My Miltonia and Miltoniopsis need your opinion,please

[Katherine]

This seems to be the pamper my orchids week, that's what getting a new product does.
As I was perusing my flower friends I noticed that they have stuff that they may not desire.....

The first is my Miltonia NOID and the second 2 pictures are of Miloniopsis Memoria Janet Rowand.
She has been having one leaf turn yellow like this for some time. and I have removed it, for another to eventually take its place. Now both have spots,but are different.

[coeruleo]

it is really hard to say, but that does not look good... is it spreading on either one? do you keep them together/touching each other? i have a prized vanda that is getting spots like the first one, and they are spreading, so i think it could be a fungus infection, but i have sprayed over and over to no avail, it continues to slowly spread to other leaves. no other nearby plants have become affected like this though... so far.

the first photo seems to be a possible fungal or bacterial infection, the softer wet looking spots eventually darken and turn brown, then dry up... the second photo with the darker spots could maybe be a virus? but both could easily just be the after effects of damage, from bugs or bruising of the leaves, or even sunburn...

[Katherine]

Neither are wet
i have been putting them outside at night for the last few to get a temperature drop. I wonder if #1 is from that? This happened within the last 36 hours
The second has had a few spots but not as much as this. and they also appeared after putting them outside....And the 3rd picture won't upload because for some reason the uploader says it's in BMP when it is in jpg. and I am getting an error message.

[Katherine]

[Katherine]

Anybody?

[Ron-NY]

If the leaves had some moisture on them and then the cool temp at night Could have caused cellular collapse in picture #1

[Katherine]

Thanks Ron

[OrchidAddict]

I'm going with cold damage on this one. I'm looking at the weather report for your area (Newport, Oregon, right?), and it says the nighttime temps are in the 40's. That REALLY cold for orchids.

I received a shipment of orchids when our temps were in the 40's, and the seller had not included a heat pack like I'd requested. Some of the plants in the box arrived with severe cold damage. The plant that got the worst of it was an Oncidium alliance hybrid. It arrived with massive amounts of blackened tissue all over the outside of the bulbs, and black spots all over the leaves. The leaves are slowly turning yellow, and they are covered in black spots that look pretty much identical to yours.

If that can happen to a plant that's inside a box, wrapped in layers and layers of newspaper, it can certainly happen to one that's sitting outside, exposed to the elements. I think it's probably still too early for you to put your plants out...you'll want to wait until the night time temps don't drop below 55...and that's on the low, low end of temps.

The other thing to consider with cold temps is that any plant that is sitting in very wet conditions experiences the cold more harshly than one that is dry. Miltoniopsis plants like to stay pretty moist and they have very thin leaves, so they already have a higher probability of taking cold damage than some other, hardier orchids.

Here's what the American Orchid Society has to say about Miltoniopsis temps:
"Many people have the impression that miltoniopsis are "cool-growing" orchids, like their cousins the Odontoglossum crispum types. While miltoniopsis certainly will not tolerate the extremes of temperature that a cattleya or vanda might, they by no means require - or like the almost frosty treatment in which most "odonts" delight. Night temperature is not a critical factor in our experience, as we have grown our miltoniopsis with both paphs (55-58F nights) and phalaenopsis (65-68F nights) with good success. Night temperature should be kept at or below the high range, however, for best growth. Miltoniopsis will tolerate down to 50F at night if kept on the dry side (but not bone dry!). Young seedlings will, of course, prefer the warmer range of night temperature while mature plants should be run at 58-62F nights."

So there you go.

As for what to do with the damaged leaves...you'll want to keep an eye on them so that you don't end up with a secondary infection. You may need to trim off any severely damaged tissue, and the full extent of the damage may not show up for the next few days, but once it all settles out, the plant should recover. Put your plants outside when the temps are solidly above 55, if you decide to continue to put them outside at all. Everything I've read says that these guys don't need the temperature drop to flower well anyway. I think your plants will flower when they're ready. If you're sure they have enough light and it's not too hot, they should reward you with some flowers when the newest growths are mature.

Hope that was helpful! Good luck!!

[Katherine]

Thanks Jenn, and what about the one yellow leaf that has been occurring for months?

[OrchidAddict]

Thanks Jenn, and what about the one yellow leaf that has been occurring for months?

If it's just that one leaf, I'd say the plant was just shedding an old leaf. Mine do that occasionally. I wouldn't worry about that one leaf. As long as the rest of the leaves aren't turning yellow and falling off, I'd say you're in the clear.


Oh, wait...I just noticed that you said you had one leaf turn yellow and then another turned yellow. Did they come from the same pseudobulb by any chance? If they were on the same bulb, I'd say that the plant is phasing that bulb out and that the bulb is dropping its foliage for the purpose of just being used as an energy storage vessel. If they came from different bulbs on the same plant, it could be that both bulbs are shedding and old leaf. When you need to worry is when you see simultaneous yellowing all over your plant at the same time...but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Oh, and after looking a bit longer, I would advise cutting the damaged leaf areas off that first plant. I don't like the way those spots look...they look like the damage may expand and start creeping into healthy tissue. And you don't want your plant to get an infection. The second plant is probably fine to leave alone. You may get more black spots, but I don't think the ones that are already there are going to get larger and start engulfing the leaf.

Hope that helped! Okay, now I'm going to bed...it's nearly 1 in the morning here! LOL