u/Reyori

The plant is a Phalaenopsis Bolgheri (Bronze buddha).

​

Picture 1 & 2 is the top left leaf. Picture 3 is the top right leaf. Picture 4 is an older bottom leaf. Picture 5 & 6 are small bumps it had since it arrived by shipping 2 months ago.

​

Is this brown coloration (and the dots) some sort of oversaturation from too much water or too much fertilizer, hidden shipping damage or some sort of disease/virus?

​

The first time I remember the brown color appearing was on Monday/Tuesday. The brown coloration appeared on the top 2 leaves then (so the newest leaves, not the old ones).

​

Now the right leaf has no more brown, but strange bumps instead. The brown on the left leaf spread until Wednessday and seems to also start fading away now, it already is a bit less brown than before. One of the lower leaves that was already a bit deformed also showed a bit of brown. Now it has bumps and is slightly yellow still, instead of brown.

​

​

What changed:

I watered with fertilizer in distilled water on Saturday. I usually fertilize every 2nd time with 1/4 parts fertilizer, last week I used a bit less than 3/4, because bud production stopped and new leaves are appearing. It still has quite some flowers, but no new ones have appeared for about 2 weeks and a new leaf is already thumb-sized pushing outwards. I watered two orcher orchids with the same water-fertilizer ratio and they are completely fine.

​

Because I was sick, the growlights on Saturday were only on for about 4h and 8h on Sunday. On Monday and afterwards they returned to their normal 13.5h schedule.

​

​

Extra info:

I only got it about 2 months ago. It looked fine (banged up from shipping treatment and it was a bit cold when it arrived and the heatpack ran out, another orchid that arrived with it was wrinkly & dehydrated). This plant had 2-3 small bumps already when it arrived, but to me that just looked like either physical damage, or old damage from pests. (Another orchid from the same seller had a dead mealybug on it.)

​

This plant and other orchids sit in a 2 to 1 mix of small orchid bark to charcoal. They arrived per mail and all of them had some rotten roots due to the "soil" being very moist & thickly wrapped moss and one of them even had a soil net, so I repotted immediately, even though they were blooming or starting to bloom. This bolgheri was the healthiest looking (not many rotten roots, some already opened flowers & buds, dark green leaves).

1. Picture is from the seller. 2nd Picture is my plant.

So, I bought a Phalaenopsis Guadalupe Pineda 'Yaphon'. It should, according to internet photos and the seller photos, be a bit similar to Bolgheri in that it's yellow with Red/Purple, but instead of dots it's striped. The lip also doesn't seem to match, it's quite wide and flat, instead of folded.

I know that orchid flower colors can change a bit, depending on growing conditions, fertilizer or them being the first flowers on the stalk of hybrids... But this seems a bit too different, and the lip usually doesn't change shape?

What do you guys think? Should I contact the seller already, or wait for more flowers to open?

Also, any idea/guess what it could be? Though that might be hard, it's nearly 100% a hybrid. Its scent is quite strong, sadly not really to my taste: Imagine a really strong and pure (like an extract/artificially smelling) flower/rose like scent.