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Help! My girl needs some TLC

Discussion in 'Issues, Disease and Pests' started by Krysta Sanders, Apr 9, 2017.

  1. Apr 9, 2017 #1
    Krysta Sanders

    Krysta Sanders New Member

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    My mother picked this orchid up for me at a local store where they just placed ice on her. I have cleaned the roots and sprayed them down with Hydrogen peroxide. As you can see there are some great roots but there are floppy flower stems and leaves. Can anyone help me with figuring out what is going on with her? And give some suggestion on what else I can do to make her happier?
     

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  2. Apr 9, 2017 #2
    KellyW

    KellyW Orchid wonk Staff Member Supporting Member

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    Krysta, there are others here on the forum that know a lot more about diseases than I do and I hope they say I am wrong. However, I think it is a bacterial rot. Based on what I can see in the photos it looks like every leaf has it.

    If the rot was a small spot or isolated to one leaf you could remove the affected tissue and treat the wound with hydrogen peroxide and/or cinnamon to try to halt the spread. In your case it looks so wide spread that I don't think there is any hope for your plant ... sorry. Like I said earlier, I hope someone more knowledgeable says I am wrong.

    I have had this happen to a few of my plants but not to this extent. In my case it is usually caused by condensation from the roof of the greenhouse dripping onto the foliage in the winter. On your plant, since it is so wide spread, it looks like it may have been outside with cold rain and stayed wet all night or something similar to that. Whatever the cause I suspect it happened repeatedly.
     
  3. Apr 9, 2017 #3
    Kipper

    Kipper CoffeeCoffeeCoffee... Supporting Member

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    I believe Kelly is correct...Plus I would never trust anyone who has used an artificial dye to tint the blooms on an orchid to even begin to treat it correctly.
     
  4. Apr 10, 2017 #4
    naoki

    naoki Well-Known Member

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    I'm also not sure the exact cause, but as a supplemental home remedy, you might want to spray aspirin water (try 2-1 tablets of uncoated 325mg Asprin per gallon). I don't have a high hope that it will work at this stage, though.
     
  5. Apr 10, 2017 #5
    seidenfaden

    seidenfaden Well-Known Member

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    First thing to do is to cut off the flower spike, right down to the bottom, if there is a dye capsule, also get rid of that. Now the leaves, cut down your leaves to approx 2" from the crown of the plants, making sure that you treat the cut edges. the most important part is the roots, which don't look too bad. Then hang your plant,(out of the pot),in a bright spot (not full sunlight) where you can spray the roots daily with fresh water. Hopefully in time you should see a new leaf appearing from the crown, together with new root activity. The import thing, is that the centre of the crown looks to be healthy.
     
  6. Apr 12, 2017 #6
    Fumiaki Takahashi

    Fumiaki Takahashi miniature orchidaholic

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    I agree but the chance of it working is small.