exoticorchidspr says his plants are all clean
 

You guys are probably tired of my whining already, but I'm telling you just how prevalent it is. I thought I finally found a source for an Oncidium altissimum, because I'm collecting parents of the Sharry Baby, but I celebrated too early. Upon receiving the plant, I noticed chlorotic spots up and down the leaves, as well as brown pin spots. I also bought a Dendrobium crumenatum to even out the shipping costs.

I tested both plants (spent 2 tests), the altissimum came back positive for CymMV. I emailed the vendor, and Eli Santiago says, "no problem, return it and I will refund you. Those plants are virus-free, I don't trust home tests because they fail. I have sold hundreds of them all clean."

He doesn't trust Agdia tests he says, but his plants are all clean. That sounds like something Trump would say. While after a couple back and forths, he promised to refund shipping as well if I send it back, this isn't the first, nor would it be the last vendor in denial.

But he has 1581 ratings at 100%. That means dozens to hundreds of poor saps out there unwittingly purchased virused plants and know none the better. :dunno:

Ugh. It is frustrating when a plant you really want tests positive for virus. I also test every new plant as it comes in. Sorry for your frustrating experience and lack of sound testing logic from the vendor.

I am curious, and I am not trying to poke anyone or be dense.

If you keep good orchid hygiene and don’t intermingle the water, what does it matter?

I always thought it would just effect the coloring of a flower or kill this one plant but that viruses needed both exposed tissue and shared water.

Just curious

DirtyCoconuts, that is a fair question. I personally prefer not to have virused plants in my collection and under my care. Not all of them will show outward symptoms, but a virused plant will never equal a non-virused plant of the same clone in either vigor, resilience or floriferousness. That is just my experience.

I practice the best hygiene I can and never share water. Even so, I don't want to take any chances that I could unintentionally slip up one day and start spreading CymMV or ORSV to my clean plants.

I would have a problem with a vendor who blames the test for a plant that is positive for one of the two viruses that the strips test for. These are not "just home tests"... nobody went to the trouble and expense to develop and manufacture these just for the hobbyist orchid grower... orchids are a very big industry, and these were developed primarily for commercial growers, hobbyist sales are just icing on the cake. A faint positive, could be false but a strong one is very likely real. You may or may not act on the information, but I don't think that one can just write off that information as "fake news" because it's inconvenient.

You'd never truly know the extent of damage caused by viruses, whether there is slow overall decline, mysterious leaf spots, stunting, deformations or color breaks. Viruses are difficult to detect by eye and eludes the foremost orchid experts. A number of vendors have expressed surprise when I tell them something from their personal collection is virused. One must wonder, if it's just good cultural practices, how are viruses so prevalent?

One good example is Rare Earth Orchids / Catasetinae.com. The site hosts a whole blurb on best cultural practices, and the owners, Stephen Moffitt and Sue Bottom must have given plenty of talks about this issue at local orchid societies. When one looks up orchid diseases on Google, they inevitably run across one of their articles. They must be some of the foremost experts on good cultural practices. Yet, Agdia tests revealed that 3 of his Catasetum parent plants had ORSV.

The source of infection is not the right question in my opinion: it could have been an aphid infection, splashes from rain, small animals, or one day someone didn't torch the tools long enough. Unless one keeps their plants in individual silos, I think the chances of no cross infection once viruses enter the collection approach 0% with time.

Additionally, we pay good money for these orchids, and paying for a virus, to me, is like buying a car with a higher maintenance cost than an otherwise equal car for the same price, or a car that continually breaks itself. Sure, you could keep fixing it proactively, but why. If we're so anal about growing labeled species as opposed to NoIDs, then why aren't we anal about growing healthy genetics?

What is the harm of a virus? In some types of plants, like passiflora and figs, especially figs, most people just accept that the ones they buy are probably virused as so many are. You get plenty of figs so it isn't a big deal. So, some plants are pretty resistant to the effects of virus and grow and produce fruit well enough that it isn't too much trouble. However, most of the time, this is not the case. Many plants will die from a virus infection, including some orchids.

I had orchids for many years before joining an orchid society. Shortly after becoming a member, one of my favorite Cattleyas bloomed. It was one of those Cattleyas that very faithfully, every six months put out new growths and, when the growths are mature, bloom. I put this on the show table and when I went to fetch it, I noticed that someone had shoved another Cattleya into it and those flowers had color break. I isolated the orchid. Without showing any other symptoms, it missed the usual time for sending out the new growths. They grew much more slowly than usual. Then the leaves began to get the usual mosaic virus pattern. Finally, it bloomed with deformed blooms that had color break. And that is why people prefer not to have virus in their orchid collections.