Probably my last order with Ecuagenera
 

Great experts of OrchidBoard, take a look at the two attached photos and see if you can identify which is virused. Is it

1. Oncidium sotoanum
2. Encyclia osmantha (with the spotty leaves)
3. Dendrobium nobile
4. Both the sotoanum and osmantha
5. Both the sotoanum and the nobile

Like many others here when shown the pictures I would have put my money on the Encyclia osmantha being virused. In fact, I put that plant in a corner separate from all the other ones I picked at the Huntington Garden show. When I tested, I tested the other ones together thinking they looked clean. But... it turned out I was wrong.

It was the Oncidium sotoanum and the Dendrobium nobile that tested positive for CymMV, not the spotty, sickly looking Encyclia osmantha. I bet money that most people who receive plants that looked like the former two would be rather happy about it. They look healthy, lots of green unspotted leaves, good clump, and new growths. Virus would be the last thing on anyone's minds. But nevertheless... Testing is expensive and most people don't, so I'm feeling that for anyone who has over 6-7 orchids, it's statistically likely that they have a virus, regardless of how reputable the vendors they buy from are, regardless of how healthy looking the plants are, and regardless of how good their culture is. If you have 30 plants and don't test, I'd risk getting hit by lightning over betting that you don't have virus in your collection.

As for Ecuagenera, maybe 2 outta 3 ain't bad in some contexts, but it's way more than it should be. Although most of the plants I've ordered from them in the past are not virused, and it's still very possible to get huge and inexpensive plants, it's clear that some of their batches and suppliers are of questionable quality, and their refund policy isn't as aboveboard as the best vendors. So at the end of the day it's like playing roulette, either you get a deal or you get dealt, and I'm feeling like I would rather get a smaller plant from another vendor unless it's something I can't find anywhere else.

On the other hand, the 4 Mormodes and Catasetum I got from Orquideas Amazonica, 2 tested negative and the other 2 don't have leaves yet, but it's a good start.

sad to hear about anyone getting a box of half rotten orchid salad.

I have some ranch dressing left over from my Motes order.

If you are going to eat them make it memorable :).

ordered a bundle of stuff due on nov 3rd from them.

keep you informed on what I got..I'm always hopeful not to get a box of junk. or virus

Thank you for this post and warning. I was really tempted to order some from this vendor looking at the affordable prices. But 2 out of 3 being virused is too bad.

To be fair to Ecuagenera, my overall track record with them is more like 4 virused out of 31, and maybe 4-5 more sick looking plants that died pretty quick. The point of my post besides venting my frustration is to point out

1. Someone else could have gotten an order of 10 orchids that look healthy, but here I was sent 2 virused orchids out of 3. It's unpredictable.
2. Most virused orchids I've tested looks healthy. So when I see people talking about quarantining or testing only when there's symptoms, I think they've missed 70% of the virused orchids that enter their collection.
3. Ecuagenera, sadly, has no reliable return policy. If you pester them and get lucky someone might respond.

However, I have gotten a number of large-ish plants from them that are healthy that probably would have cost an arm and a leg from domestic vendors.

On another note, I'm getting pretty tired of virus testing every orchid I get. It just greatly inflates the cost of this hobby, every random purchase becomes an ordeal and makes me pretty disappointed at the industry at whole. I looked over my past purchases and realized I have pretty good luck with vendors out of California and Hawaii -- not all of them to be sure. I think I'm going to just cut down on this hobby and only buy plants from a handful of vendors I trust, like SVO, Andy's, Cal-Orchids, HR Nurseries, Tropical Orchid Farm, and Big Leaf. And then maybe most of what I buy will be compots or flasks since they should have a low rate of viruses.

Otherwise I'm here on the Vendor Feedback forum complaining about all the vendors everyone else loves, that send virused plants out to people because they know no one tests.

Outside, I have an herb garden growing in raised beds where every plant touches other plants and no one says that they shouldn't. Herbs are susceptible to viruses too, so why doesn't anyone at Home Depot advise people that plants shouldn't touch each other? That's because every industry besides some ornamentals don't have a huge virus problem that they've been shoving under the rug for decades.

Alright, I'm off the soapbox. Thanks for listening.

