Cymbidium mosaic virus in dend. Anosmum
 

I am hoping I am having bad luck here, but I have tried 5 different suppliers and 5 different dendrobium anosmum plants and all 5 have had CymMV! I have had to throw them out and deal with trying to get a refund....


I really like them, but I cannot risk the rest of my collection with infection over one plant. I have done research and can't find much about the infective rate.

Are all of them infected in the trade or am I having bad luck?

Wow that's brutal! I hope others will be chiming in with their experience.

How are you testing them?

I have used the immuno test strips and sent some to be tested to a lab

there is a lot number on the test strips. if you bought them from agdia, some lot #s are giving false positive results for cym virus. my 1st thought is if all 5 of the plants you are testing are with the same lot of strips I would suspect the strips more than 5 plants from different suppliers. if the lab tested plant comes back negative, you can relax. if it comes back positive, depending on how long you harbored your plants not quarantined before you tested them.the problem could be closer to home.

ill test my anosmum as I havent ever tested that one and let you know how it turns out. I havent found any virus yet and ive gone thru about 50 strips. I spent the money now dammit i wanna find a virus :biggrin:

I would like to state that I have a biochemist background and cross contamination is not an issue.

I already know about the agdia batch and have gotten the newer ones that they have just released.

4 of the orchids were well before the bad batch of strips, and the newest ones were in quarantine and started exhibiting symptoms all of the others did in the past. So I tested before I normally do and they were positive.

Indicative symptoms in this species are leaves turning yellow with raised green circular patches remaining almost until the leaf drops. I didn't have time to take a picture, but I will try tomorrow.

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...r/IMG_2451.jpg

Above is a picture... Please note the raised green "freckles"

Every one of them has expressed this trait.

I tested mine and its clean. I got it from kalapana tropicals in bud this year if you want to get a clean one. They are well grown healthy plants.

this is the cane thats been growing all summer long from a tiny little nub :bowing

http://oi49.tinypic.com/211j7ns.jpg

I hope you get a good plant these are some of the easiest to grow and care for dendrobiums.

And good luck to you :waving

Thanks. I actually just ordered a bunch of different orchids from them.

And FAIL! I ordered 2 anosmum plants from them. Just got them today. They are from seed propagation. I had one test strip left and tested one of them, and its positive for CymMV! I have more test strips coming and Agdia offered a research permit to me to do further testing to see if the plant is giving a false positive due to a protein or enzyme or something else. Out of 7 plants, 6 suppliers 100% positive is excessive. There has to be other people who have dend anosmum and have tested them.... Why aren't they chiming in?

RJSquirell,

Where did you sample? Did you sample a leaf preparing to drop or a brand new fresh leaf? All of my samples have great healthy looking leaves or started to show the very faintest chloranopsys (green and yellow splotching). See the above pic. They were from the middle of the canes.

I don't think that I have Dend. anosmum. I have only a few Dendrobiums and I will test what I have this weekend. It wouldn't cost a lot to send a couple of samples to Critter Creek, I believe that they use Agdia's ELISA tests.

Critter Creek Laboratory

I am specifically asking about dendrobium anosmums. I have a feeling all of them on the market are infected.

Wfuavenger:
Wow - that is really bad luck. I have grown for 37 years and have not had something like that happen. How frustrating it must be. Hope someone has a good answer for you. I heard that a lot of phalaenopsis hybrids out of Asia were TMV infected, but have not seen traces of it in my area.
let us know what happens!

Did you ever find an anosmum that was not virused? I found that my kingianum was infected with CymMV.

I don't have many dendrobiums. What is frustrating me are my catasetinae, fully 1/3 of the 15 of my catasetinae that I have tested have been infected; among them were a Cyc. pentadactylon, Cyc. chlorochilon and a Cyc. warscewiczii.

I tested the oldest 1st leaf on the cane. Its time for these to start dropping the leaves and they will turn before they drop. I dont know if Im suppose to have buds before the leaves turn and drop though. Im having a hard time anyway. All my plants are in the garage dying bec I dont have anywhere to put them.

No luck
 

I have had 3 more that were "seed propagated" and all 3 were virused. They were older well mature plants though. It is too cold right now to get anything in the mail where I live in nc, but I will try 2 more times this spring/summer and then give up.


Anyone have any seeds? I am going to try growing from seeds this upcoming fall and I would like to try the anosmums from seed to see if they can be grown virus free.

I have a biochem background, and have crossed a few species of orchid that the pods are growing quite nicely as we speak. I figure this might be my only hope for an anosmum, to do it myself.

You could invest in a 400 watt grow light to put over them and a plastic shroud around it all. The light is about $200 and adds $10 to my power bill. You could also buy used aquarium lights for cheap. I have a make shift grow house in my basement made of PVC and thick painters plastic. Keeps the humidity up, the lights keep them warm too. When I get time, I'll post a pic and writeup in the appropriate thread.