A major loss
 

Hi,
A couple of weeks ago our AC broke. We were without it for a week because of the holiday. Our house had temperatures 90 degrees and above. It was very humid. I ran all of our ceiling fans, but it was awful!

A lot of my orchids looked the worse for wear. They now have assorted diseases. I lost three phals to crown rot (didn't water during the heat spell). Five intergenerics to some type of rot. Some various other var. and today discovered five catts. with some type of rot in the pseudobulb. The leaves fell off when I picked the pots up and the bulbs are mushy at the base. One of them is my one and only Iwan. It is one of my favorites. I don't know how many more will be lost.

I am so upset. This is a large portion of my orchids. Since replacement of the AC and furnace was so expensive I can't even go out and just replace them :(


I thought about purposely keeping my collection smaller now or phasing out growing, but love them too much.

Sounds like an air circulation problem, not a heat problem or a watering issue.

I have no AC here, just a small desk fan, and none of my Phals are dying from rotting because of the heat. If anything, they may suffer every-now-and-then from under watering; but watering them thoroughly perks them back up.

I have a few other orchids that are the same.

For you, like I said, I don't think it's a watering issue or a temperature problem. Phals are tropical plants that come from places like Indonesia. Indo gets pretty warm very easily. You may want to adjust your air circulation.

I don't know if you're misting the orchids. If you are, I'd stop doing it.

If your Phals were grown in moss, that might also be another problem as well, who knows. I don't have enough info to go on.

Very sorry for this loss. You might want to treat the rest with Physan or something in case it is contagious. I agree with Philip that if temps were only 90F that wouldn't have caused a problem on its own. All of my orchids in the greenhouse are subject to temps of 90 and higher multiple times thru the summer. But there needs to be VERY good air movement and no humid dank areas. Not to say 90 is any fun to endure in your home but the plants are tropical and should be able to with stand that.

I hope you can stop any more from getting sick. Maybe you can get divisions of some of the ones you lost from other people.

Air circulation, heat, water are all very closely related regarding orchid culture and disease outbreak.

High temperature and high humidity usually set perfect environment for rotting diseases.
Phals grow fast under warm condition but even phals do not "need" 90 and above temp. it is just too high. They may tolerate but do not require such high temperature.

With air circulation, which you have, you mentioned having ceiling fan on, which circulates air really well by the way, plants may take heat better but still heat really stressed plants out.

Try not to wet the entire plants, and make sure the drainage is excellent and sitting water as well as too wet potting mix encourages rotting and other diseases to thrive.

Your rotting intergenerics, can you cut away the affected portion and save the rest? If the rot has not reached the base, you can save usually.

With crown rot of phal, I don't know what to say.

---------- Post added at 11:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:07 AM ----------

Also, it sounds like they are spreading fast.
You might want to treat them with chemical. go systemic.

Cut away the rotten portion if not too bad, then apply sulfur podwer or captan (not cinnamon, I don't believe in its effectiveness personally) on the cut.
Dry in the air and then treat it with systemic and pot up in a fresh potting mix.

If you can spray the growing area with bleach solution, treat it before placing plants back there.

Water them well but remember drainage is very important.

I don't have air conditioner as well, mine are doing just fine, I don't mist them & only have one fan going.

I am so sorry to hear about your loss! When you lose plants that you love it is heartbreaking and frustrating. We moved from North Carolina back to Michigan 3 years ago, while we looked for a house, we stayed with my parents. At my parents, I did not have the proper conditions for my orchids and I lost a HUGE portion of my collection to a bacterial infection, it moved in sooo fast and I was throwing away plants daily. I had a newborn at the time so I couldn't replace them and I thought I would just keep my remaining 10 and be done with it. But because I love my orchids, I now have 80+ again!!! I feel your pain and know how devastating the loss can be!

Thanks everyone. The room the ones with most of the issues are in doesn't have a fan. The room next to it does and I ran that fan. It was extremely humid. I had windows open, but there wasn't a breeze. I am going to treat them the rest with Phyton 27 and hope for the best.

---------- Post added at 12:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:06 PM ----------

So sorry for your loss too.
I have three children who even in the Summer keep me running. It does leave less time to fuss and keep up with the orchids. We went away a couple of days after the AC was restored for several days and nights for my daughter's dance comp. I think I would have noticed sooner if I hadn't been rushing around getting ready for it once it was cooler and returning home to catch up with everything. I am sitting waiting for my son at baseball camp right now lol

maybe going from being cool, then hot, then cool again was a shock to their systems.

Yep, that will do it.

Heat damaged tissues probably gave up for microorganisms to take over and cause rot.

---------- Post added at 12:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 PM ----------

I had saved Tahoma Glacier from a rot that started near the base. I cut away and dusted.
It suffered but grew and even flowered within a year.

fingers crossed.

It is another heat wave this week here and I am so not enjoying my life because of that. lol

So sorry for your loss too.
I have three children who even in the Summer keep me running. It does leave less time to fuss and keep up with the orchids. We went away a couple of days after the AC was restored for several days and nights for my daughter's dance comp. I think I would have noticed sooner if I hadn't been rushing around getting ready for it once it was cooler and returning home to catch up with everything. I am sitting waiting for my son at baseball camp right now lol[/QUOTE]

Thank you so much!!

And I am with you; orchids are my hobby, but my little people come first! I have a 1 and 2 1/2 year old so sometimes that means no time to water. Maybe that's why I love my vandas so much; they thrive in my conditions and are the plants that reward me for my neglect! Lol!