Vanda Colmarie - yellow and black spots - can it be saved?
 

My V. Colmarie first got really beaten up by thrips after blooming and now has developed these yellow spots along the edges of the leaves and tiny black spots all over. I am seeing tiny bits of new root and leaf growth.

I have been using an alcohol spray on the orchids to try to keep the thrips & friends at bay.

Location: West Central Florida Coast

Any advice is appreciated.

What are your temperatures? How are you watering it? Are you fertilizing?

Temps are in the 60s at night 70s-80s during the day.

Watering: daily with a sprayer - sometimes twice a day if it is hot and dry (high 80s & low humidity)

Fertilizer: alternate potassium/epsom salt with Tezula 13-3-15 every 5-6 watering
Kelpak 1/month

This is the same routine for all of my other Vandas and some of them have a bit of scale, but are growing well. This one got really infested with thirps after blooming and it took FOREVER to get rid of them. It has not seemed to be able to recover and now this.

I wouldn't give so much potassium. It gets enough from the fertilizer. I would talk to local growers. It might be a disease we don't get here.

For its size, that plant doesn’t have much of a root system, so I suspect you’re starving it a bit.

How much of the MSU RO (that’s what Tezula repackages) are you using per gallon? Are you giving it a soak with the fertilizer and Kelpak, or just a spray?

Soaking in Kelpak, spraying with fertilizer 2 rounds at a feeding

1 tsp/gallon on the fertilizer

The thrips killed all the roots

Potassium overdose stunts garden plants. I don't know what it does to Vandas.

I do not think it is stunted growth. The plant was severely damaged by thrips and lost most of its roots and the middle leaf which was where the blooms were.