Exotic Orchids of Maui - Vandas

[Ray]

Originally Posted by katsucats

However, then there are these:
C. gaskelliana var. coerulea 'Blue Dragon' x C. walkeriana var. coerulea 'Blue Moon'

Which are virused. All 5 of them. Including the gaskelliana x purpurata 'freebie' they sent me.

Did you tell them about that?

If so, what was their response?

[katsucats]

Originally Posted by Ray

Did you tell them about that?

If so, what was their response?

The return policy is 48 hours and it's way past that so I'm not expecting anything. By now I multiply the cost of anything I buy in my head by a factor and that's the "true" cost of any orchid. I did give them an email just to let them know, I'll report back if I get a response.

[Ray]

Forget the return policy. If they are virused, they should offer to refund your cost.

[katsucats]

Originally Posted by Ray

Forget the return policy. If they are virused, they should offer to refund your cost.

Thanks for the sentiment, but from my experience buying from many vendors in general I'd be glad with an acknowledgement. Actually getting a refund seems to be 50/50 at best. They did email back this morning though to tell me that they will be testing their stock with Rega test strips. We'll see how that goes.

[Roberta]

Did you contact them about the virused plants? I expect that they will be very willing to address the issue.

[katsucats]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Did you contact them about the virused plants? I expect that they will be very willing to address the issue.

They just responded saying that they tested their stock and found them all negative, but will refund me for those plants anyways. The entire email was written in a friendly and open-minded tone. The solution was amicable. He apologized for the stress it caused.

I would have obviously preferred no viruses, but given that there was, they probably handled this nearly perfectly. I could detect no hostility and it wasn't much of a hassle. They did say that they found that Agdia tests are sometimes false positive. I don't think I agree, but it's okay.

As for my batch, I don't know if my plants got infected during shipping or packing, since their stock apparently tested negative. For now it might be safe to continuing buying from Maui.

[Leafmite]

I am very sorry for your experience. I always find your results interesting. I grow other plants, indoors and outside, live in a town surrounded by farms, have dogs that brush against the outside plants, and buy orchids (and the other plants) from a variety of places so I have long ago realized that a virus-free collection is probably not going to be possible for me. Worse, a biologist once told me that the only way to guarantee beyond doubt that a plant is completely free of virus is to run every part of the plant under an electron microscope...very impractical.

Human virus antigen tests, the ones that are often sold for home use or used as a first indicator in other settings, do sometimes yield false positives (enough so that a second test is often recommended after a positive result for some viruses). I imagine that false positives can happen in plants just as it does with tests for humans.

Years ago, when I first began growing orchids, it was commonly recommended that if one got a positive result, to then send samples off to lab (or, believe it or not, a university) to have the virus confirmed.
In those days, for the scientifically inclined who were also cheap, an alternative was to use 'indicator plants' to test virus in orchids...you would wound the 'indicator plant' and put a little of the sap of the suspect plant in the wound. If your orchid was virused, the 'indicator plant' would quickly show signs of the virus. These plants are now resistant to virus so they no longer can be used for this purpose, interestingly enough.