I was talking with an orchid grower today who warned me about a problem
that orchid growers seem to be having, but don't know much about it or
what to do. It is called a microfungus and once it sets in it
eventually kills the orchid. It spreads very easily throughout a
greenhouse or collection and affects phrags, paphs, phals, and other
things. Small brown or orange lesions appear mostly on the undersides
of leaves and discoloration eventually spreads killing the leaf or
entire new growth or eventually the plant. Healthy established plants
may have the microfungus symptoms but still grow and bloom.
Apparently not much is known about this and there is no known cure.
Phyton 27 may help control it but it never seems to go away. One West
Coast commercial greenhouse operation apparently lost an entire
greenhouse orchid collection to what was attributed to this mysterious
"microfungus."

Anyone know more about this "microfungus?"

Thanks

if you go to Google groups at
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.gardens.orchids/
and search the archive of this newsgroup for the term "microfungus" you will
find threads in which the term has been mentioned as far back as 1995. I
don't think anything conclusive has ever been posted about it and I tend to
think of it as a kind of 'internet' lore, because I have not been able to
find anything written about it anyplace else. I have even asked a few
agriculture extension agents I know... None of my text books on botany or
pest management mention it, but they all talk a lot about fungus problems.
And most fungus diseases that infect living plant tissue are microscopic so
the term is somewhat confusing and misleading to begin with and probably
applied a bit loosely when nothing else seems to apply...

Whenever this term comes up I wait to see if somebody can post something
definative.

"van" wrote in message
oups.com...
I was talking with an orchid grower today who warned me about a problem
that orchid growers seem to be having, but don't know much about it or
what to do. It is called a microfungus and once it sets in it
eventually kills the orchid. It spreads very easily throughout a
greenhouse or collection and affects phrags, paphs, phals, and other
things. Small brown or orange lesions appear mostly on the undersides
of leaves and discoloration eventually spreads killing the leaf or
entire new growth or eventually the plant. Healthy established plants
may have the microfungus symptoms but still grow and bloom.
Apparently not much is known about this and there is no known cure.
Phyton 27 may help control it but it never seems to go away. One West
Coast commercial greenhouse operation apparently lost an entire
greenhouse orchid collection to what was attributed to this mysterious
"microfungus."

Anyone know more about this "microfungus?"

Thanks

The best and only write up on the topic that I know of are in BobGordon's
books "Culture of the Phalaenopsis Orchid" and '"Phal Cultu A Worldwide
Survey." The pages on cure are well worn in my books. Two of the three
required fungicides are not sold in home consumer sizes. If you do not
already have Subdue, that will set you back over 200 bucks. I have bought
Triadimefon (Bayleton) as Strike 50% WDG (under $100).

If I was a hobby grower and it showed up I would try Daconil (consumer size
available around $20) and (and not or!) Cleary 3336 (around $50, but a good
chemical to have if you have a greenhouse.) treatments for six
improvements. If I saw no improvements after 6 months I would toss the
plants. Do not assume the plant is cured until you get clean leaves for a
year without chemical treatments.

A few years back someone in this group posted very good examples of what I
call microfungus. I do not think he ever cured it. Based on what I have
read in this group it sounds like it can spread to Oncs and maybe other
orchids.

Pat



"al" wrote in message news:BOkNg.3297$xh3.3254@trnddc01...
if you go to Google groups at
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.gardens.orchids/
and search the archive of this newsgroup for the term "microfungus" you
will
find threads in which the term has been mentioned as far back as 1995. I
don't think anything conclusive has ever been posted about it and I tend
to
think of it as a kind of 'internet' lore, because I have not been able to
find anything written about it anyplace else. I have even asked a few
agriculture extension agents I know... None of my text books on botany or
pest management mention it, but they all talk a lot about fungus problems.
And most fungus diseases that infect living plant tissue are microscopic
so
the term is somewhat confusing and misleading to begin with and probably
applied a bit loosely when nothing else seems to apply...

Whenever this term comes up I wait to see if somebody can post something
definative.

