I *get* the writing it out to put thoughts in order. If I'm really, really
angry (doesn't happen all that often, but when it does it ain't pretty), I
try to put it all in a letter to the transgressor. By the time I'm finished
I don't have to send it. Of course, today we have that infernal *send*
button, so ya gotta be careful.

Anyway:

Hypothetical question: What if you have every plant tested and 50% of them
test positive? What would you do?

Another question: What's wrong with testing just the one plant at issue?

Still another question: What makes you think your plants are the only one
with yucky leaves? G

And the $64,000 question: How many large collections do you suppose are
truly 100% virus free?

Diana


"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
Sorry, but I just gotta talk. I probably won't even post this, sometimes
in writing a solution becomes clear or I get my thoughts in order (yeah,
right, remember my thoughts resemble Wendy's tags, except she has a better
chance of straightening hers out.)

You know how you get mentors in this hobby. People whose opinion you
really value becasue they are right more often than not in your
experience? Or they've been growing orchids for a million years?

Well I'm stuck between two of them with opposing opinions.

Mentor #1 says a plant I have has virus, Mentor #2 says no way.

My brain says the only way to be sure is to have the plant tested. My
brain also says if the vague streaking in the leaves that Mentor #1 says
is virus really *is* virus then I'd better have every plant with that
streaking tested. Only one way to be sure.

My brain also says there are so many oddball spots and streaks in the
leaves of all my orchids (which I have been pertaining to poor culture,
thrips, cytotoxic effects from Orthene, and just plain old
fungus/batcterial spotting) that if I check one, I may as well check them
all....

Ack! We'd be talking about thousands of dollars. The Cattleyas alone
would cost me $800. The whole collection about $2500. If not more.

So of course the other side of my brain is now second guessing the
scientist in me. Maybe I'll only test the ones that bloomed weird last
time. Yeah, that's the ticket. And the one's that get weird spots no
matter what. That'd be about $100, maybe $125. That's do-able.

But the other brain is screaming at me! No! Thats' just spot checking!
You'd never really be *sure*. You'll never rest until you KNOW!

So I don't know what to do.

I'll probably just check the 20-30 plants that are weirder than the others
and see if I can decide from there.

Maybe keep really good records of what the symptoms are so I may be able
to go back and diagnose from that. Spots OK, streaks bad. Like that.

[sigh]

I hate this.

K Barrett
(now you know why I usually comment on how clean other people's leaves
are, *G*.)(Now you also know why I usually tell people not to fertilize a
dry pot, not to use insecticide on a dry pot, and not to overhead water or
mist plicate leaves.)