Just to bring everyone up to speed on the shelving that Ursula and I are talking about, here are my new shelves in action: Assembly is easy and no tools are required. They cost about $35 each.
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While taking these pictures out in the OC, a couple of species Dendrobiums caught my eye. The first is Den. antennatum:
The second one is one of those bare cane bloomers called Den. aphyllum.
I mentioned before that I had found some soft scale (Coccidae) on a few of my Cattleya orchids and, although some of us are well aware of these nasty creatures, others might want to know just what to look for. You will usually see the top of an affected leaf first and it will look something like this:
Turn the leaf over and you may find this:
Looking closely at the stem and pseudobulbs:
This is nasty stuff and it will spread to adjacent plants. Step one is to isolate affected plants. Step two is to get out the insecticide, your choice but I prefer Orthene. Since the scale lives all over the plant and in the potting mix as well, it will take multiple applications to get rid of it. Flame throwers are a last resort. I hope this helps some of you who are new to the orchid wars. Best of luck.
Jim
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