"van" wrote in message
oups.com...
I was talking with an orchid grower today who warned me about a problem
that orchid growers seem to be having, but don't know much about it or
what to do. It is called a microfungus and once it sets in it
eventually kills the orchid. It spreads very easily throughout a
greenhouse or collection and affects phrags, paphs, phals, and other
things. Small brown or orange lesions appear mostly on the undersides
of leaves and discoloration eventually spreads killing the leaf or
entire new growth or eventually the plant. Healthy established plants
may have the microfungus symptoms but still grow and bloom.
Apparently not much is known about this and there is no known cure.
Phyton 27 may help control it but it never seems to go away. One West
Coast commercial greenhouse operation apparently lost an entire
greenhouse orchid collection to what was attributed to this mysterious
"microfungus."

Anyone know more about this "microfungus?"

Thanks

Cool.

What do these two books say are the symptoms to look out for? Does Bob
Gordon say if the term "microfungus" refers to a specific pathogen or
group/subgroup of fungus pathogens? It is such a funky word. I am not
saying it does not exist as a pathogen to be dealt with...

Steve posted links to pictures and the thread you are referring to is
mentioned among the threads that come up in the search I mentioned. I don't
know if the pictures can still be accessed. I also scanned the links and
read some of the symptoms describe when the term was used and they didn't
sound like what Van described, of course this means nothing except I didn't
see any common buzzword symptoms in the verbal descriptions. I do remember
thinking Steve's pictures looked like a mite infection to me, but that's a
memory. I didn't try to access the picture link he posted. I also noticed
about 3 or 4 over the counter fungicide names that were mentioned as being a
cure or treatment in these links. And what you listed used over a 6 month
treatment period would cure just about any fungus nature could throw at an
orchid plant.

"Pat Brennan" wrote in message
...
The best and only write up on the topic that I know of are in BobGordon's
books "Culture of the Phalaenopsis Orchid" and '"Phal Cultu A Worldwide
Survey." The pages on cure are well worn in my books. Two of the three
required fungicides are not sold in home consumer sizes. If you do not
already have Subdue, that will set you back over 200 bucks. I have bought
Triadimefon (Bayleton) as Strike 50% WDG (under $100).

If I was a hobby grower and it showed up I would try Daconil (consumer
size available around $20) and (and not or!) Cleary 3336 (around $50, but
a good chemical to have if you have a greenhouse.) treatments for six
improvements. If I saw no improvements after 6 months I would toss the
plants. Do not assume the plant is cured until you get clean leaves for a
year without chemical treatments.

A few years back someone in this group posted very good examples of what I
call microfungus. I do not think he ever cured it. Based on what I have
read in this group it sounds like it can spread to Oncs and maybe other
orchids.

Pat



"al" wrote in message
news:BOkNg.3297$xh3.3254@trnddc01...
if you go to Google groups at
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.gardens.orchids/
and search the archive of this newsgroup for the term "microfungus" you
will
find threads in which the term has been mentioned as far back as 1995. I
don't think anything conclusive has ever been posted about it and I tend
to
think of it as a kind of 'internet' lore, because I have not been able to
find anything written about it anyplace else. I have even asked a few
agriculture extension agents I know... None of my text books on botany
or
pest management mention it, but they all talk a lot about fungus
problems.
And most fungus diseases that infect living plant tissue are microscopic
so
the term is somewhat confusing and misleading to begin with and probably
applied a bit loosely when nothing else seems to apply...

Whenever this term comes up I wait to see if somebody can post something
definative.

"van" wrote in message
oups.com...
I was talking with an orchid grower today who warned me about a problem
that orchid growers seem to be having, but don't know much about it or
what to do. It is called a microfungus and once it sets in it
eventually kills the orchid. It spreads very easily throughout a
greenhouse or collection and affects phrags, paphs, phals, and other
things. Small brown or orange lesions appear mostly on the undersides
of leaves and discoloration eventually spreads killing the leaf or
entire new growth or eventually the plant. Healthy established plants
may have the microfungus symptoms but still grow and bloom.
Apparently not much is known about this and there is no known cure.
Phyton 27 may help control it but it never seems to go away. One West
Coast commercial greenhouse operation apparently lost an entire
greenhouse orchid collection to what was attributed to this mysterious
"microfungus."

Anyone know more about this "microfungus?"

Thanks

It was indeed Steve, and I think he lost some plants that he had owned for
many years. I don't know if he ever found a cure. I had never seen anything
like what he posted.

Diana


"al" wrote in message
news:HanNg.10072$OI1.7228@trnddc05...
Cool.

What do these two books say are the symptoms to look out for? Does Bob
Gordon say if the term "microfungus" refers to a specific pathogen or
group/subgroup of fungus pathogens? It is such a funky word. I am not
saying it does not exist as a pathogen to be dealt with...

