Where do you live? It looks like something is eating it. It looks healthy and wants to bloom. A snail or a squirrel 0r a lizard. Maybe a nocturnal critter. Maybe after you water. Be the investigator...

That is not chewing what you see, that is dry, shriveling areas. I have taken out a few dry areas to reveal the green ones so that I can spray with fungicide.

Snails would leave traces on the leaves when they eat. I know their chewing habits and traces, so this is definitely not snails. A squirrel would leave the leaves chewed as well, as he or she tries to get to the flower bud since they are so hidden in the leaves now, so no squirrels ether. This is happening on all of my Vanda orchids, and when I look at the flower stems all dried up, there are no missing parts. Every one of them fully complete, just dried.

Is happening to all all of my Vanda orchids. This is so frustrating since, I would think this must be a common thing. Otherwise it would be happening to just one or two.

Here is another pic. Now this one has a lot of dark spots on the leaves.

Something is telling me this might be a virus or a fungi. If Vandals are this weak at growing outside, they are a plant I should not bother with. I think I am going to have to throw them all to the trash.

These are the worst plants I ever had, I do not have the time to pamper plants. If they are weak, they have no place in my garden.

I think these plants are given some sort of water fungi mixture to keep them nice and beautiful, but once you get them out of the store and place them in natural conditions, they start to loose that immunity. Four months later I can’t get a decent flower from any of them. And again I find it incredible that there is nothing, absolutely no information concerning this problem.

Google used to to be really smart seven years ago. Now it is a total retard. 70 percent of all my questions are never answered. And some which are, I have to look a few pages down, cause they don’t appear at the top of the page. The future is sure changing.

The worst thing that I find so frustrating is that all of my orchids when they flower badly, they show some signs of sickness, like root problems dehydration, dark green leafs. So I know what to do.

But this one..... oh boy..... this one is the first plant I ever had in my life that looks healthy, leafs are nice and light green, the plants are plump, heavy and strong. I would expect not only a healthy flower spike, but an abundant one. And then........... then I get this flower stalk problem.

It is frustratin!

I think the the best thing to do now adays is go back to where people used to get information, join an orchid group near my home and find a Vanda fanatic that could help me. Cause the Information Age is dead!

I came here a few years ago, cause my Christmas palms where dying. After so much conversation someone told me that it was a lack of water. It was actually the opposite. I now am an expert in Christmas Palms. They do not like water during winter. And if they are in the shade during winter, you must protect them from winter rains. In Florida, it is best to plant them in pure sand. They are sold in soil by greedy nurseries that know your plant will die next year when the winter rains hit.

I learned this information, cause there was absolutely none on the net.

I learn it by doing experiments with Christmas palms. I bought six of them.

Where in Florida are you? If there is a local orchid society there is a chance someone there has answers. But where are you?

Hey sorry for my misspellings, I don’t check properly, and lately my iPad is correcting my spellings by actually misspelling my words. Who would have thunk it.

Call RF orchids in Homestead,Fl. They concentrate on Vandas. Maybe a systemic like orthene...Could it be thrips?

Thanks for the info, but believe me, I checked for all types of insects. I even placed some tissue samples in my microscope.

i will call them. Thanks!

thrips on vandas take a look at these images...

OMG, one of the first pics looks exactly like mine. So maybe it is trips. They could be hiding in the crevices of the little leafs of the spike, that might be why I could not see them. I saw something that looked like eggs under the microscope. About two eggs on the tiny leaf, but I thought nothing of it. Some insects are so smart they know how to hide. When I got mange on my wrist, I panicked! I took so many scrapings of my skin and I was never able to see one in the microscope. I finally got rid of them with ivermectin, but I never saw one alive.

I remember, four days ago I saw a ladybug on one of the sick spikes. It was there to eat something. I am going to check the whole spike with a magnifying glass. The bad thing is these spikes are in a hard to get hard to see place.

have you use neem oil pesticides on orchids? I know some plants get oily, transparent leafs when you spray them with it, and it leads to leads to leaf damage.

WHOA.......... THANK YOU THANK YOU!

ITS TRIPS!

I took my magnifying glass and went all over the pike checking very slowly.

they are trips. They are transparent white in colour. And is not an infestation. They are just a few. May be they atack the spike more at night. I see tiny black spots which is where they puncture the skin of the leafs to drink the juice. I checked the whole plant, and they are many, So I guess they would gather in some time and only attack the spike. They are invisible from normal perspective because they are not only small, they are also transparent white.

I have never seen transparent trips before. I am familiar with the tiny black ones.

Now my next question is..... does any one knows a good organic pesticide for these little buggers. They look so cute I hate to kill them. Maybe I leave one of my orchids for them to have.

Thank you shavedmonkey.

I just have to add, I had to check really slowly. Even with the magnifying glass you can’t see them. You have to stay watching what appears to be just a transparent white speck of minuscule dust, and stay there watching until it moves. Then is when you start to see their shape as it begins to change position.

Just wanted to point this out for the next person who has this same problem.

Without a doubt! Thrips.

I have them and its a constant fight. They destroy all my buds. They are sucking insects and if you grow Gardenia's or Hibiscus, they are Thrip magnets. I'm considering cutting them down but my Gardenia is huge and beautiful.

A good control is Spinosid (not sure of the spelling) . You have to spray every two weeks while the buds are forming. It is organic and safe to use.

Thrips will attack all orchid buds. They love Vandas and Phals but will go after anything they can get their miserable mouths on!

Sorry about your plant. I understand the frustration. I'm going through it too.

Jane

I successfully use Orthene for thrips. Every 2 or 3 weeks...Make sure to saturate the roots. It is systemic.

Well, thank goodness it is less frustrating when you know what to do.

i am using something called, TakeDown. Highly recommend at Amazon.

going to check tomorrow and see if they are gone.

Well, after using TakDown on my Vandas, I checked them today, and they are still there. I also caught one big orange one I have not seen before.

is anyone here using neem oil based pesticides. Or other organic ones. I do not want to make myself sick attempting to bring my orchids back to health again.

hope someone can help.

Use Spinosid. It’s organic and targets the larvae. Thrips are not orange. They are tiny, black specks which sick the juices out of the buds causing them to dry out. Been would work, but spinosid is organic plus systemic. Works well if you use it every two/ three weeks. Look online or in small nurseries.

Writing on my phone, I said, Neem would work...

Thanks, I looked on my garden drawer and I have Spinosad!

It is about five years old. Is it ok to use it? How old before it looses its strength?

These containers don’t have an expiration date.

the container looks pretty new. I only used it twice to get rid of trips on my carnivorous plants. Have not had a break out in years, so I forgot I had it.

Does it damage leaves in any way? Or is it 100% safe on orchids.

Oh, by the way, yes it was a dark orange trip. I know their body design cause I have been dealing with them for a long time. Never seen a dark orange till now. But I have never seen white transparent ones ether till a few days ago.

I am afraid of using need oil since some plants get hurt by the soap they contain. I am going to use it and try, but on a leaf only to see the effects.

Hey I am learning about using Listerine original formula, to get rid of bugs in orchids. Anyone using it?