Possible Brown Rot on Huntleya palida

[lotis146]

I will post pics later once I upload them but I just wanted to take a minute and start this thread that last week after putting all my plants outside for about a week then bringing them back in for about 5 days now I noticed this plant had a grayish brown spot on one of its leaves, I thought it was sun burn. Then it spread, and within a few days or so more than half the leaves had patches on the leaves. Today I cut all the ends of the leaves that were effected and treated the whole plant with Physan 20. I've left it outside to dry however I've read it's not good to keep a plant with Brown Rot out in warm humid conditions, which is what we have now. I will put cinnamon on the ends of the leaves when I bring it back in though I wasn't sure if doing it immediately following (with) the Physan was the way to go, but it will get done. Hopefully it will be okay.


Okay I'm back, here's some pics, not the greatest, sorry for the lighting & the glare from the Physan, but I think there's plenty there to get the point.

[WhiteRabbit]

Could be burn - I've had a couple of experiences with the full extent of burn not manifesting until a few days later - BUT, I'm not positive that it is burn, hopefully some others will be chiming in!

[lotis146]

Thanks Sonya, that's good to know that burn can manifest later sort of like poison ivy I guess. Of course too that would be better than rot! For now the plant looks like it's been to the barber.

[WhiteRabbit]

Keep an eye on it - hopefully it just got burned.

[Ray]

In the vast majority of cases, burning looks like parchment, and is localized to where the extreme light intensity hit the plant, not scattered around it.

That looks a great deal like an erwinia infection to me, and I strongly recommend that you react quickly, or that plant will soon be a "goner".

[lotis146]

Thanks Ray. I've treated it with Physan, sprayed a half gallon on it. How often do you recommend I treat it? Repeat the Physan in a week or two? I also cut off all the effected leaves, which was about all of them.

[Ray]

Physan is topical only, so will not affect the infection that is within the plant. You need something systemic.

Clearys 3336 is an option. I would avoid Phyton 27 due to the potential sensitivity of the plant.

Personally, I have switched away from all "antibiotic" treatments in favor of biological probiotics. I had an erwinia infection in a very pricey ($150) phalaenopsis, so I sprayed it and its potting medium with a 1:50 letdown of Inocucor Garden Solution daily for 3 days, and the infection just stopped. I continued with a 1:100 spray every few days for another couple of weeks, and the thing is on the rebound. I now treat my entire collection with it monthly.

[lotis146]

Originally Posted by Ray

Physan is topical only, so will not affect the infection that is within the plant. You need something systemic.

Clearys 3336 is an option. I would avoid Phyton 27 due to the potential sensitivity of the plant.

Personally, I have switched away from all "antibiotic" treatments in favor of biological probiotics. I had an erwinia infection in a very pricey ($150) phalaenopsis, so I sprayed it and its potting medium with a 1:50 letdown of Inocucor Garden Solution daily for 3 days, and the infection just stopped. I continued with a 1:100 spray every few days for another couple of weeks, and the thing is on the rebound. I now treat my entire collection with it monthly.

Thanks again, I will look into that. Are you spraying monthly now for preventative measures then?

[AussieVanda]

Looks viral to me, like a Phalaenopsis Chlorotic Spot Virus but really could be any of them.

[lotis146]

So a quick update:

I only treated the one time with Physan then I ordered some Inocucor & treated per the instructions on the bottle. I treated two days in a row, missed a day, then treated a third day. Everything was looking good, I really thought it was on the up and up. However in the last couple of days I've noticed the brown patches returning on the main growth, so far not on the second, younger one. This is following the weekly treatment I intend to carry on after the three days in a row. Normally this would mean I don't treat again until Thursday but I'll go ahead tomorrow (meant to today) and probably return to daily treatment.

I am suspecting the return is due to it being exposed to warmer temps & high humidity outdoors, I should have known better. I have since moved this plant into the basement where it's much cooler & I run a dehumidifier in part of it.

So this is a super bummer at this point and while I'm not giving up by any means I'm prepared for the high possibility that this plant will not survive. Until then...

In the meantime, I have Pabstia (Colax) jugosa and it was showing some weird browning & yellowing - not the same as H. Palida - and after treating it with Inocucor in the same way it appears to be doing okay. I also have a couple of other plants - my Phrag & Zygo triste - who have unknown (to me) ailments that I'm also treating the same. So far they're not getting worse per se but the jury is still out... Phrag has been suffering for some time.