Steve posted links to pictures and the thread you are referring to is
mentioned among the threads that come up in the search I mentioned. I
don't know if the pictures can still be accessed. I also scanned the
links and read some of the symptoms describe when the term was used and
they didn't sound like what Van described, of course this means nothing
except I didn't see any common buzzword symptoms in the verbal
descriptions. I do remember thinking Steve's pictures looked like a mite
infection to me, but that's a memory. I didn't try to access the picture
link he posted. I also noticed about 3 or 4 over the counter fungicide
names that were mentioned as being a cure or treatment in these links.
And what you listed used over a 6 month treatment period would cure just
about any fungus nature could throw at an orchid plant.

"Pat Brennan" wrote in message
...
The best and only write up on the topic that I know of are in BobGordon's
books "Culture of the Phalaenopsis Orchid" and '"Phal Cultu A
Worldwide Survey." The pages on cure are well worn in my books. Two of
the three required fungicides are not sold in home consumer sizes. If
you do not already have Subdue, that will set you back over 200 bucks. I
have bought Triadimefon (Bayleton) as Strike 50% WDG (under $100).

If I was a hobby grower and it showed up I would try Daconil (consumer
size available around $20) and (and not or!) Cleary 3336 (around $50, but
a good chemical to have if you have a greenhouse.) treatments for six
improvements. If I saw no improvements after 6 months I would toss the
plants. Do not assume the plant is cured until you get clean leaves for
a year without chemical treatments.

A few years back someone in this group posted very good examples of what
I call microfungus. I do not think he ever cured it. Based on what I
have read in this group it sounds like it can spread to Oncs and maybe
other orchids.

Pat



"al" wrote in message
news:BOkNg.3297$xh3.3254@trnddc01...
if you go to Google groups at
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.gardens.orchids/
and search the archive of this newsgroup for the term "microfungus" you
will
find threads in which the term has been mentioned as far back as 1995.
I
don't think anything conclusive has ever been posted about it and I tend
to
think of it as a kind of 'internet' lore, because I have not been able
to
find anything written about it anyplace else. I have even asked a few
agriculture extension agents I know... None of my text books on botany
or
pest management mention it, but they all talk a lot about fungus
problems.
And most fungus diseases that infect living plant tissue are microscopic
so
the term is somewhat confusing and misleading to begin with and probably
applied a bit loosely when nothing else seems to apply...

Whenever this term comes up I wait to see if somebody can post something
definative.

"van" wrote in message
oups.com...
I was talking with an orchid grower today who warned me about a problem
that orchid growers seem to be having, but don't know much about it or
what to do. It is called a microfungus and once it sets in it
eventually kills the orchid. It spreads very easily throughout a
greenhouse or collection and affects phrags, paphs, phals, and other
things. Small brown or orange lesions appear mostly on the undersides
of leaves and discoloration eventually spreads killing the leaf or
entire new growth or eventually the plant. Healthy established plants
may have the microfungus symptoms but still grow and bloom.
Apparently not much is known about this and there is no known cure.
Phyton 27 may help control it but it never seems to go away. One West
Coast commercial greenhouse operation apparently lost an entire
greenhouse orchid collection to what was attributed to this mysterious
"microfungus."

Anyone know more about this "microfungus?"

Thanks

Here is the link to Steve's pictures and it works. (All praise the
internet!) It is hard to read the archived post but it looked like some
people, including Pat and Aaron (two people who from my point of view tend
to know what they are talking about)thought some of the pictures looked like
what they called microfungus. (To me one looks like mite damage, but not
all of them. Taken together, the group of pictures looks like a lot of
different problems to me.)

Okay group, from top to bottom, refresh my memory....which pictures look
like microfungus?
http://www.geocities.com/tlswilso/Phal_problems.html

"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...
It was indeed Steve, and I think he lost some plants that he had owned for
many years. I don't know if he ever found a cure. I had never seen
anything like what he posted.

Diana


"al" wrote in message
news:HanNg.10072$OI1.7228@trnddc05...
Cool.

What do these two books say are the symptoms to look out for? Does Bob
Gordon say if the term "microfungus" refers to a specific pathogen or
group/subgroup of fungus pathogens? It is such a funky word. I am not
saying it does not exist as a pathogen to be dealt with...

