Dendrobium with black and yellow spots now w/ pictures!
 

Hello, orchid people!

I have an issue with a Dendrobium that I bought about one month ago. I bought it from IKEA, so I have no idea what kind of Dendrobium it is, all I know is that it was cheap and since I've never owned a Dendrobium before, I wanted to give it a go. Unfortunately I didn't notice that it had some black and yellow spots on the leaves and in my opinion they have definitely spread during the time I've had it. It also has an odd "hole" in one of the canes and in between the canes there's some sort of webbing, but I don't know if that's just from usual spiders or if it's yet another thing that's wrong with this poor plant.

I'd love it if you could tell me something about what's wrong with it and what to do about it. I've tried to Google to see what other people have posted and I've looked at tons of pictures, but I can't really find anything that looks the same as this.

The spots are both yellow and black. The yellow spots are not very visible and they don't cover many of the leaves. The black ones however are kind of sunken into the leaf itself and they cover many of the leaves. Some only has one spot, others have more and one has a whole cluster of them. :( There are also some black spots on the canes.

Here come the pictures!

The media and roots:
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

The black spots on the leaves:
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

The yellow spots on the leaves:
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

The black spots on the canes:
http://imgur.com/RAwq74x
http://imgur.com/Ntc3rvd

The odd hole in the cane:
http://imgur.com/kLcAfPU

The webbing:
http://imgur.com/ej44WQZ
http://imgur.com/ixaccxZ

The orchid and spike:
http://imgur.com/f3Mbvga
http://imgur.com/sPLnfOX

The old flower spike:
http://imgur.com/bQiFzjf


Hope they help you determine what's going on. Thanks for reading! :)

NKOrchid

Welcome NKO:)
My sugestion is to post a pic so that we can see. It easier and avoids possible incorrect diagnostics.
You can post pics after 5 posts.:)

In the meanwhile, the webs a tiny webs or of "normal size"?

Note that some dendrobiums lose their leaves in winter, which may be the case.

Thanks, Rbarata! :)

I know it's hard to tell without pictures. Well, the webs are quite tiny and white. They're close to the media and it kind of looks like it makes a little of the media stick to the underside of some of the leaves that are closest to the media itself.

When you post pics, post also some close up pics of the leaves. Are there any tiny marks on them, king of silverish in aspect?

I will post plenty of pictures of the media, the roots, the leaves, the canes, the entire plant and the new spike it has.
From what I can see there are no tiny marks of silvery color.

---------- Post added at 05:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:58 PM ----------

Do you think the webs are an issue?

When someone mentions spider webs one thing comes immediately to my mind: spider mites.
But it can be just a spider living in your orchid.:)

Yeah, well. Soon I will have posted 5 post and then the pictures come! I have some great pictures of the webs, too.
Something that confuses me though is that it has a new spike growing. The plant seems to be doing good, despite all the things I think is wrong with it.

Don't worry. Post the pictures and we will help you.
Dendrobiums from IKEA must be a nobile. I have one too and it loses most of its leaves.

I will. This is the last post before being able to post pictures. :)

---------- Post added at 08:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:00 PM ----------

I just need someone to answer, so I can finally post them.

One thing I've noticed is the medium. Does it has some type of soil in it? It seems so. Get rid of it and use medium size bark with leca or perlite.

The spots, I really can't help you 'cause I'm not experienced in that kind of pests. But if it is spreding, it doesn't sound good. But let's see what others have to say.

The webbing...I'm not sure but I would be concerned with spider mites. It has all the looks of it. A home remedy to control it's population is to make a solution of water + 1 soup spoon washdish detergent + a tea spoon of alcohool and spray the plant with it, especially under the leaves and crevisses where these bugs can hide.

Yes, the medium is an issue. I haven't re-potted it since it was flowering when I bought it and now it's growing a new flower spike. Should I re-pot it right away anyway?
I will try the solution you're mentioning. How much water should I mix with the 1 table spoon of dish soap and the 1 tea spoon of alcohol?

Thanks for your advice! :) I hope someone else knows about the spots, since they seem to be the biggest issue.

1 L, that's how I use it. I would wait until the flowers die. Do you have any other plants nearby? Spider mites are microscopic and have high potential to spread to other plants. So, isolate the affected plants is mandatory, as well as cleaning the surface where the pot is.
Before the spray, gently clean the leaves with alcohol in a piece of cotton, especially under the leaves.

I would wait until the flowers die because, is case of spider mites, they will be also in the spike. If you spray it, the flowers will be damaged. Since spider mites infestations do not cause instant death of a plant, isolate it and start to treat it as soon the flowers die.

Anyway, this is what I would do. Maybe it's better to see what others have to say.

Thanks for sharing your advice. :)
I'll see if anyone has anything else to say and then I'm gonna test all of it. Hopefully that will get rid of it!

The treatment (spray) must be done 4 times, once a week to cover the complete life cycle of the mites. The spray can't kill the eggs.

