New Phal, but what is this???

[Olive Cook]

I just bought this one this evening, and while cleaning it and repotting I noticed these hard "blemishes" in the leaves. My first thought was "oh great, scale" However scale will wipe off right?? These are litterally IN the leaves.
I'm going to keep it seperated until I find out what it is/what to do.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Top of the leaf



Bottom of the leaf




It's on a couple others as well, but this was the worst

[Olive Cook]

oh yeah, and I scraped at one with my finger nail to see if I could scrape them off, but they won't budge

[kmarch]

I have seen these hard "bumps" on leaves form time to time. I've seen them on phals and cattleyas. I've never seen them on thin-leaves orchids, just the ones with thicker leaves. They don't seem to cause any harm. But I'm not really sure what they are.

[orchidlover55]

I had that one time on my phal's so I sprayed with 3-in-1 a couple of times and then it got ok. I don't know what it was but it went away so I am happy now :-)

[lmartiny]

I've seen that on a Phal and it never amounted to anything.

[Olive Cook]

ok, so it should be safe to put it with the others?

[tangers40]

i've purchased several phals with those kinds of spots and bumps. no idea what they are either, but they never spread to other plants or appeared on any new leaves, so i don't worry about it anymore.

[phalaephila]

Oedema, I believe. Here's a link for info:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardand...113oedema.html

[-k-]

Yup... I have them on a few of mine as well, they never spread or did anything. So it's anyones guess as to what they are, I would not be concerned...

[11Orchid126]

Even if the bumps prove to be nothing, you might still want to keep the plant in quarantine just in case something else shows up down the line.

[kmarch]

Good point to raise 11Orchid126. A lot of orchid growers do keep a new plant in quarantine for a couple of weeks before introducing it into their collection, just to watch it and make sure no signs of disease or infestation occur. For those with limited growing spaces this is not always possible which makes it doubly important to learn how to recognize good healthy plants and which mail-order vendors are reliable and offer healthy plants.

[dorothea]

could these bumps be connected to cold weather and watering or something like that?

[greenleaf]

will these bumps ever go away?

[11Orchid126]

Probably not. Especially if they're mechanical damage. But don't worry, the plant looks like a phal, and they grow new leaves from the top and discard the old leaves at the bottom, so as your plant grows, it will eventually fall off.

[Olive Cook]

I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to spread to/kill my other plants, I can't really see it enless i'm looking for it

[Phalcycle]

I agree with others. I have a Phal that I received as a gift. It was Home Depot's Just Add Ice, and my dear friend found out I started an orchi collection and got me one.
She picked this massive Phal out, and It looked so healthy, and lush roots. But I too was worried about some of the marks on the leaves. It has scratches and Bumps like yours. I seperated this phal from my others, until recently I leanred that it is not spreadable.

So its not to worry! It just seems to be a 'birth effect'

[Sandrilene]

Originally Posted by kmarch

Good point to raise 11Orchid126. A lot of orchid growers do keep a new plant in quarantine for a couple of weeks before introducing it into their collection, just to watch it and make sure no signs of disease or infestation occur. For those with limited growing spaces this is not always possible which makes it doubly important to learn how to recognize good healthy plants and which mail-order vendors are reliable and offer healthy plants.

Very smart to do so too. I didnt know to do this when I got my order of my last 3 orchids because I hadn`t read it anywhere at that point and now all of my orchids have bugs and fungus and stuff that I have been fighting for a few weeks. So you are better to be safe then sorry.

[berkeleysgr8]

I've been fighting a battle with scale that began with an infested plant purchased from an eBay vendor a couple years ago. I hadn't noticed scale on a few new plants and put them in with my collection... I ended up losing about a dozen 2 year old Cym seedlings from the resulting infestation. I recently noticed they've reappeared on some Dends and several Oncidium alliance plants. Alcohol isn't working... time to bust out the big guns and use Bayer 3-in-1 to kill the scale. Based on my experience, I now carefully inspect new plants and quarantine most before integrating them into the collection.

Sounds like the consensus on these bumps is that they're not cause for concern. Good luck!

[shaz]

I had always assumed that these bumps were scars caused by damage from when the leaves were young and they had over-healed- a bit like we get raised scars that never go, I may be completely wrong but I have them on a few plants and they are harmless.

[pugmom]

oh man,

I just picked a few of these off my mini phal and treated them with alcohol lol.

I am glad its not anything to worry about.......
I should have read the forum first lol.

[Brooke]

Pugmom if you picked something off, you have a problem. The blemishes pictured above are embedded in the leaf and cannot be physically removed.

Brooke

[Olive Cook]

Just as an update, this plant is still happy an healthy, and these bumps have not moved to other plants So anyone else who has THIS kind of bump on their Phal leaves has nothing to worry about. Brooke is right though, these WILL NOT scratch off! And if yours do, then treat your plant