Steve posted links to pictures and the thread you are referring to is
mentioned among the threads that come up in the search I mentioned. I
don't know if the pictures can still be accessed. I also scanned the
links and read some of the symptoms describe when the term was used and
they didn't sound like what Van described, of course this means nothing
except I didn't see any common buzzword symptoms in the verbal
descriptions. I do remember thinking Steve's pictures looked like a mite
infection to me, but that's a memory. I didn't try to access the picture
link he posted. I also noticed about 3 or 4 over the counter fungicide
names that were mentioned as being a cure or treatment in these links.
And what you listed used over a 6 month treatment period would cure just
about any fungus nature could throw at an orchid plant.

"Pat Brennan" wrote in message
...
The best and only write up on the topic that I know of are in
BobGordon's books "Culture of the Phalaenopsis Orchid" and '"Phal
Cultu A Worldwide Survey." The pages on cure are well worn in my
books. Two of the three required fungicides are not sold in home
consumer sizes. If you do not already have Subdue, that will set you
back over 200 bucks. I have bought Triadimefon (Bayleton) as Strike 50%
WDG (under $100).

If I was a hobby grower and it showed up I would try Daconil (consumer
size available around $20) and (and not or!) Cleary 3336 (around $50,
but a good chemical to have if you have a greenhouse.) treatments for
six improvements. If I saw no improvements after 6 months I would toss
the plants. Do not assume the plant is cured until you get clean leaves
for a year without chemical treatments.

A few years back someone in this group posted very good examples of what
I call microfungus. I do not think he ever cured it. Based on what I
have read in this group it sounds like it can spread to Oncs and maybe
other orchids.

Pat



"al" wrote in message
news:BOkNg.3297$xh3.3254@trnddc01...
if you go to Google groups at
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.gardens.orchids/
and search the archive of this newsgroup for the term "microfungus" you
will
find threads in which the term has been mentioned as far back as 1995.
I
don't think anything conclusive has ever been posted about it and I
tend to
think of it as a kind of 'internet' lore, because I have not been able
to
find anything written about it anyplace else. I have even asked a few
agriculture extension agents I know... None of my text books on botany
or
pest management mention it, but they all talk a lot about fungus
problems.
And most fungus diseases that infect living plant tissue are
microscopic so
the term is somewhat confusing and misleading to begin with and
probably applied a bit loosely when nothing else seems to apply...

Whenever this term comes up I wait to see if somebody can post
something definative.

"van" wrote in message
oups.com...
I was talking with an orchid grower today who warned me about a problem
that orchid growers seem to be having, but don't know much about it or
what to do. It is called a microfungus and once it sets in it
eventually kills the orchid. It spreads very easily throughout a
greenhouse or collection and affects phrags, paphs, phals, and other
things. Small brown or orange lesions appear mostly on the undersides
of leaves and discoloration eventually spreads killing the leaf or
entire new growth or eventually the plant. Healthy established plants
may have the microfungus symptoms but still grow and bloom.
Apparently not much is known about this and there is no known cure.
Phyton 27 may help control it but it never seems to go away. One
West
Coast commercial greenhouse operation apparently lost an entire
greenhouse orchid collection to what was attributed to this mysterious
"microfungus."

Anyone know more about this "microfungus?"

Thanks

BobGordon "Culture of the Phalaenopsis Orchid"

.. . ."sometimes a condition prevails that is caused by a systemic infection
of microfungi. As there are literally hundreds of these, the symptoms vary
from plant to plant.

Some of the more common are a spotty, ill-defined chlorosis; a streaky
chlorosis beginning at the edge of the leaf where it looks as if the leaf
edge had been burned with a match or candle; a red-brown coloration
appearing at the apical third or half of the lower leaves followed by a
dehydrated and senescent (old) appearance and also mesophyll tissue collapse
where deep pitting becomes apparent on the surface of the leaves. This
latter condition can also be caused by cold water and by virus infections.
However, in the latter instance, the pitting is usually dark-brown to black
in appearance rather than the white to light fawn caused by fungi.
..
..
..
We still don't have a handle on what is causing the disease yet or even what
it is, but efforts are underway at two state universities. It may be a
fungal disease and virus in combination, confusing the diagnosis, but there
is little question that the disease weakens the plant and leaves it
susceptible to more common ailments such as Pseudomonas cattleyae.

Bayleton may be the agent that is correcting the problem, however, There
have been reports that the Bayleton alone will correct the problem. There
is one report that Subdue alone corrected the problem.

