Get them in front of a fan. Spray the leaves with an anti-bacterial spay. Trim any actual mushy areas of leaves (into healthy areas). Re-spray the cuts.

What Richard said. Or bring them indoors into the air-conditioning and get them trimmed up and dried out and maybe you can stop some of the rot from spreading.

I had the same problem in Miami with my Catts out in the slat house. (Luckily I grow the phals on the patio where they were protected from all that rain.)

FOLLOWING SEVERAL BITS OF ADVICE GLEANED FROM THE FORUM...
I cut the leaves or sections of leaves, taking at least a half inch of good leaf or pseudobulb with the rotten part, and treated the cut edges with cinnamon powder. I put them on the patio with fans running on them, and did not water them at all until I was sure they were totally dry. Then I sprayed them with peroxide instead of water (this gives them water and extra oxygen, but nothing that would encourage further rot). It seems to have done the trick.

But you do have to look at them daily to see if any new patches are developing until they are totally dry. Several more leaves on my catts started to go south before they were dried out.
Good luck!
Jan

This is a very common problem and the main cause for people losing even entire orchid collections after a tropical storm or hurricane which dumps a ton of rain on the plants. When you see it coming, get your plants under cover or indoors so they won't remain soaking wet. It's fine if they don't have ideal conditions for a few days.

I've waited days for someone else to notice what I picked up immediately upon reading the o.p.'s post Saturday night. The plants were actually not showing any signs of disease until the move to the porch stoop. This is about what I would expect as rain, even lots of it, in an area like Florida in mid-summer should not in four days constitute an emergency. Two weeks of rain in early Spring in the upper Midwest that is another thing entirely. Nevertheless the plants were moved and immediately show blackened areas in their leaves. My troubleshooters instincts say sun damage from the direct morning light and therefore approaching it like a bacterial infection is not quite the appropriate response but first aid is first aid and some of the remedies have benefit regardless of the actual cause of injury but for the purpose of good debate and knowledge base I wanted to put my take out there.

H

When it comes to the catts, here in Florida, you are better off growing them mounted or in baskets without any medium. This allows you to water indiscriminately when they are growing and easily allows them to dry out in the winter, if they prefer that. Hanging them also keeps them from getting blown over every time one of those afternoon storms comes through (amazingly, 9 times out of 10, they even remain hanging during a hurricane). If you mount them, you can also hang them upside down to prevent water from pooling inside new growths and rotting them (I have had issues with this).

Being on the east side of Orlando, my plants went through that same storm system (s) without issue. However, as noted by Howard, my fear was with the lack of sun rather than too much rain last week, and the continuing cloud cover(lots of rain in and of itself is fine). I wonder if your catts, at any rate, are getting sufficient light under grapefruit trees (my orange trees provide far too much shade for catts). Mine grow under tall live oaks and get various amounts of direct light as the sun moves through the sky during the day and then they are blasted with direct light later in the afternoon.

Any of my orchids needing controlled amounts of light and/or water (mostly those that need to stay wet and shaded), stay on my sun porch but it's big enough to allow for multiple microclimates. Phals don't handle sun and excess water/humidity well, and should be kept inside in Florida.

To help prevent rot you can also give your plants a good soak in Orthenex right before the rainy season.

Although last week mother nature provided rain by the bucketful, this week, due to how hot and dry it is, I'm watering mine twice a day. However, they are either mounted or in baskets with lava rock or small pieces of pavers.

Howard, it rains EVERY day during the rainy season in S. Florida, but only for a few hours and then the sun comes out and everything dries up. During tropical storms and hurricanes, it rains steady for days without dry out time. That is a big difference. The first is similar to the native habitat of most tropical orchids during the rainy season. The second is an anomyly and that is where the problem lies; that the plants don't get a chance to dry out each day.

Weather in the rest of the country is vastly different, like where you can get days of straight rain and drizzle in NYC. That is a very rare occurence in Miami and usually only happens with hurricanes and tropical storms. And as someone quite experienced with those two, the damage to the plants shows up several days and even weeks later, long after the storm has passed.

