Leaf problems = mites infestation.

Last couple days I was busy...
It all started with watering when I was wearing reading glasses because wanted to see how my San Shia Appendo bloom would look like with glasses on.
Well, I noticed ill look of the leaves surface on my two violaceas from Orchis. I always thought it was discoloration from too much light. So I started to inspect it closer and realized that it is something more serious.
Some pictures. Macro lens really helps to see it better. Top of the leaf:




Underside:



Having no clue I posted pics on the BLO forum and got verdict very fast - mites.

I removed the plants from both tanks and checked them all. Even though I didn't find symptoms on other plants, I sprayed them all with miticide. I was quite brutal and sprayed even blooms, spikes and pods (wonder if pods now doomed). During this activity I realized how many plants I have, since I had to do way too many trips from basement to kitchen sink.

During treatment:



There were two positive moments in all this:
1. I got to clean my tanks while plants were out. It is amazing how much dirt was there under white egg crate;
2. all plants now have shiny clean leaves.

After treatment I let the plants to dry out and kept lights off all day yesterday.
Here are the tanks now:






I have excluded two plants with symptoms and now debating if I should just throw them away. Sad part - they are both spiking and one of them even carries the pod.

Vanda leaf problem

I have noticed some strange markings on the underside of two leaves on Vanda insignis.
They looked sort of freaky so I isolated the plant (removed it from the tank) and cut the both leaves:



Here is the closer view of actual patches:



Both leaves were at the same level and are not the oldest, here is the place where they were (clear gel is just a hand sanitizer which I use to dry up the wounds);



The question is: should I throw away the whole plant?

Seedlings concerns

The seedlings with concerns are the ones of Phalaenopsis Hawaii Dragon Girl that I deflasked in the summer.
They have been growing well and didn't worry me much but recently I noticed a few of the leaves on random plants started to yellow:



They live in the orchid tank with no direct lamp above them shaded by other plants but still getting pretty bright light.



About a month ago they were in the humidity tray placed on the heating mat and I noticed at some point that some leaves looked like they had heat damage, they were pale, discolored and had wavy appearance (the word "boiled" came to my mind). I thought that probably heat mat produced too much heat and damaged some leaves. It was right before I got the tank, so I turned off the heat mat and transferred seedlings into tank.
Now, I cannot remember exactly, but it seems that the same leaves are now getting yellow.
Are there any other reasons for leaves to become randomly yellow? I am clueless and don't know if I should worry and do something about it.

Freaky stuff

I had vanda pumila group of small plants mounted on one piece of wood for a while. This was one of not too many mounted orchids that I was able to keep happy and growing even in low humidity, but I had to water it every day (sometimes I missed a day or two, but plants didn't compain much).
Few days ago I decided to hang it into orchid tank hoping that being mounted it would benefit from humid conditions there.
After just couple days something disgusting grew on the wood:



Looks like some kind of shroom and I don't know if it is harmful to orchids.
Of course I totally freaked out and removed the mount from the tank. Now the questions are - will the rest of the orchids in the tank be ok and what to do with vanda pumila mount.
I am thinking about destroying the shroom and wiping everything, even roots, with something like alcohol or peroxide.
Would that work? Will that be enough?

Ambonosa - beginning of an end?

Phalaenopsis Ambonosa looked just fine, grew a new leaf and two new roots since I got it totally rootless. Started second new leaf.
Suddenly in one day three old leaves got yellow and dropped:



Probably because those two small roots cannot handle that many leaves, but why would it start new leaves then?



Maybe it is just a start of its death. I re-potted it into smallest net pot, but even the newest leaf start has some black patch, so overall it doesn't look good at all...

Ascocenda rescue

Here is an ascocenda hybrid that I am trying to revive:



It has all brown and dried up roots, the leaves are a bit dehydrated too. I put it into vase just so I can see what is going on with those old brown roots and hoping that maybe some of them still have the life inside and might produce new growth.

It resides in the kitchen beside the sink, so I would fill up the vase often having it there and wouldn't forget about it.

We will see if this rescue operation will succeed.

Oh yeah, the cross is - Ascda. Suksamran Sunlight x Khun Nok, it should have orange flowers.