Symptons of the problem are similar to those of a photo of a specimen of
fungal leafspot caused by Guignardia sp. shown on page 84 of the 1986
edition of the AOS's Handbook on Orchid Pests and Diseases. However, to
date, that disease only has been reported in vandas and ascocendas. If the
disease is fungal in nature, it does not respond to the standard culture
tests. At least three efforts have resulted in no germination."


BobGordon '"Phal Cultu A Worldwide Survey."

"Microfungus Phal growers may be facing a major newly-discovered
(observed?) problem. This is the yellow pitting, necrotic spotting of the
leaves, preliminarily diagnosed by John Miller and Rob Griesbach as a
micro-fungus.
.. . . Growers who have followed various recommendations on ridding their
collection of this problem have largely been unsuccessful. Nothing sprayed,
drenched or applied in any manner seems to make any inroads on the disease.
.. . .--T. Happer"

"Systemic Microfungus To my knowledge, Ernie Campuzano of Butterfly Orchids
in Newburry Park Ca, was the first grower to experience the microfungus
problem on a large scale. . . . Ernie had all the symptoms Tom Harper talks
about above and related the problem to John Miller, who in turn related it
to Don Baker of Stoufer Labs. Don identified the problem as a systemic
microfungus and developed the following therapy. . . .-editor"

I would say symptom are, in the order of appearance, yellow chlorosis, more
defined yellow spotting, pitting, large areas of grayish brown tissue
collapse.

Pat

Wow. That was more information than one normally encounters crammed into a
single post.
They sound like good books to have.

"Pat Brennan" wrote in message
...
BobGordon "Culture of the Phalaenopsis Orchid"

. . ."sometimes a condition prevails that is caused by a systemic
infection of microfungi. As there are literally hundreds of these, the
symptoms vary from plant to plant.

Some of the more common are a spotty, ill-defined chlorosis; a streaky
chlorosis beginning at the edge of the leaf where it looks as if the leaf
edge had been burned with a match or candle; a red-brown coloration
appearing at the apical third or half of the lower leaves followed by a
dehydrated and senescent (old) appearance and also mesophyll tissue
collapse where deep pitting becomes apparent on the surface of the leaves.
This latter condition can also be caused by cold water and by virus
infections. However, in the latter instance, the pitting is usually
dark-brown to black in appearance rather than the white to light fawn
caused by fungi.
.
.
.
We still don't have a handle on what is causing the disease yet or even
what it is, but efforts are underway at two state universities. It may be
a fungal disease and virus in combination, confusing the diagnosis, but
there is little question that the disease weakens the plant and leaves it
susceptible to more common ailments such as Pseudomonas cattleyae.

Bayleton may be the agent that is correcting the problem, however, There
have been reports that the Bayleton alone will correct the problem. There
is one report that Subdue alone corrected the problem.

Symptons of the problem are similar to those of a photo of a specimen of
fungal leafspot caused by Guignardia sp. shown on page 84 of the 1986
edition of the AOS's Handbook on Orchid Pests and Diseases. However, to
date, that disease only has been reported in vandas and ascocendas. If
the disease is fungal in nature, it does not respond to the standard
culture tests. At least three efforts have resulted in no germination."


BobGordon '"Phal Cultu A Worldwide Survey."

"Microfungus Phal growers may be facing a major newly-discovered
(observed?) problem. This is the yellow pitting, necrotic spotting of the
leaves, preliminarily diagnosed by John Miller and Rob Griesbach as a
micro-fungus.
. . . Growers who have followed various recommendations on ridding their
collection of this problem have largely been unsuccessful. Nothing
sprayed, drenched or applied in any manner seems to make any inroads on
the disease. . . .--T. Happer"

"Systemic Microfungus To my knowledge, Ernie Campuzano of Butterfly
Orchids in Newburry Park Ca, was the first grower to experience the
microfungus problem on a large scale. . . . Ernie had all the symptoms Tom
Harper talks about above and related the problem to John Miller, who in
turn related it to Don Baker of Stoufer Labs. Don identified the problem
as a systemic microfungus and developed the following therapy. . .
.-editor"

I would say symptom are, in the order of appearance, yellow chlorosis,
more defined yellow spotting, pitting, large areas of grayish brown tissue
collapse.

Pat

On Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:46:09 GMT in BOkNg.3297$xh3.3254@trnddc01 al wrote:

Whenever this term comes up I wait to see if somebody can post something
definative.

