I spoke with some other mentors and decided to try the dry pod technique to
see if I can get clean plants out of my virused ones. One I'm just going to
toss, I didn't like it anyway. The others I figure, 'what teh heck...'

I have a friend who tests everything with the agdia test strips. Again they
only test for the 2 viruses and like we all know there's 457billion other
viruses it could be. (yeah I'm overstating it, but let's face it. The
minute you say you tested a plant people come out of the woodwork to tell
you how stupid you were to believe the results and that you wasted your time
and money becasue there are 457billion other viruses they don't test for
which you could have a false +/- result for too. [sigh])

But I digress.

j_a, you've angered The Orchid Gods. They require that you buy another
orchid. Its the only way to appease them. They require periodic 'wallet
sacrifice'. 'I gave at the office' excuses don't apply. Neither does 'I
have no space' (See Rob's Rules). You simply *have* to go buy another
orchid. Do it quick before they decide you have to buy more than one.... I
wound up at the Sacramento Orchid Show with 4 new orchids.....

I hope the gods are satisfied, but somehow I doubt it.

To quote The King (lyrics were changed for the general public, but I
reprint them as originally intended)

Lord almighty, I feel my temperature rising.
Higher higher. Its burning through to my soul.

Orchid, Orchids. You gonna set me on fire.
My brain is flaming. I dont know which way to go.

These orchids lift me higher. Like the sweet song of a choir.
You light my morning sky with burning love.

To quote The Bard ; 'Get thee to a nursery'

K Barrett
(Yeah, I know. Its actually 'Hie thee to a nursery' but I translated it
from English into English.)

"unknown" wrote in message
...
went to the GNYOS show yesterday; lots of purty plants (incl. 3 kovachii
hybrids from piping rock; they claimed to be selling seedlings but i
didn't see any; another guy had seedlings for $75 per 2 inch pot (!))
and there was an outfit there selling virus test kits. basically it's a
dip strip type of thing; tests for cym mosaic and odont ringspot.
website www.agdia.com for those interested. they also seem to do testing
of samples you send in. (disclaimer: i don't know those folks, i don't
know anything about virus testing, and i have no idea if it works.)

and yes, i managed to get out of there having bought only one plant, and
it small enough to fit in my shirt pocket. (encyc. cochleata.)

the bad news: this morning i discovered my phal brother lancer which i
had thought i had brought back from stem rot, had it again. tossed the
plant.

--j_a