Phal Help
 

I have a 2 phals that I am growing under lights in the basement and they have white stuff on their leaves. It is like it is in their leaves. They are little white indentations. They appeared within 24 hours. They weren't there and then all of a sudden its there. I regularly check my orchids throughout the day. Could it be from sucking pests? I have a small ceramic reptile heater and once an orchid got burned and the heater burns don't look like this so it's probably not from the heater.

The first picture is one that didn't get it as bad, the second picture is of the orchid that got it a little worse.


Ok I can't figure out how to attach pitures. I went to manage attachments, clicked the pictures I wanted and pushed upload. At the bottom it said "Uploading File(s) - Please Wait". I waited for a long time and nothing happened. How long do I have to wait?

resize your pictures. if its too big it wont load. the whitish stuff is from mites. get a magnifying glass and look closely at the back of the leaf...

homeade cheap remedy mix:

10 drops dish soap
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon extract
2 cups tepid water

spray the whole plant soaking wet
then with the rest of the mix soak the pot for 5 min to kill the eggs

How do you resize pictures?

I got out a magnifying glass and looked at the underside of the leaf. I saw nothing. From the underside of the leaves you can't tell that the leaves have been damaged. The white stuff is "in" the leaf not "on" the leaf.

OK. I'll attemp to post pics.

looking at your picture, it is not mite infestation...its a burn. did you put the leaf too near the light?

Yikes. It looks like the leaf actually touched the bulb. I bet the scar is the exact size of the circumference of the bulb.

The leaf must have been to close to my heater at one time. I have them under fluroescent tubes and the leaves have touched the tubes multiple times the bulbs are barely warm. It must be from the ceramic reptile heater. It can get very hot (120F or more) within an inch of the heater. I must have had it too close to the heater at one time. Thanks for your help!

Dude, I make it a point to have heater 3 to 4 ft away from the plants...and have a small oscillating electric fan at the back of it to spread the heat evenly...on the opposite side is a 2 gallon humidifier...heaters can dry up the moisture of plants bigtime...in your case: burned part of the leaf...just be careful

From what I understand the leaves don't have to be hot to get burned. Too much light can torch them as well right?

yes, Josh...if you expose a Phal to direct sunlight in the summer from 10am to 3pm...the leaves will get burned...same thing if you put it too close to the lamp lights...

Thanks for the confirmation Bud.

The heater is very small. It is only for 4 orchids under lights in the basement. I have a cieling fan going 24/7. Would it be good to get a small fan and place it by the heater? The orchids have to be within a foot of the heater for it to provide warmth for them. Here is the link for the 100 watt heater I'm using: All Living Things Ceramic Heat Emitter - Heating - Reptile - PetSmart

I have a ceramic heater that is a normal one that has the fan built in. Not a problem heating up my plants as I can get the area around them up to 85 with air circulation.

The radiation of heat off that reptile heater might be the problem.

Any recomendations for small heater to heat just a 4 foot long place under lights?
Josh, what is the specific name of the heater, how big is it, and where can you get it?

Mine is just a general small heater from Wal-Mart. Lasko brand. It has temp controls and two fan settings when on heat.

IIRC, it was around $15.

One more phal question. One of my phals under lights (the one with the worse burn) has purple spots and stripes on the underside of the leaves. What is this caused by? I thought I heard something about it being from a lot of light. If one has it why doesn't the other one have it?

What is purple phal leaf coloration caused by? (See above post.)

A reddish to purple tint is an orchids version of a suntan produce by protective pigments. Your plants might be getting just a bit to much light. Thats my guess.

It depends on the type of Phal and what colour the flower is too. My Phals that have purple or pink in them often have purple pigmentation in the leaves and the stems and buds can be very purple even without getting excessive light.

My phal has purple spikes and purple flowers so it could be part of its traits.