My gut feeling is that this started with a botany/biology type
said "It looks like a Myco..., fungus" and didn't pause long enough.
And the end result was not that different from the garbled re-introductions
if I walk up to someone and say "Hi, I'm Pakrat"

Then again
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfungus
and http://www.devonian.ualberta.ca/uamh/
make me suspect that microfungus is just a confusing name for the most common
fungi...

Anyhoo, I'd rate 'microfungus' about as helpful as saying someone is
a placental mammal.
--
Chris Dukes
elfick willg: you can't use dell to beat people, it wouldn't stand up
to the strain... much like attacking a tank with a wiffle bat

Pat Brennan wrote:

...........................

I would say symptom are, in the order of appearance, yellow chlorosis, more
defined yellow spotting, pitting, large areas of grayish brown tissue
collapse.

Pat


Yes, that's about how it progressed on all of my Phals.

Steve

al wrote:

Here is the link to Steve's pictures and it works. (All praise the
internet!) It is hard to read the archived post but it looked like some
people, including Pat and Aaron (two people who from my point of view tend
to know what they are talking about)thought some of the pictures looked like
what they called microfungus. (To me one looks like mite damage, but not
all of them. Taken together, the group of pictures looks like a lot of
different problems to me.)

Okay group, from top to bottom, refresh my memory....which pictures look
like microfungus?
http://www.geocities.com/tlswilso/Phal_problems.html
..............
........

Yeah, that's the page I made. I was going to show it if nobody else did.

I haven't done anything with it in a long time. The disease seems to be
as incurable as a virus but it spreads easier than most fungus diseases.
(No physical contact needed.)
At this point, I have one of the diseased plants left. It is my oldest
orchid; the first orchid I ever owned from back in the mid 70s. It has
one small leaf left. It looks normal but the disease will soon show
itself in that last leaf and that will be it. It's in a window away from
my other orchids.
After that last one dies off, I believe I will be free of the disease. I
hope it isn't hidden in my other (non Phal) orchids waiting to reinfect
any future Phals I may buy. The original post mentioned Paphs and Phrags
as being susceptible. I do have a few of each showing some symptoms but
I can't look at them and see the same disease. Maybe I should look
closer with that thought in mind.
I've been thinking lately that after the last Phal dies, I should go
back and make one last update to the Phal Disease page. Sounds like a
project for some rainy fall day.

Steve

Steve,

I know they are plants and not people. But your loss is incredibly sad. I
hope the troubles are over for good.

Diana

What bothered me about what Bob Gordon wrote was that they still had not
identified the pathogen and suspected it might be a viral/fungus
combination. Without the pathogen, how can it be identified as belong to a
specific phylum?

I found two terms in the library that lead to much more information about
microscopic organisms that live inside plant cells and tissue and which may
cause vascular plant diseases.

Anyway, I heard about MLOs in botany 101 and since I went no furthur I know
nothing more than that, as the instructor mentioned one day during this
whorl wind introduction to botany, is that they are "ill defined organisms"
that seem to be behind many plant diseases. For instance, the pathogen that
causes Dutch Elm Disease is among the pathogens called MLOs. They are not
all fungi.

MLO (microplasma-like organism) seem to be heavily studied and there is lots
of specific plants with named disease syndromes where MLOs have been
isolated and determined to be the pathogen causing the symptoms. If you add
the word orchid to a search of microplasma-like organism it turns up
nothing.

The terms mycoplasma-like organism and mycoplasmic organism were very
helpful. Myco NOT Micro. Myco refers to fungi. (So "mycofungus" would be
wrong and annoying in a manner similar to using the terms fungi and fungus
interchangeably: you'd have to have a clue in order to even notice.)

Mycoplasma has it own wikopedia-like entry.
http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Mycoplasma
with general information that people worried about "microfungus" might want
to read.

When you connect this one of the '"myco" terms with "orchid" in a search you
DO get a number of interesting hits. The term still refers to a group of
parasitic fungi or fungi-like organisms living in the cells and that
vascular tissue of plants AND animals, and does not refer to a specific
pathogen, so this may be why symptoms vary so wildly. Mycoplasma-"like"
also makes me think that whatever they are talking about are not true fungi
and why fungicides, even strong systemic ones, sometimes fail to help.

