Hello Everyone. I'm Mary

[Mary Morton]

The potting medium is moist now I watered it tonight. I usually let it get just about dry before I water it. I don't know how to put a picture on this site as of yet. The damage is more like streaks than spots. Or maybe irregular areas. When the black appears, they are spots.

[terrestrial_man]

Hello Mary,
Are the bulbs shrivelled up?
Without seeing the plant I am going to
recommend that you unpot the plant in question. Get a newspaper and turn over the pot onto the paper and shake out all the potting mix and see how the roots look. Are the roots white and firm or are they dry looking and are falling apart?
If ok then repot but if not ok then what you need to do is to have a smaller pot available and get a bag of fresh mix atb a home improvement center. Crowd the bulbs into the smaller pot so they sit about halfway down in the pot and pour in the fresh mix to level with the rhizome of the plant.

While you are running your lights 24/7 how is your humidity???
I would cut down the light to 16 hours.
Also got a spray bottle. When you turn your light on in the morning spray the plant. Then spray again around 1PM.
If the plant has bad roots then mist again around 5PM. Another approach some use is to bag the plant, pot and all and this will help with humidity.

If you can put an image or images up. Otherwise all the advice can only be tentative and taking shots in the dark-some hit most won't.

[Ross]

I really need to see pictures. It sounds like you are doing the right thing as long as you provide strong light. Many of my orchids (mostly Brassia, Oncidium, Encyclia, spp Cats, etc.) will show, what I think MAY be the same things. But that doesn't mean anything unless you can help us here. To create your gallery just have some digital photos already on your computer, then follow Sue's instructions --> Gallery Photos

[Mary Morton]

I tried to put a couple of pictures in the Gallery but I am not sure if successful. I will take some pictures of ailing June and post them Saturday. Thank you for helping me. I saw a photo that looked similar to the problem-spider mites. Is that bad?

[terrestrial_man]

Mary,
the images did not post.
perhaps your problem may be that after
uploading a page comes on with
thumbnails of your images on the left side column then another column with a tiny small box in it for each image. be sure that a check mark is in each of those little boxes. i guess click over each if not.

[Mary Morton]

Here are four pictures of my sick orchid. I hope you can view her and let me know what to do to help her.

[Djarum Black]

Hiya Mary,

Just curious..what type of water are you using to water your plants? I noticed the first picture to the left there was a white filmy substance on your orchid leaves. It don't look like scale or fungus, looked like hard water spots. Also the browning tips on some of the leaves remind me of root burn. How often do you fertilize your plants and what are you dipping them in?

[Ross]

Can you get closer?

[Mary Morton]

I water my plants with regular tap water. I do not believe it is hard. The leaves looked like this when I got it. I have not repotted or changed the medium. Over the past year I have wiped the leaves with alcohol, dishwashing solution diluted in water, liquid seven, 3-in-1 garden spray II, and Raid House & Garden spray for indoor and out door plants. Most of the time I leave it alone. I try to keep it watered but no more or no less that the other plants which are doing fine.

[terrestrial_man]

Mary,
Don't know if I can be of help at this hour. The eyes are kinda shot. But your first picture reminded me of mealybug on the leaves. Is the white crud down in the pseudobulbs too and looks almost like cotton??
The second and third pics look like a virus.
The pitting on the leaves. The black blotches on the leaves.
If virus is the issue then there is nothing that can be done but try and grow the plant as best as you can. Keep it in a more shadier spot: maybe half shade.
If mealybug is an issue then Saver Soap should do the trip without harming the plant. Or soak the plant pot and all and get a toothbrush and scrub it down!!