Umm, as just a hobbyist grower, i wouldn't bother testing. (just my opinion though)
Learning is always good.

That's a big can of worms. Almost all your other house plants, and many planted in your outdoor landscape, are already infected with virus. Now what?

The great majority of virus infected orchids show no signs of infection, and they grow and flower normally. Unless you're a vendor who promises virus-free plants, or are trying to preserve very rare and old clones of valuable plants, it may not make sense to test every plant on a regular basis.

I guess I have been a bit paranoid about virus lately. Hate to think of spending money just to spend money. Maybe I'll just save it for orchids. I don't intend to become overtaken by orchids, although I hear that happens...

:rofl:

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, is it also lined with orchids? :)

. . . the addiction is real and this is the place to feed the addiction. I have first hand experience with that!!!

The AOS book is on order...looking at the books I have got me down last night. Too much light too little light, too little humidity, don't bloom in winter....ISH

But then I did a search for low humidity tolerant orchids and found that TOLERANCE is indeed the key. So now I am feeling more optomistic.

My Phals are blooming and one has a branching spike starting...humidity reading at the pot is 36%.

Almost tossed them after the move here as they took a beating, but they are doing pretty well. Yup, some money going for orchids now....

I think you'll really get some insights from the AOS book. Unlike most, it has a lot of material on the "whys" of the pieces of advice, which helps a lot in translating the advice to your conditions.

I just split one of my cymbidiums in six parts and am looking for someone to pawn them off on down here in the metro ... Does really well with the inside/outside thing and low winter humidity. ;)

I put off buying orchids for spring. That's just me. I had one-- bought with a 72 hour heat pack-- but due to weather, and freight airplanes backed up at airports etc., it ended up dying and freezing to death in a warehouse because the plane was diverted. One week earlier and I would have gotten it okay. After that, I realized that the shipping could still go wrong because of unforeseen circumstances, so I don't buy orchids until the weather is clear from the source to my area. (Florida, for instance, to my home in the US Southwest). (I also don't buy them in the really hot part of the year). That's just first person experience. Your experience may be different.