Oncidium Twinkle with leaf messages

[Normkp]

Hi Y'all,

I'm so grateful to find this lively forum with generous veterans willing to guide us newbies on this adventure. My thanks to all of you.

I brought this Oncidium Twinkle (picture attached) home from the San Francisco Orchid Show two weeks before I took this picture. Did I bring home a virus or is this orchid trying to tell me something.

Norm

[dipasquo]

I also purchased an Oncidium Twinkle from the Pacific Orchid Expo, so I am no expert, but I do understand that it is a plant that likes medium light. Have you had it outside some or all of the time since you got it home (as it appears to be in this picture)? If so it may have been getting too much light and what you see may be sunburn.

[PhalPal]

It looks like some little fungal spots?? I have seen this on a few of my Cyms and I'm not quite sure about them. Give your Onc lots of air movement to try to avoid this, if it is indeed fungal in nature.

[articuno75]

I see a couple of things.

The big blotch in the left somewhat lower corner of the pic is sunburn.
The little black spots is more likely fungal.
The lighter blotches might be the onset of more sunburn and or the fungi.

Phalpal is right about the air circulation. Also I suggest removing it from the direct sunlight and putting it in an area with filtered light. Not shaded, but filtered.

Good luck with your Twinkle!

[PhalPal]

Jenny do you know how to get rid of fungal spots like that, other then increasing air circ?

[articuno75]

You can use a good fungicide no problem. I like chemical free "au naturale" and use Brookn's recipe.

[Normkp]

Thank's everybody. I'll make that air move! And now that I know about Brookn's recipe, Jenny, I'll use that too.
The sun burn is a mystery. For now I keep it about 8' from the window in a bright room (mostly windows on three sides--north, south and west). At most it's been getting 25 minutes of late afternoon sun. Is that really enough to sun burn?
Norm

[articuno75]

Originally Posted by Normkp

Thank's everybody. I'll make that air move! And now that I know about Brookn's recipe, Jenny, I'll use that too.
The sun burn is a mystery. For now I keep it about 8' from the window in a bright room (mostly windows on three sides--north, south and west). At most it's been getting 25 minutes of late afternoon sun. Is that really enough to sun burn?
Norm

By what you say, you have it in a room with three windows, getting constant sunlight at any given time. You said that the plant is 8' from the closest window. Where is it in conjuction to the other two? It still sounds like direct light is hitting the leaves. Do all three windows have filtered curtains?

[jay]

I have an Onc. Twinkle that gets a good bit of light without any problems. At about 9 am it is getting between 2500 - 3500 footcandles of light.

I do get those annoying little black spots on several of the Oncidiums as they get older. My Twinkle gets brown tips on several of the leaves, but the plant just keeps on throwing new growths and flowers.

[Normkp]

Hi Jenny,
I'm back. On the 21st you suggested my problem might be too much sun. I gave you the wrong impression. The room does not get constant sunlight. It just has a lot of windows. What seemed bright to me I'm now thinking is subdued light for my orchids.. At the moment the room has no curtains because it is on the northwest side of the house. It actually gets rays of direct sunlight no more than an hour in the late afternoon. Most of the windows are on the northwest side with another 6' of windows on the southwest. The Onc. Twinkle doesn't get more than 20 minutes a day of direct sun, and that's weakened late afternoon sun.
I'm still trying to figure out where and how to use my space for growing. I have a sunroom on the southeast side, but it is cold in the winter and quite hot in summer.
Norm

[kazjak]

My Twinkle receives the full Northern Ohio sun until about 1PM all summer and full southern sun all winter. The leaves also look like kind of ratty but it puts out a great show for me each winter. Check out the pictures of it in the link below. It grows like a weed and never skips a beat. Except when I tried moving it to S/H. It wasn't happy with me.

[articuno75]

Originally Posted by Normkp

Hi Jenny,
I'm back. On the 21st you suggested my problem might be too much sun. I gave you the wrong impression. The room does not get constant sunlight. It just has a lot of windows. What seemed bright to me I'm now thinking is subdued light for my orchids.. At the moment the room has no curtains because it is on the northwest side of the house. It actually gets rays of direct sunlight no more than an hour in the late afternoon. Most of the windows are on the northwest side with another 6' of windows on the southwest. The Onc. Twinkle doesn't get more than 20 minutes a day of direct sun, and that's weakened late afternoon sun.
I'm still trying to figure out where and how to use my space for growing. I have a sunroom on the southeast side, but it is cold in the winter and quite hot in summer.
Norm

There is a thread in here somewhere for measuring light for an area with your camera. With all those windows, I wouldn't see why it would be a problem with lighting.

[made4engineering]

Your plant looks healthy to me. You shouldn't pull your hair out if your orchids' leaves get a few mold spots or a little sunburn - these things will happen. Of course you can do the above suggestions to minimize that, but even in the jungle where these orchids thrive, they often appear much worse. For example, I have a Gongora whose leaves have various dots, spots, splotches and sunburns, and its growing quite well with 7 new growths, and putting out its 2nd spike this spring so far...

[articuno75]

I agree with Made4engineering that the plant is healthy. Some Oncidiums can take more light than others. Twinkle is one of those that prefer less light amounts. I have some Oncidiums that are right on top of my windowsill pressed against it with no curtain. Others are set staggard according to what they like. I tried setting my Twinkle closer to the window and it gave me attitude and yellowed. I had to move it back a ways. My Twinkle is in what would be considered Phal light conditions.

[Rocinante]

Please take a look at my twinkle and tell me if I need to re-pot...

[articuno75]

I would say no. These like to be very root bound. Yours looks fantastic

[Rocinante]

Thanks, Jenny! I hope your kids are getting better... you really had some winter out there!

[articuno75]

Thanks....The little ones are doing way better than the bigger baby, LoL. He's doing somewhat better. He's actually moving around more today than he did for the past week. But I've been crackin' whip.