I think if the pathogen of this mysterious disease "microfungus" is ever
isolated it my be more properly named/grouped with microplasma, mycoplasma
or mycoplasma-like organisms

"Pat Brennan" wrote in message
...
BobGordon "Culture of the Phalaenopsis Orchid"

. . ."sometimes a condition prevails that is caused by a systemic
infection of microfungi. As there are literally hundreds of these, the
symptoms vary from plant to plant.

Some of the more common are a spotty, ill-defined chlorosis; a streaky
chlorosis beginning at the edge of the leaf where it looks as if the leaf
edge had been burned with a match or candle; a red-brown coloration
appearing at the apical third or half of the lower leaves followed by a
dehydrated and senescent (old) appearance and also mesophyll tissue
collapse where deep pitting becomes apparent on the surface of the leaves.
This latter condition can also be caused by cold water and by virus
infections. However, in the latter instance, the pitting is usually
dark-brown to black in appearance rather than the white to light fawn
caused by fungi.
.
.
.
We still don't have a handle on what is causing the disease yet or even
what it is, but efforts are underway at two state universities. It may be
a fungal disease and virus in combination, confusing the diagnosis, but
there is little question that the disease weakens the plant and leaves it
susceptible to more common ailments such as Pseudomonas cattleyae.

Bayleton may be the agent that is correcting the problem, however, There
have been reports that the Bayleton alone will correct the problem. There
is one report that Subdue alone corrected the problem.

Symptons of the problem are similar to those of a photo of a specimen of
fungal leafspot caused by Guignardia sp. shown on page 84 of the 1986
edition of the AOS's Handbook on Orchid Pests and Diseases. However, to
date, that disease only has been reported in vandas and ascocendas. If
the disease is fungal in nature, it does not respond to the standard
culture tests. At least three efforts have resulted in no germination."


BobGordon '"Phal Cultu A Worldwide Survey."

"Microfungus Phal growers may be facing a major newly-discovered
(observed?) problem. This is the yellow pitting, necrotic spotting of the
leaves, preliminarily diagnosed by John Miller and Rob Griesbach as a
micro-fungus.
. . . Growers who have followed various recommendations on ridding their
collection of this problem have largely been unsuccessful. Nothing
sprayed, drenched or applied in any manner seems to make any inroads on
the disease. . . .--T. Happer"

"Systemic Microfungus To my knowledge, Ernie Campuzano of Butterfly
Orchids in Newburry Park Ca, was the first grower to experience the
microfungus problem on a large scale. . . . Ernie had all the symptoms Tom
Harper talks about above and related the problem to John Miller, who in
turn related it to Don Baker of Stoufer Labs. Don identified the problem
as a systemic microfungus and developed the following therapy. . .
.-editor"

I would say symptom are, in the order of appearance, yellow chlorosis,
more defined yellow spotting, pitting, large areas of grayish brown tissue
collapse.

Pat

What bothered me was nobody wanted to look for a pathogen. Fears that the
Ag Dept would poo-poo the condition, the tests would be too costly or no one
would really take the time to elucidate a 'true' pathogen (like 'You got a
virus. Take 2 aspirin and call me in the AM").
K Barrett

"al" wrote in message news:2tWNg.1992$FS.1358@trnddc04...
What bothered me about what Bob Gordon wrote was that they still had not
identified the pathogen and suspected it might be a viral/fungus
combination. Without the pathogen, how can it be identified as belong to
a specific phylum?

I found two terms in the library that lead to much more information about
microscopic organisms that live inside plant cells and tissue and which
may cause vascular plant diseases.

Anyway, I heard about MLOs in botany 101 and since I went no furthur I
know nothing more than that, as the instructor mentioned one day during
this whorl wind introduction to botany, is that they are "ill defined
organisms" that seem to be behind many plant diseases. For instance, the
pathogen that causes Dutch Elm Disease is among the pathogens called MLOs.
They are not all fungi.

MLO (microplasma-like organism) seem to be heavily studied and there is
lots of specific plants with named disease syndromes where MLOs have been
isolated and determined to be the pathogen causing the symptoms. If you
add the word orchid to a search of microplasma-like organism it turns up
nothing.

The terms mycoplasma-like organism and mycoplasmic organism were very
helpful. Myco NOT Micro. Myco refers to fungi. (So "mycofungus" would be
wrong and annoying in a manner similar to using the terms fungi and fungus
interchangeably: you'd have to have a clue in order to even notice.)