Dying Phal. Lea Marie Salazar

There is not much to say, the pictures will tell it all:







One of those black spots from the last picture appeared on the newest leaf on the crease when it was still unfolded, small and growing. The leaf broke and started to blacken by the edge. I cut black stuff off but the edge became black again. I was cutting that leaf until there was nothing left to cut and the black stuff went inside.

I have no idea what those black patches are. I rubbed them with alcohol, sprinkled with cinnamon with no effect. They don't seem to get larger rapidly, if leaf didn't break, plant would probably still be ok, although with damaged leaves.

Now it is somewhat isolated and I am not throwing it away because of all the money I spent on it - there is a spike, maybe it will grow a keiki.

Done with pleurothallids

I am done with masdies and draculas. As much as I hate to admit my unsuccesses - at some point it would become obvious - pleuros are not my plants. Either they don't like my conditions, or they don't like me, or both.

I tried... Increasing humidity, keeping them in the cool basement.
Now I give up - they don't look happy no matter what I do, so why should I even bother.



I don't need those finicky small plants with their microscopic blooms(convincing myself of course, they are adorable).

At this point I am not trying anymore.
Eventually every each of them will hit the garbage and I am not buying any ever again.

Laelia tenebrosa II problem

The brownish patch on the pseudobulb of my newly purchased Laelia tenebrosa II appeared to be spreading. At least I noticed some slight increase of its area.
Of course I freaked out and cut off the whole pseudobulb sprinkling some cinnamon powder on the cut:



Now there is still some dark spot on the lower part of older pseudobulb (behind the cut on the picture above) and darkish spots on the protective sheath of the newest pseudobulb:



With my limited experience with cattleyas I am very close to throwing away the whole plant.

Is there any reason I shouldn't?

Phal. bellina III - possible problem.

Phal. bellina III has yellowed its oldest leaf.



I know it is normal aging process when phalaenopsis sheds the old leaf, but this plant has only three of them. So, why would you shed a leaf if you don't have that many in the first place.
I decided to check the roots:



There were some rotted pieces, but not too much - I peeled them leaving the inner string, all the rest roots are firm and have some growing tips. I mean they are not the greatest, but I saw much worse. I looked at removing the yellowing leaf, but that could result in some damage to existing roots at the base, so I wiped the area at the base with some listerine mixed with water(just in case) and potted plant back using cleaned pot and fresh sphagnum:



At this point I am not sure what else should I do except let it shed the leaf and see what happens next.
Did you ever have this happened? What was the outcome? Any suggestions?

Laelia tenebrosa II problem

This purplish-brownish patch on the pseudobulb of my new laelia tenebrosa. I was thinking it is a sunburn:



When I received the plant, I put it on my south-east window with other catts and this pseudobulb was looking directly on the sun. Well, I never saw sunburns on my cattleyas, but it does look like a patch on one of my vanda seedlings that got burned by sun for sure. On the other hand, as far as my knowledge extends - it might be some nasty rot.
So, at this point I am not sure if I should leave it alone or is it better to cut off the pseudobulb in question or even throw away the whole plant(I would like to avoid this option though).

Any suggestions, please?

On a happy note - there are multiple roots starts on the newest pseudobulb that is healthy for now:

Strange flowering of haraella

I am not even sure if it is a flower or not, but it does appear on one of the Haraella retrocalla spikes and did develop like a bud at the beginning:






Here is the story.
This haraella did bloom normally last winter. After blooming I cut all the spikes and placed it into low light location to encourage some leaves and roots growing and stop it from continuous blooming.
Haraella produced several new leaves and many roots, but then it did throw two new spikes.
Now I think that I should have moved it into brighter light when I noticed the spikes, but I didn't. So, maybe this strange underdeveloped bloom is result of the low light supply. At least that's what I am blaiming it on.
If there is more proper explanation - I would like to know it.
I didn' use any chemicals or hormons on this plant except ocasional watering with quarter strength solution of balanced 20-20-20 fertilizer that I use on all my orchids.
I am puzzled...

Near death of Liu's Rainbow

I was wondering why this little guy didn't grow anything through the summer when all other orchids were bursting with new leaves and roots.
After unpotting I got explanation - it was busy rotting the roots, not without my help of course.
Here is what left:



I have peeled away all mushy stuff leaving some inner strings - they will help to anchor the plant in the media. Then I potted it into smallest net pot with sphagnum moss:



It would help if it was summer with warmer temperatures now. Hopefully it will survive.

