sugarcane said:I had purchased about 25 plants from a grower in Miami, more than half of them were not in bloom at the time of purchase...so far, 15 of those have bloomed , and of the 15 , 10 showed color breaks on the flowers and later tested positive for either Cymbidium Mosaic or the Odontoglossom (sp?) ringspot. This second picture is of one of my original plants that bloomed normally for me last year. This seems like reasonable proof that the virus is spreading on my bench and that it would be prudent for me to test the others from this grower that have not yet bloomed...segregating them now would probably be useless...and still be on the look out for deformities on the leaves of all the other plants now.
@sugarcane - on the subject of viruses, make sure you sterilise the bench where the pot was sitting. I was given this advice for my Cymbidiums, as some of the viruses are disturbingly long-lived outside the plants (i.e. Odontoglossom Ringspot Virus, which several of my plants tested positive for, can survive 2+ years outside the host).
I want to try my own crosses, so it's important to me to have a virus-free collection. Often ORSV does not show any obvious leaf or bloom symptoms; the plant will just be weaker. I am testing plants that have questionable leaf symptoms, that were adjacent to a known infected plant, or are from a source that I have since identified as having some virused plants.
Edited to add quote and additional info.
