Thanks for answering, Rob. If you are correct, I think I can kiss my orchid
collection goodbye.

Diana

"Rob" wrote in message
...
Diana Kulaga wrote:
Well, we have a little problem here. Walked out on the patio on Friday
morning and saw severe damage to a number of Phals. Mind you, seeing them
every day is unavoidable, so I can assure you that these probs were not
evident the day before. Clearly, something had been in the works, but I
hadn't noticed.

The leaves are turning yellow starting at the outer edges. The under
sides of the leaves look moldy and pitted. Some of them have what look
like sunken areas on the top of the leaves, but those are not soft. There
is no sign of snails/slugs, and those things would be unlikely to find
them where they live. There is no big web infestation, so I don't think
it's spider mites. My guess is some kind of mites, however. Saturday we
sprayed everything (*everything*!) with soap and oil with some alcohol
thrown in for good measure - 6 tb/gallon.

Well, I won't be able to see the pictures, but it sounds similar to a
problem I have sometimes. I just pitch the plants as this happens. I
think it is a kind of rot. A plant can go from green to dead in a few
days. The phals that seem most susceptible are recently repotted ones, so
I have tended to assume it is some sort of root mediated rot problem, but
I've never tried to diagnose it any more accurately than that.




--
Rob's Rules: http://littlefrogfarm.com
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit