White spots on my Encyclia garciana leaves

[BGGraham1]

Hi everybody! I'm a little perplexed about these spots that recently came up on my Enc. I have checked the sphag, and cannot see any creepy crawlies in there, and the spots appear to be flat so I don't think its scale.

Can anyone give me some guidance? I'm leaving for the weekend, and gave everyone a once over, and on this one I sprayed some Organicide as a precaution. I'm stopping at home this evening before I leave, so if there is something else I need to do, I can do it then.

Thanks in advance

[BGGraham1]

bumping up for some help!

[Dendian]

I'm sorry - I don't know - but it sure looks like some kind of insect damage to me? Is it mostly on the undersides of the leaf - but sometimes shows up on the top? I had similar damage with the scale - but I knew exactly what that was!

[BGGraham1]

I felt all along the underside of the leaf, and all of the spots appear to be completely flat. I busted out the magnifying glass and the spots don't appear to have any substance...that is, they don't appear to be bugs of any kind. They're just ever-so-slightly depressed spots.

I'm bummin'....this is such a pretty orchid.

[1joyceh]

Brigette, I don't know if this will help, but....
Hard water can sometimes to do that to the leaves, specifically high iron content. It is recommended to flush all mineral deposits out of the medium. Have you ever checked your water?

[Shannara]

I am not sure what it could be myself. One thing you could try if you are growing outside is to go out late and night with a flashlight and make sure a snail/slug/beetle or some other night crawler isn't making a snack out of your plants.

I hope someone else with better advice comes along soon.

Good luck,
Shann~

[BGGraham1]

Thanks for the tips. In this case, it would have to be a pretty speedy snail or slug. I have this one hanging from the roof of my tiki hut, and it would be quite a crawl up the side across the roof and down the hanger.

Now, the only thing that I have noticed are some spiders that like to spin their webs around the hut and have now found the hanger, but I haven't seen any webs in or on the plant itself.

Spiders wouldn't do this kind of damage, would they?

[BGGraham1]

I got the Aquachek Test Strips (it was the only thing they had at the hardware store), and tested my water. It came out low for hardness (good thing), pretty much zero chlorine , pH was slightly alkaline (I think...hubby's gonna have to double check), and the strips I had also checked Bromine - don't know what it is, but I don't have any.

I will have to invest in a better test kit someday, but for now this is what I have.

[1joyceh]

Well, that's great Brigette,
the more possibilities eliminated...
the sooner you can figure out the cause.

[koshki]

From the top, I was going to suggest scale (OMG I hate those things), but the bottom looks different. You'd find them on your 'chids.

The photo almost looks like there is a "center" to the damaged area...almost like a bee sting. I'm not suggesting it's bees, just that it looks like it has an entry point of damage.

[BGGraham1]

it kind of does, from the pic...i'll have to try to get a closer shot when I get home. This is maddening!!

[orchids4me]

Do you have yellow jackets or wasps hanging around or nesting near by ?? Just curious. I've been watching yellow jackets here go to my ficus plant chew the leaves to make the material for their nests.... I had a spray fest one night raiding the wasp nest once I saw where they where taking what they chewed off of my leaves. They also found water in the nook of the undersid of my mop bucket out back (nop mop water though) to make the chewed plat fibers into the paper of their combs for the eggs up in the eves of my shed. It was a huge nest and found mor little nest under the eves of the house. I blasted them all. I ask because they don't always chew at edges of the leaves these guys chewed ares like on your leaf on flat surfaces. But still look for the night buggies watch for the day time ones too like wasps......

[jpyerry]

Do you have access to a microscope? It seems like so many bugs that do a lot of damage to plants tend to be microscopic. I got myself a somewhat cheap dissecting microscope a while back and it has been useful for diagnosing scale, spider mites, and Phalaenopsis mites, and a few other things which would have been impossible to determine with a simple magnifying glass. If I were you, I would want to get a look at those spots under the microscope.

At first glance, it looks like it might be scale. If you try scrubbing them with some rubbing alcohol and they come off, that is most likely what you are dealing with.

Another thing one can do to determine if you are dealing with a fungal or bacterial problem, is to inoculate agar filled petri dishes with samples of your potting media, scrapings of the root surfaces, and biopsies of the spots themselves, and seeing what shows up on the plates. I once diagnosed a fungal problem in an African Violet in this manner. Then again, I am kind of a geek when it comes to science side of things, and you may not want to go to these lengths.

As another option worth considering if you are not feeling like a mad scientist is sending the plant or a sample of the plant to a lab for examination. Here in New York we have Cornell Cooperative Extensions in most counties, and they perform analysis of problems with plants for a fee of about $2. To me it is worth the expense to know exactly what you are dealing with. I imagine California probably has something similar.

Oh, and Bromine is an element very similar to Chlorine, it is in the halogen group of elements. Some areas use Bromine in the same way that many areas use Chlorine to reduce pathogens found in water. This is likely why it appeared in your test kit. It would also be helpful to know the TDS and EC of your water, both before and after fertilizer is added, same thing with pH (a lot of fertilizers and additives really play with the pH, and for many plants including orchids you want to have your pH slightly acidic around 6.6, which you might want to pay attention to since you indicated you have slightly basic water, also your potting media can affect pH which is why it is not a bad idea to check the pH of any moisture in the pot after it has absorbed by the media).

Best of luck to you,
Justin

[BGGraham1]

Whew! Justin!! My head is spinning!

Actually, I spoke with Andy at Andy's Orchids yesterday and he asked me to send him a pic of the leaves after I explained that they were little white pits. (Definitely NOT scale - I've seen that on my Cyms! Yuck!)

His assessment was that I haven't been giving it enough water. Its in a basket of sphag hanging in my backyard with morning sun until about 11 am, and I have been waiting until the sphag is a little crunchy to water. Andy says not to wait that long. Basically, the leaves are saying, "I'm thirsty!!" So yesterday I gave it a goooood loooong drink of water, and will check it every other day instead of every 3rd day.

We'll see what happens...

Thank you, though. I appreciate you taking the time to consider all of the possibilities.