Hmmm....what is going on with my Aeranthes?
 

Here is a photo I took today of my Aeranthes ramosa, I noticed the dark spots on the leaf yesterday....some on the top, including the largest spot, and a few small spots at the base of the leaf....it is only this leaf that has the problem....it lives in my orchidarium with all the other 'chids and I haven't had any other problems. Any ideas? I did bump up the level it was sitting at for light about a week ago but nothing major, and like I said that was a week ago...so I don't think it is a burn. I put some Dragon's Blood on the areas hoping to stop any bacterial problems from spreading in case that is what it is. I can't tell if the dark spots are spreading or not...it looks as though it may have gotten bigger but I could have imagined it...lol. I am tempted to cut part of the leaf off! Not the best pictures...sorry! Oh and the redish streaks going down the leaf is some of the Dragon's Blood.

Hi Becca,

unless the burn could've come from heat i agree, the lights aren't the cause.
that looks pretty nasty. is the dark area soft or wet feeling as in a bacterial rot/infection?
I'm not familiar with Dragon's blood but I've had good results with isopropyl alcohol.
if the dark area spreads towards the crown i wouldn't hesitate cutting it off.

If it is rot, I would water it real well with Thiomyl solution. That's a systemic meant to cure rot. Then figure out how it got started. Does water sit in the crown?

That is what I don't get....I haven't changed anything else other then the lighting a week ago, and it is only on one leaf. I haven't had any water sitting in the crown and I keep a close eye out for that with it and my phals and paphs since I have the misting system. Perhaps it is just bacterial.....

The Dragon's Blood is something that Steven (IdahoOrchid) recommended to me when I was having some crown rot problems or something like that. It is an extract of a plant...I can't remember where I purchased it from and I tried doing a search but I can't seem to find much....I will have to contact Steven again.

I guess I will just have to keep an eye on it and see if it spreads any more....it just seems so bizzare! I thought maybe it was attacked by a bug that sucked on it or something...lol....but I think it is safe to rule that one out...lol.

last fall two of my Aerangis came down with some kind of bacterial rot, also on one leaf only. started as wet looking spots which then got dark.
they caught a cool draft, thanks to two fans in the tank. (and i had the window ajar in the room...) fixed the positions and never happend again
i'm just thinking if something like that occurred while you moved it to the better lit spot..?

It does sort of look like rot. I have not experienced this yet with my Angraecoids, but did with Haeralla. The crown was damaged due to rot and it responded, after a liberal dose of Thiomyl, by sending out three new growth shoots! I think lots of problems come from fan location, cool drafts, etc. The plant in the photo looks pretty dark to me, darker than any of my plants. The lowest light in my tank, at the bottom under all the hanging plants, is still 600-700 foot-candles (6000-7000 lux). My Angraecoides are all positioned to receive a minimum of 1500 foot-candles (15000 lux).

and they've bloomed happily right?
actually,
i was getting pretty small and light green leaves and moved most of my Aerangis lower in the tank. after a few weeks mystacidii and citrata are both putting out two spikes. maybe the change triggered it, go figure.
they're now growing between 450-600fc and clearly, seem happy. i also have a noid Phal in bloom at 500fc with 18 flowers on two branched spikes.

How is it that yours like low light and mine like high light? :scratchhead:

Becca - Is this the same Dragon's Blood ? :hmm
Dragon's Blood,A resin derived from the fruit of Calamus Draco,Dragon's Blood extract,5:1.Calamus Draco,Calamus gum,Willdenow extract,Daemonorops,Daemomorops draco,Sanguis Draconis.Narrative.MDidea Extracts Professional.

Hiya Becca,

Can you wash that Dragon's Blood off and take a closer pic of the bad area. . .I am having trouble seeing what's what.

I am sure thinking it looks like a burn. . .

Sometimes if water is sitting on a leaf it magnifies the light and like a magnifying glass can cause a burn underneath. But I am just guessing. . .

i still doubt it. sunlight induced burns are caused by the inherent UV-rays.
i don't think any lights used for our purposes contain those wavelenghts to that degree. a more likely burn when growing under lights is caused by heat.

Ross- strange, i know :D especially when our conditions are fairly similar when it comes to temps, humidity and fertilizer.. though those levels apply only for Aerangis. Angraecums get higher.

My first thought was burn... that's the newest leaf, isn't it? Possibly slightly more tender than the others?

Ross, my mystacidii and modesta both get fairly low light. The mystacidii has flowered for me, but the modesta hasn't yet I have the rhodosticta in higher light - maybe I should move it and see if that triggers it to spike?!

I'm far from an expert (even though I have lots of these guys) but I thought they liked a bit higher light. I've set all mine Aerangis as well as Angraecum for 1500 FCs.

Hi Ross, I have read that Aeranthes ramosa likes lower light levels....and hates having it's roots disturbed.....come to think of it....would these spots arise if I had problems with the roots? Anyways....I know the leaves look pretty dark in color...it actually came that way and it had previously bloomed.

The spots are getting larger in size so I think I am going to cut the worst part off...the Dragon's Blood doesn't really show up much in the picture...the dark spots are the spots that are bad, so if I wiped the leaf down it probably wouldn't make much of a difference.

D, I looked on my bottle of Dragon's Blood and I do believe the link you found is the correct info on it, but I purchased mine from a company called the Healing Forest...sometimes I have found it to help and other times it doesn't.

Thank for all of everyone's help! It is always hard to diagnose these type of things and I will probably never know what it is, except possibly a bactierial infection or a burn.

Well just a quick update....I waited as long as I possibly could stand to see the yucky spots on my Aeranthes newest leaf....so today I got my snippers out and disinfected them and away I went....I won't post any pictures as it is ugly...lol....but I basically had to cut the top third to half of the leaf off and then another spot at the base of the leaf was still growing as well so I tried just cutting that part out......my poor poor baby! Oh...and I dusted it with cinnamon too...but I had been doing that previously to the dark spots as well and it still wasn't stopping it. So I will keep my fingers crossed and hope this will be the end of it and I will just have one ugly orchid now.

One quick question....I accidentally got some cinnamon in the crown and I can't get it out because it is so deep...will this hurt anything? I tried tilting it upside down and I still couldn't get it to come out and a q-tip won't reach it either!

two words Becca, vacuum cleaner :biggrin:

sorry, i don't know whether it could cause any harm or not.

Well I don't know why I didn't think of that...lol...and I don't see how it could possibly harm anything if I am careful...so I will be giving the vacuum cleaner a try...lol.

:goodluck: Becca! Don't suck it up in the vacuum like I would do! :coverlaugh: Don't quote me on it but I think I read on here somewhere that getting cinnamon in the crown doesn't hurt anything. But now I can't find the thread. :scratchhead: Btw, dragon's blood is a great incense!

Hi Sarah! I think I am more worried about accidentally sucking up the potting medium...lol. I was just looking at the link D, provided previously on the dragon's blood and I have the liquid form of it, I have never tried the other forms of it.

Yet another update.....I never used the vacuum to clean up the excess cinnamon since I ran out of time before I left for the weekend. When I came back, the brown areas that I had previously cut out and put cinnamon on had spread more so I cut the entire leaf as much as I could and sprinkled more cinnamon on the cut, but that doesn't seem to be stopping whatever it is. I even moved the location of it in my orchidarium since I didn't want the mist from my MistKing System to get on the leaves and cause further problems. I have since taken it out of the orchidarium in hopes that the dry environment would help slow things down, but to my knowledge, this 'chid likes high humidity so I hope I am not just causing further stress. At least it is only one leaf, so hopefully the brown spots won't transfer to other parts of it. I am sooooo stumped and frustrated!

Becca, I'm sorry to hear that things did not clear up. When my Aerangis developed a brown spot on its leaf, I tried to stop it from spreading. But in the end, I panicked because the spot was quite close to the crown and ended up cutting the whole leaf off. See the thread: http://www.orchidboard.com/community...-aerangis.html

Its now growing a new leaf and seems to be doing fine - so I'm sure your's will be all right too.