Hello All,

It's been "long time, no post" for me to
this newsgroup or any other. Now that I'm beginning
to get settled into a new job, home, etc. I hope
to have some more time to get involved again.

My collection has been expanding, and the
"Subject" line is one of the plants I've acquired
over the last few months.

It is growing in a west window atop a humidity
tray, sitting on a grid several inches above the water.
The bloom spike was already started when I bought it
and has developed for 3 months or so. It has had some
very sticky drops at the various upper nodes and buds
during that time.

Now it is beginning to have what I thought would
be blooms "unstick/peel" away from the stalk. The problem
is that the bottom 4 have simply dried up within a day or
two of separating out from the stalk.

Is this normal or a sign of some serious trouble?
The plant itself seems very happy and the upper end of
the spike, which looks to contain 6 or 7 more buds, is
still green, covered in sticky "dew", and happy as well.

Thanks for any and all assistance.

Brian

Brian Vogel wrote:
Hello All,

It's been "long time, no post" for me to
this newsgroup or any other. Now that I'm beginning
to get settled into a new job, home, etc. I hope
to have some more time to get involved again.

My collection has been expanding, and the
"Subject" line is one of the plants I've acquired
over the last few months.

It is growing in a west window atop a humidity
tray, sitting on a grid several inches above the water.
The bloom spike was already started when I bought it
and has developed for 3 months or so. It has had some
very sticky drops at the various upper nodes and buds
during that time.

Now it is beginning to have what I thought would
be blooms "unstick/peel" away from the stalk. The problem
is that the bottom 4 have simply dried up within a day or
two of separating out from the stalk.

Is this normal or a sign of some serious trouble?
The plant itself seems very happy and the upper end of
the spike, which looks to contain 6 or 7 more buds, is
still green, covered in sticky "dew", and happy as well.

well, the "dew" is not a problem, but the bud blasting is
suspect. It sounds a lot like thrips (or some other
insect/arthropod) damage to me.

---Prem
www.premdesign.com

On Tue, 01 Apr 2003 23:02:37 -0500, Prem Subrahmanyam
wrote:

Brian Vogel wrote:
Now it is beginning to have what I thought would
be blooms "unstick/peel" away from the stalk. The problem
is that the bottom 4 have simply dried up within a day or
two of separating out from the stalk.

Is this normal or a sign of some serious trouble?
The plant itself seems very happy and the upper end of
the spike, which looks to contain 6 or 7 more buds, is
still green, covered in sticky "dew", and happy as well.


well, the "dew" is not a problem, but the bud blasting is
suspect. It sounds a lot like thrips (or some other
insect/arthropod) damage to me.

---Prem
www.premdesign.com

The bud blast can also happen if that honeydew is too sticky. The
humidity, or rain, on the plant should naturally reduce the
amount of honey dew on the flowers. Sometimes with window sill
or under light conditions it does not get rinsed off. Try to make
it a point to mist the dew if you mist the plants and when you
water.

If this is your problem - the buds are probably blasted before
they get free of the 'spike'. Take a close look at those not yet
blasted and the last one to go. Can you tell if it is before or
after it was freed from the spike?

Good Luck

SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

Susan Erickson wrote:

Thanks to both Prem & Susan:

On Tue, 01 Apr 2003 23:02:37 -0500, Prem Subrahmanyam
wrote:


well, the "dew" is not a problem, but the bud blasting is
suspect. It sounds a lot like thrips (or some other
insect/arthropod) damage to me.

I've carefully inspected, but have not been able
to detect the presence of any unwanted critters.


The bud blast can also happen if that honeydew is too sticky. The
humidity, or rain, on the plant should naturally reduce the
amount of honey dew on the flowers. Sometimes with window sill
or under light conditions it does not get rinsed off. Try to make
it a point to mist the dew if you mist the plants and when you
water.

If this is your problem - the buds are probably blasted before
they get free of the 'spike'. Take a close look at those not yet
blasted and the last one to go. Can you tell if it is before or
after it was freed from the spike?

After, but *very* shortly after. The honeydew on this plant
was *very* sticky and based on the misting advice I thought this
might be a good time to give this particular plant a bath/media
purging at the same time. After a brief shower the honeydew is
gone. I'm going to watch what happens over the next few days.

Prior to this there have been 4 blasted buds. A fifth and
sixth are separating from the spike now. One looks like it's
already started to blast but the other looks fine. There are
4 or 5 more at the top of the spike.

Wish me luck and thanks again.

Brian