You know, I thought about the red tag thing last night.... are you sure we
don't have some sort of a weird Al telepathy thing going on?

Between you and Diana I've started feeling better about things.

I think I'll just have the few that have bloomed weird tested, and then mark
the rest with tags. One of my awarded mini catts bloomed with streaks this
time, which I chalked up to the Orthene I used (it was very old Orthene),
but I'd actually like to be sure. As well as the plant that caused all this
commotion in the first place, as well as a few that I've wondered about
myself.... no time like the present to learn to trust one's gut.

Anyway, thanks for your input!

K


"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
news:Gk9Ph.114$P84.7@trnddc07...
KB,

I find that there are some cranky old orchid growers who seem to get
pleasure out of telling people that their plant is gonna die or has virus.
I know one such person who is an AOS judge and been around since William
Cattley grew his stuff. Hey Bill, you should throw those things out. I
think they are virused. Look at the leaves! Good thing Bill didn't
listen!

If you are worried about the plant just mark it with a tag (I use big red
tags for watch plants). Use extra care when repotting and cutting this
plant and wait it out. See if the flowers are affected. The streak in a
leaf could be a cultural thing. If the plant goes into decline or the
flowers look infected they get rid of it.

Somewhere I recently read a comment that every orchid greenhouse that has
been used for any length of time has viruses around.

Good Growing,
Gene



"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.)