Blc. Help

[janice]

Okay Geeks, help me out here.....is this a fungus??? Sun???? Any ideas?? The weather has been cool and damp here......it is slowly warming up and I added a fan to keep the air moving. The roots and bulbs look okay. I have lost two leaves that turned totally black. I place her outside a couple of weeks ago when the weather warmed up.............unfortunately than was gone for 10 days. I was worried about the water - but it rained 80 percent of the time I was gone.

[articuno75]

Janice, by the looks of the pics, it looks like both sun and fungus. The areas of black, is it soft and mushy? If so, you will need to cut those areas out and caurtarize with cinnamon. The lighter tan areas look like sunburn.

[janice]

The black is really not soft and mushy.........................so that confuses me but I think it might be a fungus although I have never experiences this. When I moved it out I placed it on the south end of the house on a walk out porch with roof...it definitly did get more direct sun light than when it was inside ......especially in the morning. If I had known the weather was going to be so weird I would not have move the orchids out so early...........but in the past May was okay.

[articuno75]

If it's not soft and mushy I'd just watch it to see if it spreads. If it does, cut the bad out. It might just be a bad case of burn. I haven't kicked my plants out yet cause of the crazy weather. I'm too scarred to at the moment. I'm waiting for the weather to stabilize.

[PhalPal]

Janice I am pretty sure it is sunburn. I made the same mistake with a few Oncidums and Dendrobiums because I didn't acclimate them slowly enough. some were under T5's lights and the Dends were in natural light. Putting them on the south side of a house with full sun was probably too much for them for the beginning of summer.

Talking about weird weather: the past two days it was 100 degrees. Today it dropped to 68 and cool. Both are unusual for this tiem of year. go figure.

[jerrymeola]

It looks like all sun burn. The feature that makes it clear that it is burn is that the marks are on the flat portion of the leaf where it is bending. This is where the heat builds up.

A bad case of burn can turn the leaf totally black, but it will not spread once removed from the excess light. Actually a bad case of freezing can also result in black leaves.

If it had been fungus it would have spread over the whole leaf and probably the whole plant in a couple of days. fungus will usually attack through the roots and appear first at the point where the leaf meets the pseudobulb.

[patticake]

I agree- looks like sunburn to me... Even plants that like a lot of sun will burn when they haven't gotten used to a drastic change in light. It'll be o.k.- just look a little funny until it gets new growth!

[janice]

Thanks........................I hope it is just sun, I had already moved it back under the porch roof more...........I can correct the sun light easy!!! Weather is starting to become more normal for this time of year. Jenny, I wish I had waited on moving mine out but I checked the extended forcast and thought I would be okay......!!! Patti, I guess waiting on new growth means MORE PATIENCE!!!!