Phalaenopsis bellina 'Chen'

Yet one more bellina joined my collection a while ago. Phalaenopsis bellina 'Chen':



I got it from Kingfisher Orchids in the beginning of summer. The plant is quite small but has healthy roots, hopefully it will establish well. I potted it into bark in plastic cup with holes at the bottom and sides. I made lots of such "pots" when moving my phals from moss to bark.

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.

Phal. gigantea x LD's Bear King

Got this hybrid from Kingfisher in July. It is not as mature as cross of gigantea with LDBQ that I have spiking now, but is a healthy plant, so I hope it will pick up in the orchid tank with its warmth and humidity.



Wonder if it will have huge leaves eventually too...

Phal. Lyndon Red Sun update

Well, the update is probably not really necessary since nothing special happened to this plant, but with all other phals actively spiking in the orchid tanks - this one not spiking kind of stands out. On the positive note - it grew lots of roots and large floppy leaves with nice burgundy tinge. Those leaves are glossy and hard and resemble the leaves of hardy noIds sold at grocery stores, so maybe it could stand a bit drier conditions and doesn't have to take space in the orchid tank?



Real reason for posting about Lyndon Red Sun is to record this picture:



It is a screenshot of USA orchid vendor website as of September 5, 2013 with bunch of Phal. Lyndon Red Sun plants advertised at drastically different prices ranging from $28 to $150. I am almost sure that my plant came from the same origin and now really curious into which range my bloom would fit.
So when my Phal. Lyndon Red Sun will decide to bloom I would need to remember to go back to this post and compare my flower to these ones.

Phalaenopsis San Shia Appendo bloom

Surprise waited for me at home today. Teeny-tiny bud on Phal. San Shia Appendo opened up:



The bud was so small that I thought it will take couple more days to bloom, but it didn't. I am not sure if top part will open some more, if it does, I will update the picture.
I like the bloom as it is though. It is adorable and kind of weird.
This is a late introduction too, I had this plant for a while but never posted about it before.