Okay. Again, thanks! :)

In my opinion, this is a Den Phal. I agree w the mite issue. Don't over pot it and use a shallow heavy pot if possible. These are tough. While its usually not good to pot in flower, I've had to do it and it turned out ok. Type this in tbe site search engine and you'll find they are easy growers

Right! At least, it's not a Nobile.:)

Thank you for the advice, Dollythehun. I think I'm gonna go ahead and re-pot it tomorrow. At least it will be before the flower buds open.
Do you have any clue about the spots?

I am a novice too but my fav. Den Phal has spots like this with no ill effects. I 'd worry more about the mites and the medium. These will lose their leaves after a couple of years. Also, that "hole" is where a spike started and or finished.
Sr. members correct me if I am wrong.

Okay, I will focus on the mites and medium then :) I guess the black spots worry me the most, because they're sunken into the leaves and are definitely spreading.
Does your Den Phal have as many black spots as mine?

I notice them when the leaves are damaged or old. Maybe the others can better chime in.

Sure. Thanks for your advice!

I would also not worry too much about the spots. The webs to me, anyway, look like regular spider webs like you may have a small spider living in your plant which would not hurt it. I feel that way because in one of your pictures it looks like small insects or pieces of medium stuck in the web. If you look closely maybe you can tell if there are small insects caught in the webs, it might just be a small spider. If you would feel better, you could still do the treatments for the spider mites anyway. Won't hurt anything. But by all means keep it away from other plants in case it is mites. I would go ahead and repot it in new medium.

Yes, it could just be a small spider web. I don't know a lot about spider mites or Dendrobiums so it's very difficult for me to know.
Yesterday I did treat it with some water and alcohol and I'm planning on doing it about twice a week for three to four weeks.
Someone on a different forum mentioned that the yellow spots could look like scale. Do you think so too? And do you agree with Dollythehun that I shouldn't worry about the black spots?

Thanks!

I see those yellow spots sometimes. They are usually nothing. I'll post a picture of mine later. They can get pretty gnarly looking and still be healthy. In the beginning I worried a lot too...

Oh, thanks. Would be nice with a picture of your plant to compare with my own.
So... basically, there might not be anything wrong with my plant like, at all?

Perhaps not. I'll post later. The older canes lose their leaves. If they are bruised or damaged they can get spots. The newest leaves are the only ones that look fresh and perfect, at least here.

Well, the leaf with the most black spotting on my plant is a leaf that's on a cane which isn't very long - so I'm assuming the cane isn't very old either. I actually don't know how that works.
Looking forward to your picture.

I cannot upload those pictures. I have shrunk them to no avail. Sorry. Well, and then here they are. Ah, technology:)

Haha, aw. It's a little hard to see what's on the pictures, but thanks for trying! :)

If spreading, I would cut off the leaves with those black spots. Cut far below the lowest black area. Maybe even cut all the way back to the stem. Sanitize your tool with a 10% bleach solution between cuts.

Well, the issue is that it's on a lot of the leaves and some places it has spread from the leaf down the cane. So... am I supposed to remove then entire cane then?
I've taken pictures so I can compare and hopefully determine whether or not it's actually spreading.

Is there a university near you with an agricultural department? They might be able to help identify the problem.

You clicked on them I assume? I have to shrink them way down to post them.

Dollythehun, the photo uploading box says these are the limits for photos in JPG format:

1024 x 768 pixels
97.7 KB size

So if you resize to 1024 x 768 you should have a decent photo. I use
Resize Images online
to do the resizing.
For 2 Select New Maximum Image dimension
I use Custom and put in 1024 pixels.
For 4 Set resized image quality (jpg compression)
I use Best.

Upload your photo. It resizes it and displays the resized version. Download it to your computer then upload it to Orchid Board.

I attempted that, as you pointed out before. For some reason today, I had to reduce to the smallest size to get them through.They simply wouldn't post otherwise.
I am using the Image Shrink app. It considers that size "large," and today the Board would only take small. This works in reverse for shoes and clothes. :)

I just sorta perused through the thread so i probably missed some details... but I'd just add that the plant itself overall looks great, I wouldn't worry all that much... but I would definitely keep it drier - ie water well and let completely dry before you water again, and give it a fair amount of air flow.

these dendrobium types generally like higher light short of hot western direct sun, and drying out between waterings. The black spots- which look bacterial- are generally from water sitting on leaves with high humidity, low air flow, or too much water in general.

webs look like normal spider webs to me

NKOrchid is in Denmark, which doesn't exactly have high light intensity nor lots of heat.

Nope, Scandinavia is really not a great place to grow orchids. At least not most orchids. It just kind of gets the light it can so I'm hoping for the best (that it will adjust or at least survive). This is my hope for all my orchids, since I know the climate here isn't really suitable for orchids, they have to adapt to some degree or I'll have to accept that some just die.
Does any of you know of orchids that are easy to grow that doesn't require a lot of light, humidity and warmth? I can't really afford lights, humidifiers, fans, etc.
I bought a masdevallia measuresiana a while ago. I bought it when it was still too small to flower. It has grown, but hasn't yet flowered. It seems to be doing good, though.

u bada, I'll be changing the potting medium soon and then I will definitely do as you say and keep it drier and let it dry out before watering it again. With its current medium it is almost impossible for it to dry out. I think I will re-pot it in medium sized bark and leca.

If I lived in Scandinavia I would grow draculas.