Man, I'm glad I like mounted or waaay underpotted plants... They dry out so quick. Sure, you have to water every day, but when tropical storm allison dropped nearly 70" of rain on my house, back in '01, all the plants int eh shadehouse and hanging around outside just had really fat growths that month. The Den. spectabile was obscene with it's 2' psuedobulb as big around as a baby's arm...

-Cj

CJ, the panhandle must have missed it but central Florida made up for the drought in about a 4 day period a week ago. We had close to 5 inches of rain Saturday a week ago (according to the news but based on the water in my buckets outside it was closer to 12)and had another half inch fallen, some roads would have flooded as the drainage ditches were all full. It took until yesterday for the drainage ditches in the front yard to finally dry out, over a week later. We had so much rain the septic tank started acting up. That followed a good 3 or 4 days of late morning/afternoon showers (deluges)that lasted all day and into the night a couple of days.

But, that's all over and now it's in the mid 90's , stinkin' hot and dry. The indoor humidity is actually under 70%, even with the AC running 24/7, for the first time in a couple of weeks.

Ah, summer in the south.

Exactly why I plan to move to the Pacific Northwest.

Well, that and Miltoniopsis.

-Cj

Thanks for all the input folks, it's nice to know that other people have had to deal with the same issues as me. I excised all the brown/black mushy areas and dusted the wounds with cinnamon powder. The plants have been sitting indoors in the sunroom with a fan on them for a couple days now, and seem to be holding steady. No imminent deaths yet, so that's good. I'll give them another day or two and then water them a little with peroxide solution, and then put them back outside so they can start their recovery.

Howard_a, I appreciate your perspective about the direct sun and sudden change in environment. I did wonder about that myself, although I've seen sunburn before and the leaf damage on my plants looked different than that. I've left plants on the porch or even the bare sidewalk and they've still been slow to sunburn, so I don't think two days of morning sun in and of itself was enough to cause this problem. The combination of high heat and light might have stressed the plants' tissues and made the existing water problem worse...but based upon the anectdotes of other commenters here, I'm betting the main problem was the still the excess water.

Orchidflowerchild, I'm glad you've got a setup that works well for you. This is only my second season of growing orchids outdoors so I'm still trying things out. I've had problems in the past getting mounted or bare root plants enough water during the non-rainy season...even when I try to remember to water them daily, they end up shriveled. I am a pretty lazy gardener;) I guess the issue with outdoor plants in Florida is that due to the vastly shifting seasonal climate, you're going to have to make some sort of compromise w.r.t. potting medium/setup. It'll end up either too dry or too wet! I think now that I learned this hard lesson, I'll know well enough to bring my plants in during super wet periods.

Tuezday1, I haven't been growing Catts for very long so I'll keep your advice in mind. Thus far they haven't been very fussy, and seem to like it well enough under the grapefruit tree. They've got a lot of open space around them so they get quite a lot of bright morning and late afternoon/evening sun, in addition to the dappled midday shade provided by the tree.

Tuezday, we are still having a drought here, I think we haven't gotten much better than half our normal rainfall yet this year. But the FL Panhandle's weather bears no resemblance to S. Florida's weather at all. We don't have a summer rainy season nor a winter dry season up here. This is a Mediterranean climate like you would find in Southern France, tending to dry hot summers and cool to cold dampish winters. We expect heat indices of about 110F tomorrow. I finally put the mister in the GH to try to cool down the temps midday, and will have to get around to installing the two mist systems I have had sitting in their factory boxes for years.

But I lived and grew orchids in Miami for 20 years during the 70s and 80s and lost my fair share of plants often weeks after tropical storms with torrential rains went through. Fortunately, I was living in Central America by the time Hurricane Andrew barrelled his way through, when so many hobbyists and dealers lost thousands of plants in the weeks afterward because of the continual rain they had been subjected to during the storm. Anyone growing down there needs to have the ability to either cover the plants (a framework you can toss a sheet of plastic over, for example) or bring them under a roof or indoors during these occasional events. A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cinnamon.