Herbs, vegetables, and other bedding plants are actually being grown to be resistant to viruses (either purposely or through natural selection) They will get the virus, sure, but it will not hurt them too much and they will still perform as they should. Many of the plants I grow, including figs and passionflower, are thought to all be virused but they perform so no one cares. Personally, I avoid variegated leaves when selecting the plants that I wish to add to my collection...just an irrational phobia.

The problem with orchids is that we do not value the ones that are resistant, perform well and never exhibit the signs of virus or other disease because these orchids can spread virus to those less resistant orchids we also wish to collect. This might need to change. Plant viruses and other diseases are everywhere in our environment due to people traveling and due to plants being shipped all over the world. Even if a vendor is really careful and tests all the orchids (or other types of plants) periodically, someone can accidentally spread virus to the curated plants if they come in contact with infected plant products (i.e. tobacco) or plants. The future will lay in developing resistant plants. This was once discussed in the orchid trade, too, but I am not sure if it is still being considered.

Just placed my last order with them. They have changed, in my opinion. I just received 6 bareroot plants and 4 of them have already sprouted roots from the new growths some time ago, which were destroyed in transit. They used to be good at shipping bareroot at the right time. These 4 plants look ok now, but have a rough road ahead. I am done nursing their plants back to health for a year or two before they are something I am not embarrassed by.

threw out the last of my order. it was pretty rotten when I got it and I just not going to deal with the plants anymore. lesson learned. sometimes you do have to pay for your education :)...

so, i shouldn’t weigh in here cause, well, im a noob with little experience and an even bigger ego. also, i haven’t ordered plants from ecuagenera us. however, recently me and the partner took a trip over to ecuagenera europes greenhouses and store just to have a look and buy some plants.

let’s say i had big expectations and in reality when i looked closely at many plants i would never take them into my grow space. im a plant perfectionist, and there were a lot of plants (im reluctant to give a percentage) that had visible signs of damage- what appeared to be some pest, some mechanical, and some things i had never seen and didn’t even want to speculate on the cause.

we admittedly didn’t spend a whole lot of time exploring the plants, but there were some things that i wanted going in and when i looked at the lot on the benches it immediately was clear that these were not the plants i was looking for. so, anyways, there it is. they did have a lot that looked good as well, and many amazing plants. their seedlings and older plants with the old rollke tags were, on the whole, in better shape. oh, and their phrags all looked fantastic, but we didn’t want any of those and they are known to be pretty resistant anyway....

In the spirit of full disclosure, and with a bit embarrassment, I have to admit I lied. I placed another large order with them. The addiction is real haha.

For the same price as Ecuagenera you can buy a domestic seedling and grow it out, vs a roughed up mature plant that needs TLC and to be reoriented to the northern hemisphere. I find, in most cases, the shorter path to blooms is rehabbing the abused mature plant.

The fact that I occasionally get a plant that is huge and healthy makes it hard for me to resist rolling the dice.

This is probably true. I have gotten some large and healthy plants from them that probably would have costed 10 times their prices if I bought them domestically. Even taking into account the other costs, it was still worth it. However, at least for me, it's easy to conflate the price of a plant with it's "true price", which would include all the sick and virused plants that I had to toss. With Ecuagenera, the true price to apparent price ratio is high. It still might be a good deal, but it ends up not being nearly as good of a deal as the initial impression.

Ah... it's been pretty hit or miss for me. I just ordered one plant this time, a little pricey. We'll see if I end up crying and "paying" for my education haha...

Their plants were very nice when I had it shipped to an orchid show. I has the same plant shipped directly and it was a sad rotten mess.

OK you guys, I'll give you my little secret to getting great plants from offshore...............

Pre-order to take delivery at a show. You don't like it? You don't take it. As easy as that. In fairness, I'm sure that because I contract vendors for shows for 2 societies doesn't hurt my probability of scoring top shelf either.

Well.. I'm not sure why the plant was wet and wrapped in paper/sphag... but it seems to have rotted the new growth. I thought it may be ok and potted it up. Now the older p-bulbs are turning brown and mushy too.

I contacted Ecuagenera about it. They told me it's my responsibility and that I'd have to pay shipping to return/exchange it.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c6a411c3_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b52a08d2_c.jpg

I'd follow up in a day or two with another picture and a strong demand for a refund. They have always refunded me when something like this happened.