Oh no! Pests.

Heavy pest attack on my small Bulbophyllum ambrosia:



What the heck are they - scale or mealybugs, or evil combination of the two?



I was re-potting it last week and was so excited about new roots growth that didn't pay attention to the start of this invasion. That's annoying -should be more attentive next time.

I pulled plant out of the basket, scrubbed all bulbs with toothbrush and 70% rubbed alcohol, washed basket with dishsoap and repotted into fresh sphagnum.
Isolated plant from other orchids and will keep a close eye - if they will come back.
Hope not.

Mites attack

Nowdays I am busy fighting mites on my paphs. Good thing they are on totally different level, isolated from my other orchids.
I never saw the actual bugs but here are the symptoms.
Rusty orange traces on the leaves:



And underside:



Indented damages on the leaves:



All the above pictures are of one plant - Paphiopedilum emersonii II, it took the most damage.
I am annoyed at the bugs for ruining my paphs and mad at myself for not paying attention - I probably could check on them more often and notice those pests traces before it's gone so far.

I have used the Safer's Endall insecticide on Monday, then yesterday. Then I freaked out that insecticide could collect in the media and damage the roots. So I unpotted each of them, washed thoroughly plant and pot and potted into fresh chc.

I think I am going to repeat Endall next weekend, meanwhile - will use cotton swab with alcohol to wipe the plants every third day.

I don't know what else can I do.

Draculas disappointment

I got two new dracs last spring to try out - chimaera and simia. Just to see if I can grow them. They live in the basemnet where it is cooler than the rest of the house.

Well, they didn't die and do try to grow but here is what happens with new growth:



It is Dracula chimaera.
New growth starts, grows, grows and then becomes all ruffled. Then it just breaks off the plant. This is third new growth that came out with ruffles. Why??!!
Dracula simia does almost the same, well, her leaves are narrower, but same idea. The only dracula that grows normally - lotax.

I do let moss to go bone dry between waterings, maybe that is the problem?

I am going to keep it wet at all times now and see how the newest little nubbing turns out. If it will ruffle too - no more draculas for me!

Phal. Cassandra possible problem

Phalaenopsis Cassandra has been here for a couple months and seems to be adjusting well. It started to grow a new leaf and there are couple of new root nubs.



One day I was watering it and looked on the leaves underside. To my unpleasant surprise I found these sunken spots on two of the leaves - the older ones:



It is somewhat isolated from other phals and I monitored it for over a month now - the spots didn't change, didn't spread, and stay as they were when discovered. I am sure they were there when the plant arrived, it is just hard to see because of the pattern on the leaves - the spots are not visible from the top.
What could it be and is it dangerous to other phals?
It doesn't seem to bother plant, it shows the nice healthy growths and newest mature leaf is clean.
I would hate to throw it away, but will if it is something bad.

Various problems with various orchids

Here is what I noticed recently and I don't like it:

1. White spots on several paphiopedilums leaves.
Micranthum:

Malipoense:

Jackii(really close up):


2. Something (or someone) eats the leaves on my Masd. decumana. It originally came with one hole in the leaf, but now there are more holes:


Back view:


3. Masdevallia constricta has lots of small round black dots on the leaves:



All these orchids have two things in common:
a) they all live in the basement - a bit cooler environment, some sun very early in the morning;
b) they all were sprayed with Safers Endall miticide twice little while ago.
But there are over 10 more paphs and at least 3 more masdies with same two things that are perfectly fine.

Any idea?

Rotted bud and opening bud

Well, I sort of expected this to happen, because I sprayed miticide all over my paphs including the buds. Bellatulum and malipoense are a bit further ahead and buds already came out on the longer spikes - they are fine. Paph emersonii bud was still very low and probably got too much miticide in the base.
Here is the result - rotting bud:



It is very disappointing considering how long it takes for a new growth to mature enough to flower. I think I will never see its flowers. :(

Bellatulum was sprayed too but it didn't matter for the bud. It is starting to open now. Probably tomorrow or the day after it will be in full bloom. This is just a preview (looks kind of funny, doesn't it?):