Pleurothallis velaticaulis mottled leaves
 

The leaves on these plants have a mottled appearance. Is this normal? They don't turn colors, no brown or black. The leaves just look mottled, green and light green. The newer growth, since adding shade cloth in the greenhouse, appears to be more uniform in color. I thought maybe it was from too much sun and then shading them or possibly a nutritional deficiency? They don't seem unhealthy otherwise and they bloomed for me earlier this summer.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ps1a5a9d1e.jpg

New growth

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...psf82bd488.jpg

The mottling I don't think is normal but I am not familiar with this species. My view with something like this is that the colour should be even. The first photo indicates not enough sun if anything. It could also be a nutritional deficiency and I doubt it's a viral problem. So just give it a little more light (unless the second photo is better indicator) and make sure you give it a balanced fertliser each time you water.

I don't believe in the theory some people have for fertilising as once a week or once a month, they can be fertilised at each watering provided the mix is weak and I feel you get better results that way as well.

The second photo is the newest growth after applying additional shade cloth.

I have been fertilizing twice a month, I guess I'll try to up that to weekly. I do use a weak dilution as you suggest.

Thank you for your help!

I moved the thread to hopefully get some other views from folks that don't go into the Pleurothallid forum.
The mottling on these plants are worrying me, especially since the Pleur. macrophyllla also have the same leaf appearance. Some of my Masd. show a silvery surface, brown and black spotting on the underside of the leaves. Can mites cause all of these types of damage?

I think mites could cause damage like you are describing now, what I would've said before would be that it might be getting too hot for it and/or dry, pleuros react to heat differently than say, a phal, or Catt type (as far as I can tell). If it is hot & dry (relative to your area), then it could be that those conditions invited the mites? But, I only have a few pleuros, so I am by no means an expert! I have seen what heat can do to them tho :blushing:

Thank you Mary Linn for the insight, I hadn't thought of that. They could have some heat stress, most of the velaticaulis don't have any damage on the underside of the leaves. Same with the macrophylla. The humidity stays between 60 and 80 most of the time, but not always. We had a few days this year that were very warm and regulating the temps was near impossible. I had some days where the temps got into the 90's in the greenhouse. We had to pull a tarp over it to get the temperatures down.
Some plants had the typical silvery tops and damage on the underside like you see with mites. I sprayed with Avid today. That stuff is pricey, but I don't want to lose my plants. It's a small price to pay.
The upside to all of this is I put my hands on each plant today. It took 3 hours. Even with the bug problems I have some pretty nice looking flora. On a sad note, my pachyglossa is exploding with flower spikes that may be ruined by the Avid. We'll see how it shakes out.

Yes, avid is definitely expensive! So is Tetrasan... But with Tetrasan, I was able to find a small amount being sold for about $20 (they usually come in one-pound lots, with eight, 2 oz packets, and it's like a couple hundred dollars or something like that... What I found was just the 2 oz packs sold individually! Yay!).

Oh, I hope the spikes aren't affected by the Avid!! I'll keep my fingers crossed for those!!

Yep, like I said with my masdies and pleuros, I know what heat does to them! 90° is something I see often during the summer... :shock: Think I'm losing my other masdie... one has already died... Funny, 'cuz it did fine last year, and bloomed for me in the fall... Grew new leaves... :dunno: Oddly enough, this year has been cooler than last year! .....yep, think I might have to give up on some of these :'( ...unless they've proved to be ok with temps in the 90's

So far the plants don't appear to be affected by the application of the Avid. I think I'll get some pictures of the Pleur. pachyglossa with all the spikes just in case.

I have a quart of Avid, more than I'll use in 17 lifetimes. The application is 1.5 ml per gallon. Maybe some others may need a small quantity and I can help.

I tell ya, when I saw all the damaged appearance to my plants I was just horrified and worried that I'd lose them all. Thank you all for helping to calm my fears.

Oh yea, I know the feeling... Seeing damage on so many plants... :(( I had a major mite infestation last summer, on my Phals... :'( but...I am sooo glad I could help you! ;)

Yea, that's the other problem with these expensive fungicides/insecticides/miticides, they are sold in such large quantities! Of course, considering the fact you do get so much, (& if you're able to actually use that much) they are actually reasonably priced as far as how much/how many applications you get... But for us hobby-growers... There's no way we could use that amount in our entire lifetimes! Lol

Ooh, just looked something (Safer 3 n 1) up to see if it would kill scale... And in this chart, it shows whether or not the particular product will harm flowers... And it says that Avid will NOT harm flowers! Have a look: http://www.staugorchidsociety.org/PD...rchidPests.pdf
I love these PDF's... Bookmark this if you don't have it already! ;) (there's one for bactericides/fungicides too, if you want it/don't have it?)

Lol, forgot to add, post those pics here! I'd love to see the buds/spikes, and then the blooms! :biggrin: