Phalaenopsis - bumps on leaves
 

Hello, I would like to ask if anyone has experience with such bumps on the phalaenopsis leaves? Is this some kind of pest? Thank you

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

Sometimes they develop bumps. I haven't noticed any problems from this. Congratulations on the spike!

It doesn't seem be a pest issue but it would be a good idea to quarantine the plant from the rest and keep a close watch on it to see if the color of the bumps changes. I had a similar issue on one of my oncidiums which I belief must have been scale and I failed to follow the rules of quarantine. If the bumps change color then it might be some pest but thats just my opinion. I'm no expert but just sharing my thoughts. I'm attaching a picture of the bumps that I saw on my orchid. But mine had bumps on leaves so I just chopped the end of the leaf but not sure on handling these kind of bumps on the stem.

Another thing to keep watch is seeing any kind of whitish powdery stuff like in the picture attached. Then its for sure scale. I was completely new to this and failed to quarantine the plant and passed on the pest to my entire collection. Since the plant is in spike it would be a good idea to leave it as is but just quarantine the plant and then you can decide later what you should do.

I have Phals with those bumps too but they never brought any troubles to me or the plant.

I always treat scale. They can kill a plant. I use a weak soap solution and a soft brush.

True Estación the hard part is recognizing scale when its in the initial stages. Cleaning with soap solution has be done very carefully since we have to make sure we get into all the corners of leaves that they can hide without letting water get into them. I feel the best thing to get rid of scale is removing the old potting media and gently washing the leaves with light castile soap solution with a soft brush and thoroughly letting the water drain out from all the leaf corners and then repotting. In this case I think the orchid is having a new flower spike so maybe better to wait till its done blooming but quarantine till there are more signs of scale.