (it's called honeydew, it's scale poop )

[johnny31623]

Thks Lacie
Yes I did try to scrape off a few
They all came out clean like a scab on our skin,
Dry and crunchy.
And there’s no sticky droplets either.

I also tried to spray with hydrogen peroxide and there’s even no foaming and sizzling sounds.

[Lacie]

Hm, I don't know then. Hope someone else can help you out! Good luck