Cattleya Virus Question

[raymund_jesus]

Hello. well, this is my first post and i am actually new with orchids. I got my first cattleya last may when i found it thriving and growing wildly in a driftwood at my parent's house. my mom never fertilized or pruned or even watered it. it has about a hundred or so pseudobulbs. She said she has them for almost 8 years or so.

I have a question about this plant. When it flowered from about may to October, it went into a flowering frenzy of about 15-20 spikes averaging 4-6 flowers. However, most if not all of the flowers has some kind of deformity. The top sepal is either missing, curly or has a white streak, and sometimes the 2 petals adjacent to it are streaked or curly too. some are worst than others. I am posting a couple of pictures of the flowers.

My question is, could this be caused by a virus (the leaves, especially the new are fine with no discoloration/spots; and with some black spots/bruises on the older leaves), genetic, or was just not taken cared of properly?

i know if it is viral, nobody could be certain unless a test is done but i have been looking for a test kit with no success. if it is genetic, there is nothing i can do about it. and if it was just not taken cared properly, i am trying to prune and fertilize the plant with proper aseptic technique (alcohol and flame)

i am scared of this is viral as i bought a few phalaenopsis and repotted a few pseudobulbs from the cattleya plant, and placed them in the same bench. they could have came into contact or something.

i just want to know what the experts here think. thank you very much.

raymund

[Roy]

In my opinion, it could be virus BUT the way the flowers are, is not the way virus affects flower that I have seen. I have seen distorted flowers and color breaks but in a totally different for. Has there been any chemicals sprayed around the garden in the last few months ??

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Like you said, it is hard to tell if it is virus or not without a test, but to me it looks healthy. Hopefully, Roy's idea about an environmental influence is correct. Either way, I have not read or seen anyone say that a virused cattleya has ever spread to a phal. Your cattleya is really beautiful.

Welcome to Orchidtalk.

Cheers,
BD

[raymund_jesus]

Thanks for the reply guys.

Well, i have not been using chemical of any kind, but i was also thinking, since my parent said that this plant only flowered a few times the last few years and she was surprised when i told her that this plant is having a frenzy growing spikes. Hopefully it was from a change in environment, pruning and i started to give it half strength fertilizer twice a month.

thanks again Roy and BD.

love this forum
raymund

[walingwaling]

hi raymund,
im pretty sure its not a virus, coz i have the same catt and ive seen hundreds around leyte and samar with all having the same kinda deformations.
my guess is, yours started flowering like crazy coz it was long overdue to divide the big plant.

so, everything is normal, i will attach a pix of my catt and you will see the same white streaks, spots or deformed petals.

[raymund_jesus]

thank you very much ron. i am glad to know that!

raymund

[delphiguy]

i think i have the same cattleya, i'll check when i get home.... anyways, i dont think it is
virused as well (but of course my knowledge is limited).... this is what happened with my cattleya.
When the buds started to emerge from one of the sheaths, i brought it inside the house, big mistake,
the sudden change in condition caused the blooms to look like that. So when one of the sheaths
started to spike as well, about 2 weeks later i left it indoors and it was beautiful and very
fragrant....

Are you growing outdoors? maybe the buds got rained on while it was still developing, or maybe
changes in the environment, like here in Pampanga, it could be hot and sunny one minute and
raining hard the next.

[BKirk783]

From my experience, limited as it is, this doesn't really look like a virus. It looks like the streak is similar on the dorsal sepal on several of the flowers while the rest of the flower looks normal. With a virus, I would expect random color break. This may be some genetic trait since it is reproduced in such a similar fashion on most, if not all, the flowers. So far, all of the plants I have had that I was convinced were virused have tested negative. The ones that have tested positive usually were not particularly ill but were just kind of slow-growers. Go figure.

[raymund_jesus]

Weather has been really crazy this season. it was raining a lot during the dry season (about march to may) and we had like the worst indian summer during the wet season (about june to sept). it could be the cause too... i am looking forward next year as i repotted some bulbs and will see if the small deformity persists, then it could be genetic.

and on the mother plant, i see like new growths now. i counted 8 new growths now.

thanks guys. now i can sleep well knowing my catts are fine!! hehehe

raymund

[walingwaling]

thank you very much ron. i am glad to know that!

raymund

you are welcome,
im convinced its just a genetic failure passed on over generations, coz this cattleya is the most common here.