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.

Pictures going up in abpo in 1 minute. I'm really worried. Here I teach a
class for newbies, and look what I've got.

Diana

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

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

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

Diana

Well, lets hope I'm wrong like usual then... Did your plants get cold
by any chance?

Rob


--
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

Not inordinately cold, no. I'm in FL, and the weather has been great. We've
had enough of a diurnal range to start the Phals spiking nicely, though.

Sorry if I sounded hopeless in my last post. When I reread what I wrote, it
sounded awful. I'm not a quitter - I'll figure this mess out. G

Diana

"Rob" wrote in message
...
Diana Kulaga wrote:
Thanks for answering, Rob. If you are correct, I think I can kiss my
orchid collection goodbye.

Diana

Well, lets hope I'm wrong like usual then... Did your plants get cold by
any chance?

Rob


--
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

Was it the oil? Could they have fried? Otherwise I'd go with some sort of
rot. Hawaiians have been known to lose entire crops of Dendrobiums
overnight. Unless its Steve's creeping crud.

K Barrett

"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...
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.

Pictures going up in abpo in 1 minute. I'm really worried. Here I teach a
class for newbies, and look what I've got.

Diana

Not the oil. The reason I used the oil and soap was to try to fend off
whatever is going on with them. And it wasn't hot enough to do any damage
anyway. I guess I'll try Physan in the morning. It still strikes me as some
kind of mite, but I can't see anything, even with a mag glass.

Diana

"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
Was it the oil? Could they have fried? Otherwise I'd go with some sort of
rot. Hawaiians have been known to lose entire crops of Dendrobiums
overnight. Unless its Steve's creeping crud.

K Barrett

"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...
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.

Pictures going up in abpo in 1 minute. I'm really worried. Here I teach a
class for newbies, and look what I've got.

Diana

K Barrett wrote:
Was it the oil? Could they have fried? Otherwise I'd go with some sort of
rot. Hawaiians have been known to lose entire crops of Dendrobiums
overnight. Unless its Steve's creeping crud................


Great, now I have a Phal disease named after me. Oh well, I would
rather have this named after me than have something like Lou Gherig's
disease named after me.

Steve

"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...
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. ....

Diana

Sorry, Diana, I've been in and out of the loop here for a few months. I had
something similiar to what you're going through before I started growing
exclusively in a well screened GH. Beside that, what I did at the time to
start saving a fairly good number of plants with great success was to mix up
a bushel basket of Physan to the old time concentration of 1 Tbsp/gal. A
mature plant can take that as a 15-20 min total immersion soak. I stripped
off all damaged leaves and roots, wired the plant label onto the plant and
tossed it in the bushel while I tackled the next. I expanded some
long-fibered sphagnum with Physan and spread it in the bottom of several of
those big transparent storage tubs you get at WalMart. They make a great
ICU. Pack in the patients dripping wet. After several days, any with some
roots and no other signs of the creeping crud can be moved to an ICU where
the top is left askew for better air movement, and then potted fresh in a
frew more days. Treat new pots and medium with Physan. A followup spray of
Physan can be done a few days later at the lower rate of 1 tsp/gal rate. For
the others left in ICU, treat as you would for the sealed bag treatment for
invalids. Move to ICU #2 as you see improvement. Re-treat a second time in
ICU #1 if you see any sign of the crud returning. I saved all but a few
which was probably my own fault. Good luck playing nurse on the massive
scale. It's a lot more demanding than just being a caretaker. And it's less
rewarding seeing a new root rather than a new flower but it does beat
playing in traffic. Keep us all appraised of success or failure.
Gary

Thanks, Gary. I didn't do the dunk, but they've all been sprayed. Surgery
continues. I also have some Cleary's on order. I'm watching like a hawk.
Unfortunately, as I was spraying I found more signs of problems on other
plants: some bad pbulbs on some Catts, etc. Lots of work to do.

Diana