No More Orchid - sitter, no more vacation. HELP!

[Zsophia]

I went to vacation for a week. When I got back, some of my orchids looked like this. (See pictures). I almost cried. Since than I read every possible disease description and every sickness an orchid could have. But I can not say certainly they have fungus, I am just guessing. It is not spreading very quickly, but almost all of them have it. I have not treated my orchids with fungicide before, but seeing this, I ran to the Home Depot and bought Triple Action Neem Oil. It contains 70% neem and 30% inert ingredients. It is recommended on the bottle to use for roses and I read somewhere, if it is good for roses, it is good for orchids. I sprayed the suggested mixture 2 days ago, and I am watching carefully. Nothing yet. Please if anyone had before the same problem or just knows more than I know please let me know whats going on, how should I treat and prevent on the healthy ones?
Thanks a lot!

[mehitabel]

Hi, Zophia. Don't stress~! I'm not an expert, but I've had my share of ugly leaves from various causes. I don't think you have such a calamity on your hands as you fear.

The first 4 photos-- the tiny black specks on the ends of the leaves. I say ehhhh, nothing to scare yourself with if it doesn't spread. That's the sort of thing I rub a little powdered cinnamon on both sides of the leaf and fuggedabout it. .

Photo 6, the leaf with the hole in it-- looks like sunburn to me. As long as the brown area around it isn't soft and mushy, it's ok. If the brown gets or is mushy, cinnamon will dry it up.

Photo 5, the orchid with the pseudobulbs, can't tell what type in the picture. That dried sarong can be peeled right off (and should be, as it can harbor pests). When you've done that, it looks to me like the pb itself is ok. If not, it will be a very small spot, bring out the cinnamon.

The last photo looks the worst to me, but the plant will be fine if that doesn't spread. Again, I always try cinnamon first. It is an anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and usually stops minor leaf problems dead in their tracks.

The fungicide (or the cinnamon) won't make the spots go away. The leaves will be disfigured til they drop off. However, it will stop any fungus from growing.

Sorry to sound like I own a cinnamon plantation, but the stuff really does work for minor leaf problems.

[Zsophia]

Thank you, I really like what you just said. Here are some more pictures. I am so worried. what do think about these? On the last one, my rescue Phal barely has anymore leaves...

[mehitabel]

Most of these look like sunburn to me, Zophia. Sunburn presents sometimes as a white or black spot, sometimes as a hole, sometimes as soft mush, depending on how hot the leaves got and how tender they were to start with. (The mush is the hottest). One way you can tell is if the damage is on the curve of the leaf-- where it presents a nice big flat surface to get too hot.

To be tiresomely repetitious, cinnamon works on this. I sunburn some plants every spring despite what I think of as good precautions. So I really do know about this. !!! Cinnamon works on it, even the mushy stuff. What it does to sunburn mush is dry it up. Cinnamon is a desiccant, it will dry up the mush. The leaf will look crummy, a healthy rim around a dried up, shrunken up place where the burn was. But if there's any healthy leaf left, you want to keep it.

I've learned to love the ugly half dried up/ half healthy leaves because it means the rot is gone

Now I did see two problems:

Photo 4 and 8. I think this is the same plant. This one may not make it, because the problem area is near the crown. I would put some cinnamon on the part of the leaf that's browny and cross my fingers. You can try to keep it going, see if it puts up a new leaf or a new crown from below. But if it doesn't make it, it doesn't. Nobody has even a 50-50 chance with a plant like that.

I used to try to save this kind of plant, but now I pitch unless it it is something really special and hard to replace. I have found that pitching the miserable ones lifts my spirits. Somehow the miseries take all your attention, and blind you to your successes.

Photo 5 and 7. The catt. What you are showing there looks like a rotten pseudobulb to me. Feel it with your fingers, see if it feels firm. If it gives when you feel it, I think you should take it off. Cut it with a sterile razor blade or cutters. Cut into clean tissue if you can, then spray with physan (contact antibacterial) and/or put plenty of cinnamon on it. They will stop it if it hasn't spread too far into the rhyzome. Watch the plant to make sure it doesn't show up in the nearby pbs.

It's just one pb, unless the rot has moved on into the rest of the plant, the plant itself is not at risk.

One last thing-- orchid leaves hardly every look that great, especially catts. And orchids need every leaf and pb, so you can't cut the ugly stuff off. Just have to learn to see past it.

In my experience, there's no perfection in growing orchids. It's like running a house or raising a child-- there's always something.

Good luck.

[Zsophia]

Oh, Mehitabel, I thank you so very much! I did the surgery with the catt and I keep my fingers crossed for the phals. I might move everything to the all day shade area. I can clean up the other palm tree and hang the rest under there. Thank you very much for all the help and I will "try to live" with imperfect orchid leaves.