Cattleya Black Spot Confirmation

[Dallasgarden]

Gang,
When I have a cattleya that gets black spots on its leaves it's my experience that I need to up the light level...would you agree with me? I've had tons of new growth on this but suddenly have two areas of soft black...ugh.

[wetfeet101b]

Hi Chris,

Raising the light levels for the plants may be helping because more light causes faster evaporation. This means that the leaf surfaces dry up faster and does not give bacteria or fungi time to fully establish.
Increasing air circulation would do the same thing.

Young, new growths are more prone to pathogen incursion because their leaf surfaces have not fully hardened yet. So damp conditions that might not bother mature leaves could prove problematic for young leaves.

[Dallasgarden]

Webfeet,
This is a new growth and we've had some extremely cool weather this year for Dallas...I've pulled back on watering it and moved it to what I think is a brighter spot...thanks for your input!

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Not to throw a kink into the chain, but the coloring of the leaves suggests that your cattleya is getting enough light. I wonder if you should increase air movement around it instead? That should up the moisture on the leaves after watering faster. Also, could that be a sun burn spot? We had a hail storm a few years ago and it damaged our shade cloth. I didn't think it would matter much, but I started noticing burns on the cattleyas hanging in the upper level of the greenhouse. Only a spot here and there. Took me awhile, but found that the sunlight would pass through the damaged area and heat up the leaf and burn it. Don't know if that is even a possibility for where you grow, but if something changed around your plant or can reflect direct sunlight onto your plant at a certain point in the day, it could cause a burn.

Whatever the case, increased air circulation will help. Your plant looks very healthy though, Chris.

Cheers,
BD

[Dallasgarden]

Bruce,
Ironically, the plant was hanging under my eave when this occurred. I thought it would get great air circulation hanging... I just moved it to a bench for the photo...
One other leaf, underneath old growth showed a black spot as well and I clipped it off, but this is a nice plump new bulb and I'd have to lose the bloom!