Hi
Always find this such an interesting discussion. You mean it doesn't rain in the tropics?? lol. Have always found i get my best growth during the rainy season during the summer. I have Catts that are 20 years old and during summer i drench them every third day if it doesn't rain,
I do keep them in formed tree fern pots. I have MUCH more trouble during spring when it's hot and the humidity crashes. About 3 months of summer is the only time we have anything like lowland tropical weather.
Gee Has anybody looked at average rainfall totals in areas where these plants are native??
Makes florida look like a desert lol gary

I have to agree with Howard on this one. I know you say that you never seen sunburn damage so quikly but I sure have. gowing from the shady conditions under the tree to full morning sun is enough to burn any Orchid in August when the heat is high. With the phals I would have expected crown rot to be a problem but your description still seems like sunburn and they burn easily. If I was you I would treat the spots and pull everything indoors for a few days to dry out then you can put back out the ones that survive.

I used to live and grow outdoors in Fl. Gary has a good point. Orchids are like cats. They either live inside or outside. Both is not a good idea
The exception of course is hurricanes

Clara

Salvialvr: as I told Howard, I'm not ruling out the possibility of the heat and sun exacerbating the existing rot, however I am 99% sure that the vast majority of tissue injury that I've seen was caused by the water. Speaking of crown rot, it looks like the two phals I was worried about are probably goners, as I had to cut away even more tissue today as it had spread down into the centers of the plants and I don't think they have any healthy tissue there left to regenerate. Similarly, One of the pseudobulbs on my Catt snapped off in my hand as I was trying to cut out a telltale black mushy spot, and the *inside* of the bulb had more rot in it than what was visible from the outside.

I'm not trying to sound defensive, I just want to make sure all the details are specific for everyone's sake. Also, I think some of you are underestimating the amount of light the plants get underneath the grapefruit tree; the underside of the 'canopy' of leaves and branches is a good 5-6 feet off the ground. I can walk around fully upright under this tree. The rest of my yard is mostly open so the light exposure falls somewhere toward the brighter side of "light shade" and "partial sun". This doesn't rule out the chance of sunburn, however it's not like the plants have been living in full shade.

As the days have now passed I would expect to see a lot more yellowing and wilting of the leaves if sunburn were to be the case. Again, 99% of the damage has been in the form of large black, mushy spots that expand outward from a single location and travel inward towards the core of the plant...as one would see in an infection.

I would soak the plants in a solution of Physan. Then spray the plants with Truban fungicide. I'm sure the plant did suffer from sunburn as well. I live in S. California and we get our rains in the winter and spring. I grow in a greenhouse, but those plants that grow outside are still under shadecloth and clear fiberglass. In a wet place like Hawaii and Florida, if you don't cover the plants with fiberglass, you may have to change potting medium to expanded clay pellets in clay pots. Bark in your part of world breaks down too fast because of the moisture and heat. In Hawaii they get so much rain, they all seem to grow under a fiberglass roof. The sides of the house are kept open with just shade cloth on top and the sides.

papersailor
I have grown in z- 10 I can relate. Inherited a catt hybrid. Came from an underlight environment. There was a big mushy black spot on the leaf. I put it in good light and the black spot turned to white, like sunburn. The plant continued on and grew just fine.

The best thing you can do at this point is what other have suggested, keep it in the same light, treat it with phyton or physan and let it repair itself. Orchids are amazingly resiliant. Hopefully you have good air movement. Light and heat are probably the lesser of the evils. If you pull the plants indoors, or to a shadier location, the change will rot the plant for sure. I found a s/h environment much more friendly to outdoor plants in FL during the rainy season.Also true for Chicago. s/h or an open basket with minimal media may work better.

Chicago went from 70º and sun to 90+ and torrential rain. The ones in s/h and open baskets with lava rock didn't bat an eyelash. The ones in bark did not adjust as well. Lost a phal completely. The cooler temps in the beginning of summer created rot. Light is the best cure for ailing orchids, it really is. Just my 2¢.

Clara