burned vanda

[palito]

I have a vanda 'roberts delight' that -due to an unfortunate accident- sunburned horribly on one side, while the other side remains green and looking healthy.

the plant is now growing many roots and the green side continues looking as if nothing had happened, however the top growing point got brown and fell. (crown rot??)

is the plant doomed? or will it try to form a keiki off the base to survive?

[kmarch]

As long as there is living growing tissue I think there is a chance. It may have taken a severe hit and may require some serious recovery time, but Vandaceous plants are capable of starting new leads, so until the plant is completely dead, brown and lifeless I wouldn't give up hope.

[flowerchild]

Originally Posted by palito

I have a vanda 'roberts delight' that -due to an unfortunate accident- sunburned horribly on one side, while the other side remains green and looking healthy.

the plant is now growing many roots and the green side continues looking as if nothing had happened, however the top growing point got brown and fell. (crown rot??)

is the plant doomed? or will it try to form a keiki off the base to survive?

Mine had the same thing happen with sunburn, it is now starting to put out some new roots and I cut the burnt leaves off the one side. I am hoping with the new roots growing that it will do better!!!

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Keep an eye on the rest of the plant, especially the point where the burn ends and green leaf starts. Your plant has had a lot of stress, which could make it vulnerable to fungal and bacterial attack. I had an over heated GHouse for a couple of days, and all the plants hanging on the west side, including almost all of my Vandas, got severe damage. I lost a number of Vandacous plants to fungal/bacterial problems that I think I may have been able to save if I had started using some systemic fungicides immediately after the incident, and looked for any bacterial rot to remove the infected part immediately. I've had a few Vanda types that lost their terminal leaves, but apparently not the germ in the top, or they put out a keiki on the top, and started to grow normally at the top.

[palito]

Thanks for all your insight. I sprayed the top crown and burned areas with fungicide and will see what happens.

[Lucinda Brown]

The Physan 20 is good stuff for nipping back any fungal problems,I've even had good luck keeping my paphiopedilums & phrag's,phalaeonpsis,etc. that are prone to crown rot from getting crown rot by dumping as much water,as I can ,out of their crowns & then spraying them,crowns and all w/the physan.In my G.H. it's too small to keep them from getting water in their crowns when I water it,there are cattleyas,etc,hanging above a lot of them,so it's inevitable.So far no problem as long as I've made sure to do this after watering,except for 1 little Doritis,which I hadn't realized was also prone to it,and hadn't sprayed.It's sending out a new growth,though,to compensate.Give it a try,it's good stuff!You can gradually acclimate your vandas to more sun by moving them them into it a little more at a time.I believe it was here I read this once after I'd burned 1 or 2 of mine a little.They will recover if not burned too bad.The 2 of mine it happened to are doing fine now.I have them all outside in the hot Oklahoma sun w/ a misting sytem on a water timer which goes off for about 2 hours everyday right over them,if not raining,then I manually shut it off.They get watered and cooled this way during the hottest part of the day.And I no longer have to water them everyday as I used to have to.It's Great!The water timer is a Home depot or Lowe's special,runs about $24.00 dollars and hooks up between your outdoor faucet and hose.Hope this helps!

[Lucinda Brown]

Oh,P.S. Don't waste your money on the tiny, brass nozzle systems they sell at those places,clog up every time you turn around!They also have plastic small misting heads in the underground sprinkler areas of Lowe's and Home Depot you can put in small tubing for cheap that work great!And our friend Machiela also sells some wonderful brass heads for hoses that have 3 misting heads in them that REALLY put out some water and don't clog so easy.They'll screw straight onto a hose but they had too much power for the gentler misting and watering I wanted my vandas to get.Yet they made a great system for my G.H. ,helps to bring temp down in there when the cooler can't quite handle it.Had to put it where it wouldn't be watering everything in there while it was at it,though!Thanks Machiela,great guy to buy plants from too.I have a lot of his babies,now.Check him out on EBAY.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Physan is good for cleaning up the environment of fungi spores. But keep in mind that it is not systemic, so don't expect any improvement using it if you have a problem already starting in a plant. Also, be careful not to use it at any higher concentration than recommended, as I have had damage to some orchids being careless. You can actually get good effects at lower concentrations that some prefer.

[Tobi]

Cynthia,
Could you give us information on the usage of Physan 20 and Phyton 27. I
have heard pros and cons on both

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Phyton 27 has no down sides that I have experienced, and saved a few plants for me. I still use it occasionally on new problems that I haven't seen before, like a rust problem developing on an Aerides. If you have not used it before, I am sure you won't have an immunity problems as I have right now. The only tissue that will turn bad when sprayed with it is tissue that is already infected with fungus, and the tissue collapses without the inflammation of the fungal activity, so be prepared for that. I mix it according to label directions. Would have to go out to the GH to read what I wrote on the bottle to help me remember how much to mix, and I am not currently properly dressed.

Physan 20, I believe says 2 teaspoon to a gallon. I have had chlorophyll loss in the growing portions of orchids when I accidentally went above this amount. I use about half or less that this when I premix my fertilizer in my RO water storage tank to keep algae from growing in the left over water. I am sorry to say that I must have varieties of algae elsewhere in the greenhouse that appear to be immune to Physan. I am going to start experimenting with algicides for aquariums, which state that they are safe for fish and plants. Bill Bergstrom has said he uses it at a few drops per gallon.

[Tobi]

Cynthia,
Thank you for your update. I'm sure this will be useful information for all

[Lucinda Brown]

Cynthia,was that chlorophyll lose signified by yellow spotting in the leaves?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

No. The loss of Chlorophyll left the plant leaves white in the section that was forming. So there is almost a stripe across the leaf where it is green beyond, formed before the problem, and green below as the leaf continued to grow. I also had a most strange occurance of very long leaves and taller pseudobulbs in a Laelia fidelensis, which, as those of you that have the plant know, is a shrimpy looking plant, bigger that the rupicolous Laelias, but much smaller than a crispa or purpurata. Next time I take the camera to the greenhouse, I'll get a picture of this odd color pattern.

[palito]

thanks all.

The top growing point got brown and fell and now, 20 days later a new leaf is emerging from the crown!

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Congratulations, you have had one of those strange and fortunate occurances too. I sort of expect that you will also get a keiki elsewhere too, I did.