After our last orchid club meeting, where testing our plants for virus was discussed. I ordered some test kits from agdia..
This plant Slc. Jewelers Art 'Waiomao Plum' HCC/AOS tested positive..


But , shockingly.. So did my latest favorite
Bc. Richard Young 'Cariad's Colette'

Perhaps the majority of our plants have some sort of virus, Lindsey?

Oh, darn! Those two are gorgeous. Did you buy enough test kits to test everybody or are you just going to 'spot check' anyone that looks suspicious?

Just nosy here, what do you do now? Can you just isolate them or do you have to deep six them?

That's a good question, Alice, particularly when some of the orchid experts have stated that in their opinion, practically every "old" orchid variety is virused. Their advice: "If the flowers are deformed, toss them. Otherwise, don't worry about it".

Maybe your plants had their virus shot and some of the virus that the vaccination is made from is still around.

Funny, Ted but not as bizarre as it sounds. The plants in fact could - hopefully will - develop immunity to the viruses eventually. That will happen over a long time of course but the ones that survive virus infection without much in the way of symptoms will live on, and the weaker infected ones will die off in due course. It's nature's way. So, in a way it behooves us to grow the plants even if they are infected. We don't help nature develop resistance or immunity if we kill off all our infected plants.

Then hopefully the plant breeders will breed resistant plants, not the weaker ones just because they are pretty. And once again we will defeat a virus - or Mother Nature will do it for us.

Guess where I learned this? The Citrus Greening disease here in Florida has been around for years now, and we DO have some citrus that are surviving it plus a remedy that is not yet a cure. Still, UF stopped recommending that people remove their citrus trees if they are infected because in order to build up our citrus industry again one day, we need to breed the resistant plants.

Very good point Elaine.

Bummer!
Looking at the Jeweler's Art now, doing a bit of "Monday morning quarterbacking", yes, it does look virused. But I wouldn't have guessed the other being virused.
You know, I have never tested my plants, perhaps we all would find some surprises if we do.

I only bought 5 kits to test 5 plants..
My solution is to create a Lepers Colony out in the front yard..




I've never mounted an orchid before.. And this was as good an excuse as any to try my hand at it.
Because space on my bench is a premium commodity.. There's no real way to isolate known contaminated plants... And other than the color break and the odd flower on the Waiomao Plum.. They are still pretty.,

Sounds like a good plan!

Looks good too.

Thanks! I thought so too...and now all the people that walk their dogs will have something pretty to look at. Interestingly these 3 plants had phenomenal roots..I was hoping for less so I could drape them around the tree branches..and once my Richard Young 'Cariad's Collette finishes blooming I'll staple that up on another branch.

Speaking of roots, I was up on the ladder, putting a couple of plants up on one of the tree-shelves, and I saw that one of my Blc. Mary Jo McNerney has rooted onto an oak tree. The oak is over a foot away from the plant, and though she is a Cat., these plants are just loaded with 1-2' roots.

Don't you love the roots, Ken?..our orchid club takes care of the University of S. Florida's Orchid collection. I have adopted a couple of tables of Catts..they get looked at and generally moved EVERY week...what happens in the course of 6 days is amazing...roots attaching to the bench, their neighbors and ...as you noted...well into the next zip code!

Oh yeah. Because I use mesh-pots, roots are always "invading" the pots of neighbors.

Lindsey,

As you had so many test positive for viruses, are you convinced they are positive? I know that many orchids never show symptoms but... Maybe a re-test of those plants in a couple months?

On another note, having plants that do test positive is not a death sentence for those plants. Isolation is the easiest way of dealing with a positive test result. But thinking about how a virus spreads will also help. Viruses are spread by cross contamination. We have talked about tools... but insects are probably the most uncontrollable part of the equation.

I HATE bugs!

I just ordered a boatload of alcohol wipes to help me deal with the fall outbreak of scale.

I have never seen any indication of viruses in my orchids. There may be a virus or two out there (in the GH). But I'm not going to go look for any either. Ignorance is bliss.

Daisy,
I tested plants that had really obvious color breaks on the flowers and the deformed flower at the top of my comment here. 3 of the plants came from the same greenhouse in Miami. I bought maybe 12 plants from there, the grower is a very nice man, and has very nice ladies working for him..he's also an AOS judge. The second time I was there, the grower was away at a show and I saw 2 GIANT NOID's that I wanted..they were so robust and the ladies assured me that Jose would be able to ID them once they bloomed. . One of those plants had 5 spikes with 3-5 buds on each one! I never pay $35 for a NOID..but I was comfortable that this greenhouse would take care of me. I sent 2 emails that both went unanswered ..made a phone call and talked to Jose, who gave me his personal email..sent the photos again..and got no answer...and all I was asking for was the name...not if it looked like a virused plant. A few months later, again visiting my sister in Miami and going to a huge orchid show...we sat in on one of the lectures the topic being diseases and virus in orchids..I showed my picture to the PHD doing the presentation..and he did tell me it was most certainly virused...and asked where I got it..I named the greenhouse and he said " remember the slide I showed demonstrating bad commercial practices?....THAT'S the greenhouse your plant came from" The other really robust plant is still going gangbusters..but hasn't bloomed, which seemed odd for such a giant plant..so I tested it out of curiosity and it quickly tested positive. At $12 a pop , I am not going to test all my plants, I will test any with color breaks on the flowers and I will be more concerned with sanitation while at the potting bench..I don't have a huge problem with bugs..but I know they are out there. Moving the plants that are positive for virus to a tree far from my bench seemed like a good alternative to just pitching them in the trash can.

This virus thing is scary and the more I learn about it the scarier it becomes. I'm glad we are talking about it here.

Jim

Me? I'm with Daisy on the "ignorance is bliss" side. Growing outdoors in uncontrolled conditions, there's nothing much I can do to prevent the spread of virus except what I'm already doing which is to control insects as best I can and keep my tools clean.

In fact, it's kind of nice to have something to blame when a plant just up and dies for "no reason". Now I can say well, it was probably some evil virus.