Catt leaf problem

[Joaniep]

Can anyone tell me what is causing the leaves of my catt to turn orange brown ,then dark brown and dried up? This has happened to two leaves and may be spreading.
Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

A picture woulds be very helpfull.

Could be old age. Check the age by counting backwards from the newest growth. New growth = 0 years, then add one year for each growth, unless your plant produces 2 growths per year, which is not common.

I have had something that is quite deadly in Cattleyas that starts as a rosy color on a good part of a leaf, and shortly there after the plant dies. I have arrested the desease in the latest Catt by giving it several sprays of Phyton 27, an expensive but excellent systemic fungicide/bacteriacide. This should not be confused with Physan 20, which is not systemic, and is worthless in this situation.

[Joaniep]

I'm going to try to post a photo of my ailing catt Diane and Cynthia.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Yep, this is serious. Look for scale on the plant, especially tiny nymph stage (they crawl) at the base of the bulbs, usually under dead sheathing. They suck the plant juices to dehydrate the plant, and cause punctures for bacteria to enter. I think that is the only time I have seen a plant get this bad. As a minimum you are going to have to remove the rotted bulbs. If I am right, I will give more info on what to do.

[Vincent]

In examining that Cattleya for bugs and removing dead tissue, I would take it out of the pot, get rid of the old medium, and have a look at the roots also.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Is that a question? If you can remove the discolored growths without disturbing the roots, you can leave the plant in the same mix/pot. If the bark just falls away, repot, but try not to ruin any roots, as the plant is already in very bad shape. If you find the roots are all dead, that is a different or complicating problem, and more instructions would follow. I would say to look for the problem before disturbing the roots.

[Joaniep]

Hi Cynthia, I don't see any sign of insects here. I did add epsom salts to the fertilizer in the last two weeks. I added 1 tsp. per gallon. Could that have caused this browning do you think?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Sorry Joan, I missed your response some how. No, don't think the epsom salts would have been high enough to cause the problem. I saw your comments on the AOS forum. You report a roots loss problem if I read it correctly. I can't guess at this point why the root loss occured, but you do need to raise the humidity badly to give the plant time to do what ever it can in the way of growth. My experience with rooting hormones in orchids seems to indicate that instead of causing them to produce roots, it causes more growths to start. But this is a good thing in your plant's condition, since new growths always produce prodigious roots, so no harm done, but watch out for too may new growths starting. The Sphag and bag mentioned would work well, but if there are already some good roots left and new ones starting, then you want the plant in a pot with something like a big baggy draped over it loosely. I want to warn you about sphag and bag. I have never gotten any rot in a bagged plant except in the rare situation where the rot is already in the plant before bagging. Your plant looks like it has a lot of rot. Is there any way to post a picture of the lower part of the plant so we can see where there needs to be surgery to remove the rotted portions? You can send me a picture directly rather than shrink it for posting, as a larger picture will tell a lot more. One more thing you may want to consider if this problem seems to be spreading to other plants, and that is to buy a small bottle of Phyton 27, not to be confused with Physan 20. Phyton 27 is a systemic bacteriocide/fungicide. It works, which is not something I can say about other so called systemic fungicides I've used. Unfortunately it is not cheap, but can be nursed to last a long time. I only user it on real serious cases. Hummert has it. Unfortunately they have a $50 minimum, so you may want to look for it elsewhere.
http://www.hummert.com/catalog.asp?P=507

schnitz at cableone dot net

[jerrymeola]

This unfortunately looks familiar. At this point I consider it a dead plant.

All the roots have at least shut down and have been that way for a while.

I do not see one good leaf left in the photo.

You might try taking it out and using Cynthia's sphag and bag technique to start new roots. Commercially I just pitch them at this point.

The causes can be many. Often it happens to me if a plant is knocked out of its pot and allowed to dry too much before finding it. Sometimes the plant is just weak and even the best care results in its gradual decline. I think overly drying out is the highest probability.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Jerry, in another forum she mentions a slight amount of root activity, so I think there is hope, and if there are some roots left, sphag & bag isn't appropriate, but humidity raising is a very good idea, and may make the difference between living and dying.

[Joaniep]

Hi everyone,
Whatever is happening to those leaves is continuing to happen rapidly. The leaf with the brown spot in the center is now browning in all directions! I gave the plant a peroxide bath and now have it in a purified water bath. There are two green bumps starting from one of the bulbs. I could never grow this plant. I have a second one that is doing poorly also but all the leaves are green. I don't know how to improve its culture. Maybe I should try sphag.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I think the only thing that is likely to make any difference in treating the rot/fungus/shriveling is the Phyton 27. Only a systeminc is going to do something. The dehydration in the green leaves in your picture makes it look to me like you are going to loose all of the leaves. I suspect something like fusarium wilt. Read the symptoms of fusarium wilt on this site: http://www.orchidssa.co.za/pests.htm
I have lost plants to something like this that started as a rosy color on the leaves. The last plant to show these symptoms was saved with Phyton 27. However, if your plant has something like this, it looks to me like it has gone too far. Have you done any surgery yet? If you start to cut into the rhyzome while doing the surgery, look for a reddish color in the cut, usually along the outside portion of the rhyzome. The standard method to get rid of the problem is to keep cutting forward until you make a cut with no reddish color, then treat the cut with a fungicide. I hope this plant is a clone that you can eventually find another one of, since I have very little hope for it. But if you do the surgery to remove all discolored material, and are left with atleast one psuedobulb with a growth starting, you may be able to baby it back up to size, but it will take awhile. Let me know what the results of surgery are.

[Joaniep]

Hi Cynthia,
When examining the roots left here, I was able to disentangle two bulbs and am treating them separately. I cut off the top of one diseased bulb down to healthy looking tissue and sprinkled cut area with cinnamon. It's in a small clay pot with kLN drenched sphag. Don't know if there are any viable roots.

The browning on the first plant leaf seems like it may be stablized??
I had dipped it in peroxide and it is in a distilled water bath now with a drop of KLN. I change it daily. What do you think of this treatment? The problem seems to start in the leaves first.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Gently squeeze the roots. If they colapse, they are dead. If firm, and not very dark to black, they are alive. The black dead obes would be on very old bulbs and are firm because they are sort of petrified. But since the remaining bulbs are probably recent, any firm roots would be alive. Don't know about KLM, but any hormone should be used early, then discontinued because they may not give the desired result, and may inhibit what you want, inspite of what they are labeled for. Let me know if there are any firm roots.

[Joaniep]

I see at least one firm root cynthia.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

In that case, pot the plant up. Are you growing in your home or in a greenhouse? I think, in general, you want to keep the humidity up, maybe 70 to 90%, to help in the support of the plant until more roots develope, or the new growth starts to produce roots, and keep an eye open for any rot. It is just a waiting game now to see if the plant will continue the new growths, or the problem, what ever it is, recurs. Good luck. All long time orchid growers have been here.

[Joaniep]

Thanks for all your help Cynthia. It's greatly appreciated. You're a gem!

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

That you for the compliment Joan. I know you got the most incredibly diverse bunch of recommendations from the Garden Web, and it is hard to compete over there. I have almost given up visiting that site. I'm a little worried that this site will wind up with so many people answering a post, as over there, that the good info will be lost in the guesses, misconceptions, misinterpretations, and old wives tales, not to mention a certain Johnny One Note, that gives the same answer for every problem.