Cattleya Leaf Rot

[jrfehon]

I need some advise on how to deal with leaf rot on my cattleyas. It's rained a lot this past month in Pennsylvania (not counting hurricane Irene) and one of my cattleyas got black rot on a leaf right before I went on vacation a few weeks ago (I summer my orchids outdoors). When I got back about 7 of my cattleyas had rotting leaves. So I've since removed them from my collection, cut off the rotting leaves with a sterile blade, coated the cuts in a cinnamon/elmers glue mix, sprayed with physan 20, and repotted most of the effected plants. What I found is one of the cattleyas I bought last summer had a big chuck of sphagnum moss in the pot and was staying too moist. This was the one first affected with the rot. I think I have it under control but I want to make sure. Has anyone dealt with this type of bacteria? Is there anything else I should do? Thanks!

Jason

[poetiscariot]

If you think the problem was media staying too wet, did you check the roots as well as the leaves? I lost a couple whole p-bulbs last fall to root rot, and the plants that had trouble all needed repotting because their media was too broken down & staying too damp. If you think the problem was wet media, I would suspect that's how the pathogens first got into your plants. You did everything right that I know of to do (plus Elmer's glue, that's new to me), but if you want another thing to check, mushy roots would be one.

[Zozzl]

I think you did fine. The wet weather is causing a lot of problems this summer. I added some fans, fungicide and cinnamon.

[Gin]

A one time I put the Catts. outside had the same trouble , you might look into the expanded clay pellets as a potting medium . staying to wet and hard rain is a problem . Gin

[cdayinflorida]

We have had weeks of rain late in the afternoon and into the evening. Even spraying weekly with fungicides, I was having issues with black rot and lost a couple of species. I moved all my catts under the protection of a solid roof. Since the move I haven't had any problems.

Wish you the best....

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Hope all is worked out, Jason. Sounds like you took the right steps to stop the issues.

cheers,
BD