They may have changed their refund policy considering all the other changes and expansion. My outstanding order has a 7 week lead time when it used to be 1-2 weeks.

Unbeknownst to me I found this thread before I made my purchase. I'll be updating my orders aswell

I agree Catts ship better dry and bare-root. The Cattleya alliance plants I received from them this week were bare root inside paper bags. Even so a few had a sprinkling of cold spots on leaves. The Oncidiums and others were in almost dry moss in little plastic baggies tied at the neck. A large Phrag was fairly wrinkled, though it revived some after a overnight soak in warm Kelpak/Inocucor/fertilizer/sugar water.

But it is winter. Even though you and I live in the southern part of the US, things can get cold in transit. Delivery services don't keep packages in climate-controlled spaces most of the time. Delivery trucks are not heated. Ecuagenera does offer 2-day delivery at an extra charge. I've sprung for 2-day when it's winter and it's relatively cold. I don't order in summer any longer unless it's hot-growing plants, and I get 2-day delivery.

Of course, due to the weather I did anticipate some potential cold damage. And I did see some minor damage in orchids I recently received from another vendor. Even if it were more damaged, it is within expectations of ordering in winter.

With Ecuagenera... It's difficult for me to understand why they would send a cattleya in wet sphag in the winter... the paper wrapping around the plant was still wet. The side that was on the wet paper was already turning black when I received it. The mushiness is spreading from that side. The dry side is perfectly fine. I'd conclude that their wet packaging method was likely a significant factor in making things worse.

Anyway, I will keep trying. I've had mostly positive experience with them. Not sure why they are being difficult this time around.

I have received email requests to review my items on the last two orders before Ecuagenera even confirmed the order. It is taking them two weeks to even acknowledge an order right now.

Clearly going through some growing pains and they are not being very transparent. I am currently still waiting for an 18 plant order to ship that I placed on Nov 27th.

My advice, don't be like me. Don't order from these guys right now.

Reporting in with the Ecuagenera import.
I was fearing for the worse, but actually I think everything is looking good so far. The Stanhopea though I was expecting it would be smaller, I really have no room for it. But look at it, I can see it shooting out new root. :biggrin:

I was expecting the shipment to come tommorow not today so I am a bit stuck on what to do.
I suppose I'll start with cleaning them up and cutting dead root first then rehydrate them in rain water.

Hate to tell you... Stanhopeas aren't small. And grow pretty fast.

Alright all cleaned up, time to soak them up and call it a night for now.

What I have here are Stanhopea Stanhopea nigroviolacea X Stanhopea gibbosa x Stan. nigra, Ionopsis utricularioide, and anthurium warocqueanum. Cat toy for scale

I was expecting that they'll give me a near mature or seedling with that price to be honest, but now I've got more than I can chew so it will have to get used to my room temperature until I can leave it outside. What ever the mother plant of this stanhopea is from, the cut division is very deep.

My main concern is probably the Ionopsis because I want to mount it but I am unsure of its original medium, therefore, it may not adjust to the mount after the shock in transit, otherwise I can provide it warmth and humidity.

You'll only have to baby the Stanhopea for around a month, nights will be getting warmer soon. Once night temperatures are reliably around about 50 deg F , it can move outside. Days are getting longer so that it will get warm enough days to compensate for chilly nights by March or so. That is a gorgeous plant.

Those are all cat toys.

I had the same issue with an order from Ecugenera that I got in mid-November. I ordered a couple Dendrobiums and two Bulbophyllums and the Bulbos especially the B. longissimum was HYUGE! I didn't have anything big enough for it, so it sat in a salad bowl for a week or two until I could get a good pot for it. Except for one, they all had TONS of healthy roots.

Sounds to me like a high-class problem! :biggrin:

Oh man this is worrying. I got a sotoanum from Ecuagenera last fall. How likely do you think mine is virused too?

There is no way to know without testing. If you are concerned about virus in your plants, you need to invest in some test strips. I don't know about Agdia in the US, Rega in Taiwan ships internationally. The downside of the latter is that the minimum order is a pack of 50 tests. But if you can join forces with other orchid people, you can share... since all the items (vials of buffer, test strips, mixing stick) are packaged individually it's easy to divide things up, just make copies of the sheet that shows what the test outcomes look like.