Black spots all over Vanda Wai Ron

[Gracielu]

I bought a vanda wai ron three months ago, and when I purchased it, the leaves were bright green with no spots. Now, they're darker and covered in little black spots, but the leaves are still firm (no indentions/rotting) and a new flower spike is forming. I am relativity new to orchids and this my first vanda, so I am unsure of what this could be. I've uploaded three pictures of the orchid in its current state along with one photo (the one with blooms) from when I first purchased it. Any help identifying why this happened would be much appreciated.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board! Happy New Year!!

Congratulations on the flowers. That means you're growing it well. The spots with dry brown areas represent old mechanical damage, like scratching or old insect bites. They won't go away but are not a problem.

The small, very dark purple spots are probably normal pigment. Some Vandas (and other orchids) get purple speckles in bright light. If Vandas are magnesium deficient they can get wide areas of purplish color in cooler weather. I don't see that on your plant. A fungus can cause diamond-shaped purplish patches on Vanda leaves, but I don't see that on your plant.

Enjoy the flowers on your well-grown plant!

[Gracielu]

Thank you so much for your reply! I thought it might be a fungus infection, so I was a bit concerned. Will the orchid loose the spots if I move it to lower light?

[Shadeflower]

Hey Gracie,
it's not fungal. The plant does look in good shape.

One could argue that the spots are a sign of stress and trying to reduce the spotting might help but it's not a confirmed thing or anything.
Sometimes plants will get stressed from a poor substrtate, bad roots, pests, cold stress, transport stress, and change in environment. Howver other factors like water ph and the water quality can have an effect too.

Too much light can be a cause of pigmentation to develop on the leaves and yes reducing the light would reduce the visible pigmentation but the plants need light to grow.

Yours is imo not displaying signs of too much light so I'd leave the light. Although reducing the light will reduce the spots you want the light to get it to flower.

So think about the overall care, temps, water quality, substrate, watering frequency.

Are you familiar with how to fertilize orchids? They need a weak concentration regularly to keep them healthy but not so much to cause damage. It's a very fine balance, they just need some but not too much and not none at all.

Hope that helps. If you are unsure of the ph or water quality just stick to using rain water. That is what they get in nature.

[Ray]

Vandas need higher light and prefer high humidity.

The darker colors and spotting suggest they need for more of both. (I agree that the spotting is pretty normal, but anecdotally, they are less prominent in higher RH.)