Frustrated with phal leaf issues

[The Orchidist]

After having a colder than normal winter , i have suddenly had all kinds of leaf issues, all my plants were grown under lights, i am quite careful not to over water and i use filtered water on all my plants, i am almost to the point of tossing all my rescue noid phals, i have had at least 6 have leaf issues, mostly having pitting or redish colouring around the tips , i am going to solve this and repot a yellow noid , it has new roots emerging and just finished flowering .

Should i remove the entire leaf right back to stem and hope for new crown to appear or leave it and go at it with physan and hope for better results on next leaf . Thanks








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[katrina]

Only you can decide whether or not you should keep or pitch. Completely a personal choice.

Your issue looks like it could be mesophyll cell collapse. Read this - it might help.
https://www.aos.org/Default.aspx?id=130

[The Orchidist]

Thank you for the link , It looks like this may be the issue
there was a few days back in Jan that i never waited for the water temp for watering all my plants to be room temp
just straight from the tap .

[dbarron]

I suppose if you can stand to look at them that long, they'll eventually recover with new leaves and shed these.

[Aki_James]

You may also want to take a look at a nutrient deficiency. I had a similar issue with my Phals and I to am growing under lights. How often are you fertilizing? If you are using water that is lacking nutrients or is not providing the proper values of nutrients. I find growing under lights you need to feed a little heavier then when grown under natural methods. How long are your lights on for? Nutrient deficiencies can manifest in many different ways depending on the nutrient that is lacking and can even take the form of mechanical or cellular damage. After increasing my fertilization to every watering with a weakened solution the newest 2 leaves if my Phals no longer show any issues. Hope this helps.

[The Orchidist]

I am using plant prod on a weakly weekly schedule, my lights run from 7 pm to 7am. So 12 hrs a day 7 days a week, planning on moving most of my orchids to my greenhouse at end of may once my Gh is ready to go . All my other plants are doing fine , and i have quite a few other orchid species, but it is allways the phal that has this . My water ppm is roughly 123 ,with ph of 6.5 .

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[lepetitmartien]

Mhmmm could be acarians with associated fungus… (Brevipalpus)

For the fungus sake, keep the plant dry!

[Aki_James]

My Phals were also the only species effected with this as well in my case. I believe it is possibly due to the fact that Phals in nature grow in lower light levels and although they can handle a great amount of artificial lighting they require extra nutrients to remain stable and utilize the light they receive in order to turn it into growing energy. I think it's kind of like us we are capable of using vast amounts of energy received from food intake for long periods of time but if we begin lacking vital nutrients due to consumption and they are not replaced effectively we begin to show signs of deficiency.

I would definitely make sure to rule out a fungal infection first and foremost.

If you keep the plant dry and it continues to happen I would suggest you give the diluted fertilization method every watering flushing the plant every month to get rid of built up salts, a try

[silken]

I had to give up on growing any Phals for a few years. It seemed once I had one that looked much like that, it would spread like wildfire to any other Phal anywhere near it. They had not been subject to cold or cold water and I doubt it was a nutrient problem. The new leaf would grow in nice and clean and I figured it was getting better but it would always succumb. The plants bloomed beautifully and had awesome roots but leaves looked similar to yours. I did some searching and found a disease called Taiwan Yellows. It is thought to be a microvirus or microfungus. Here is a link to one article about it. My World of Orchids: Tawain Orchid Virus or Microfungus??.

I never could cure it and ended up tossing all Phals that I owned and their pots and media into the garbage, not compost. I tried to sanitize the greenhouse but 6 months or longer after that I tried another Phal and it got it too. So several years later, I now have a few Phals I keep in the house that haven't contracted the disease. First sign and they will be gone.

Back then I saw an article about it written by Jerry Fisher of Orchids Limited. He was struck with the problem too and lost almost an entire greenhouse of Phals. He corresponded to me and suggested mixing Physan with a low biurite urea fertilizer and feeding the plants. This way they take the Physan into their system. I tried that although I couldn't find the exact fertilizer he referred to. But I had no success. I would be tempted to try the systemic fungicide Phyton or Cleary's. I didn't have any at the time. I just got fed up and tossed mine and at some point I will put another one out in the greenhouse and see if the pathogens have finally gone or not. I grow lots of other orchids, none of which seem affected.

[camille1585]

I'm fighting the same microfungus type thing, and there is no way to get rid of it it seems, I've tried everything I can think of.
I don't get my plants wet when I water, and they are well fertilized. I just despair to see new leaves growing, and they look fine for some months before eventually developing the pitting. Almost all of my Phals are affected. They bloom fine and have healthy roots, but are so ugly to look at. I'm ashamed to keep them in my living roon...