Mycoplasma has it own wikopedia-like entry.
http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Mycoplasma
with general information that people worried about "microfungus" might
want to read.

When you connect this one of the '"myco" terms with "orchid" in a search
you DO get a number of interesting hits. The term still refers to a group
of parasitic fungi or fungi-like organisms living in the cells and that
vascular tissue of plants AND animals, and does not refer to a specific
pathogen, so this may be why symptoms vary so wildly. Mycoplasma-"like"
also makes me think that whatever they are talking about are not true
fungi and why fungicides, even strong systemic ones, sometimes fail to
help.

I think if the pathogen of this mysterious disease "microfungus" is ever
isolated it my be more properly named/grouped with microplasma, mycoplasma
or mycoplasma-like organisms

"Pat Brennan" wrote in message
...
BobGordon "Culture of the Phalaenopsis Orchid"

. . ."sometimes a condition prevails that is caused by a systemic
infection of microfungi. As there are literally hundreds of these, the
symptoms vary from plant to plant.

Some of the more common are a spotty, ill-defined chlorosis; a streaky
chlorosis beginning at the edge of the leaf where it looks as if the leaf
edge had been burned with a match or candle; a red-brown coloration
appearing at the apical third or half of the lower leaves followed by a
dehydrated and senescent (old) appearance and also mesophyll tissue
collapse where deep pitting becomes apparent on the surface of the
leaves. This latter condition can also be caused by cold water and by
virus infections. However, in the latter instance, the pitting is usually
dark-brown to black in appearance rather than the white to light fawn
caused by fungi.
.
.
.
We still don't have a handle on what is causing the disease yet or even
what it is, but efforts are underway at two state universities. It may
be a fungal disease and virus in combination, confusing the diagnosis,
but there is little question that the disease weakens the plant and
leaves it susceptible to more common ailments such as Pseudomonas
cattleyae.

Bayleton may be the agent that is correcting the problem, however, There
have been reports that the Bayleton alone will correct the problem.
There is one report that Subdue alone corrected the problem.

Symptons of the problem are similar to those of a photo of a specimen of
fungal leafspot caused by Guignardia sp. shown on page 84 of the 1986
edition of the AOS's Handbook on Orchid Pests and Diseases. However, to
date, that disease only has been reported in vandas and ascocendas. If
the disease is fungal in nature, it does not respond to the standard
culture tests. At least three efforts have resulted in no germination."


BobGordon '"Phal Cultu A Worldwide Survey."

"Microfungus Phal growers may be facing a major newly-discovered
(observed?) problem. This is the yellow pitting, necrotic spotting of
the leaves, preliminarily diagnosed by John Miller and Rob Griesbach as a
micro-fungus.
. . . Growers who have followed various recommendations on ridding their
collection of this problem have largely been unsuccessful. Nothing
sprayed, drenched or applied in any manner seems to make any inroads on
the disease. . . .--T. Happer"

"Systemic Microfungus To my knowledge, Ernie Campuzano of Butterfly
Orchids in Newburry Park Ca, was the first grower to experience the
microfungus problem on a large scale. . . . Ernie had all the symptoms
Tom Harper talks about above and related the problem to John Miller, who
in turn related it to Don Baker of Stoufer Labs. Don identified the
problem as a systemic microfungus and developed the following therapy. .
. .-editor"

I would say symptom are, in the order of appearance, yellow chlorosis,
more defined yellow spotting, pitting, large areas of grayish brown
tissue collapse.

Pat

Hello, me again. I just got an email from someone with too much education
(SMILE):

The acyronym "MLO" refers to both "microplasma-like organism" AND
"mycoplasma-like organism", with the term "mycoplasma organism" being
sufficient and considered to be correct and up to date. Moreover, while the
root "myco" or "myc" means fungi in it's purist form, in this usage it does
not refer *only* to fungi, but forms of bacteria, Mollicutes (a subgroup of
bacteria) and perhaps other intracellular and extracellular organisms.

....and, yes, whatever it is, I too noticed the following line from the Bob
Gordon quote and though it was an important part of the pest manegment
problem:

"It may be a fungal disease and virus in combination, confusing the
diagnosis, (and here's the important part) ***but
there is little question that the disease weakens the plant and leaves it
susceptible to more common ailments***"

"al" wrote in message news:2tWNg.1992$FS.1358@trnddc04...
...a bunch of stuff