diseased Cattleaya orchid

[brit6v]

Hello,
Does my plant look virused and if so, what do you suggest I do? If not, what do you think the problem is and how should I treat it?

I would appreciate your advice,
Vicki

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Could be simple heat damage. Did it get very hot where this plant is located? If it is heat damage, it will take the leaf eventually. For some reason it takes several days for cattleya leaves. We recently had a fan go out in our greenhouse and the temps got up over 140 degrees before we were able to start cooling things down. We lost several oncidiums, paphs, and phals. I thought the cattleyas were going to be okay since they looked fine for a few days, but then many of them started showing heat stress.

As long as the new growth on your cattleya is not doing the same thing as the other leaves, it is not a virus.

Cheers,
BD

[brit6v]

Thank you very much Bruce...
Whew! What a relief! The new growth looks fine! As for heat damage, that could easily be a problem with it because this last Spring I slipped up and didn't put my greenhouse shade cloth up as soon as I should have. A few plants were burned, but none seriously. I learned a lesson...I definitely won't let that happen next yr.

I'm almost in shock that your greenhouse temp. got over 140! I'm so sorry you lost many of your orchids! I hope that never happens again!

It is very hot down here....last Summer and this one. The section of the bench that this plant was sitting on gets the most sun ea. day.

Thanks for your reply and advice,
Vicki

Could be simple heat damage. Did it get very hot where this plant is located? If it is heat damage, it will take the leaf eventually. For some reason it takes several days for cattleya leaves. We recently had a fan go out in our greenhouse and the temps got up over 140 degrees before we were able to start cooling things down. We lost several oncidiums, paphs, and phals. I thought the cattleyas were going to be okay since they looked fine for a few days, but then many of them started showing heat stress.

As long as the new growth on your cattleya is not doing the same thing as the other leaves, it is not a virus.

Cheers,
BD

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Keep an eye on it Vicky. If it spreads to the new growth, it is probably not simple heat stress.

Yes, when I discovered the fan was out , I raced into the greenhouse. I could hardly breath in there. I immediately started spraying water on everything. (That might have hurt more than helped, but the temps came down a bit.) I had to prop open the motorized shutters on the kool-cell and I manually wired an extension cord directly to the high speed part of the fan. That got it going again. The next day I had to replace the back up fan motor (about 100 dollars) and I have the little motor ordered that operates the shutters.

It was 113 degrees here the day it happened and our greenhouse sits right in the middle of the sunny yard (as it should) so there was no protection for the plants that were not heat tolerant. I am most sad about loosing so many of my paphs. Literally all the seedling are brown now. All the vini paphs look terrible. Every phal that was on a higher shelf has already been thrown into the trash. All the oncidiums except the ones that were close to the ground level are cooked. The vandas are dropping leaves like crazy and so are most of the dendrobiums that were hanging up high in the greenhouse. Really a horrible experience. I am just relieved I found it before more damage occurred. I keep thinking how lucky I was that I was home and actually went out to the greenhouse in the middle of the afternoon.

Cheers,
BD

[brit6v]

I certainly will keep an eye on my plant. In fact, I may keep it here inside the house a bit while I monitor it. I could sit it on an east facing windowsill. Of course, it won't get as much light on that windowsill as it would in the gh, but I imagine it will be ok for awhile. If I had to have an orchid problem, I wish it had been a Phal instead of a Catt....my windowsill could easily handle a low light lover.

Oh my...what a horrible, traumatic greenhouse experience you had!! I know it was a nightmare happening in the day. Well, let me say this.....I do hope you are not a panicing person like me (I'm sure you're not). Goodness knows, I probably would have done everything wrong trying to hurry and 'fix' stuff. One of my orchid horrors is if something went wrong with the power, and Rodney wasn't at home, I wouldn't have a clue how to hook up the generator. I don't know how complicated it would be for a female, but trying to learn how is near the top of my 'to do list'. Now that you have told me about your awful experience, I'm gonna move it up even higher on my list. I know all sorts of other things could go wrong, but I'm in and out of the gh off and on all day, so maybe I could 'nip it in the bud'. Gosh, your outside temp. was 113 degrees that day?! Wow, that's awful! You were indeed very lucky to have been at home at the time, as well as going out to your greenhouse! I was away at a class reunion just a couple of weeks ago and came home about 4 hrs. later and found my gh temp. was 103.3. I thought THAT was hot....but 140+?!

I do hope your nightmare is over and you do not lose anymore plants!

Thank you again for your help!
Vicki

Keep an eye on it Vicky. If it spreads to the new growth, it is probably not simple heat stress.

Yes, when I discovered the fan was out , I raced into the greenhouse. I could hardly breath in there. I immediately started spraying water on everything. (That might have hurt more than helped, but the temps came down a bit.) I had to prop open the motorized shutters on the kool-cell and I manually wired an extension cord directly to the high speed part of the fan. That got it going again. The next day I had to replace the back up fan motor (about 100 dollars) and I have the little motor ordered that operates the shutters.

It was 113 degrees here the day it happened and our greenhouse sits right in the middle of the sunny yard (as it should) so there was no protection for the plants that were not heat tolerant. I am most sad about loosing so many of my paphs. Literally all the seedling are brown now. All the vini paphs look terrible. Every phal that was on a higher shelf has already been thrown into the trash. All the oncidiums except the ones that were close to the ground level are cooked. The vandas are dropping leaves like crazy and so are most of the dendrobiums that were hanging up high in the greenhouse. Really a horrible experience. I am just relieved I found it before more damage occurred. I keep thinking how lucky I was that I was home and actually went out to the greenhouse in the middle of the afternoon.

Cheers,
BD

[Dail]

Bruce,

I'm really sorry to hear of your experience. (Oh how well I know the pain of losing plants).

I hope evrything goes well from now on. Is there a way for some alarm to be triggered when the temperature goes above a certain level?

Dail

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Thanks Vicki! And you should learn to hook up the generator. You can do it!

cheers,
BD

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Bruce,

I'm really sorry to hear of your experience. (Oh how well I know the pain of losing plants).

I hope evrything goes well from now on. Is there a way for some alarm to be triggered when the temperature goes above a certain level?

Dail

Dail,

The horrible part is that we have an alarm and it was still set for WINTER! I felt like such an idiot. I was telling my dad about it and he asked if I heard the alarm going off and I said no that it must be broken. That is when I remembered we never switched it from winter to summer. It is back on now - even though it is a bit late now.

Thanks for your message.

cheers,
BD

[brit6v]

Thanks for the confidence boost!

Thanks Vicki! And you should learn to hook up the generator. You can do it!

cheers,
BD

[Kmac]

Oh, Bruce..,that's just awful. I'm so sorry!

Vicki--good luck. I have definitely seen some signs of heat stress this summer. I hope yours recovers soon!

Kathi