Back from the dead? Dendrobium Kingianum

Not exactly back, as this specific one was never dead. But it constantly shows some virus (I think) marks on the leaves and I don't know how to get rid of it.
From what I read online it is not curable and the only thing to do is to get rid of the whole orchid. Well that is a bummer.

It had a terrible past two years or so and I did not see so many flowers on it for a very long time. A small spike from time to time with few blooms at most. It is more eager to grow little keikis instead as a survival mechanism. The problem is, that I cannot detach them until the have enough roots to grow on their own and by the time they do, they show signs of the same disease too. They either way just die, or I remove them and they up in a bin anyway.

It is a very fast growing orchid and can produce multiple stems in a year and bloom multiple times from the same stem too. But so what if the newly grown leaves just dry and fall off out of the blue and the remaining ones look like they were chewed by a dog.
Poor thing.

The flowers are amazing though and the amount it has this year tells me she is not doing so bad despite the absolutely terrible look.

And now to the ugly part.
This is how the leaves look like. Every single one of the have black spots and rings which makes me think it is some kin of virus.
They are also a bit bitten up as this one is very much liked by thrips. Like if virus wasn't enough.





The thrips are now gone and I manage to control it. They tend to show up in the summer months so I have to keep an eye on this one now. But it is manageable. The virus is another story.

I had another pot and the other one went to the bin though. I did mention that some time ago in a different orchid post. I kept some older canes that seemed to grow healthy new ones and this one is doing ok. I am wondering if the virus will not show up after some time again. It would be a big shame, but I am not gonna give up on this one so easily.





Here is a group shot of all the blooming ones. I did show the three other Dendrobiums in this post.





An few days after I shot these I found another tiny dendrobium while grocery shopping. And this is the one I wanted for a very long time: Dendrobium Berry Oda.

I is almost the same s the while one, but the flowers are lovely and purple. It also has the same, sweet, honey fragrance.

The blooms were already fading, but I wanted to take a few shots. Since then it has been already repotted to a normal bark and sphagnum moss mix. That peat they are put in would do no good (Its funny that orchids, succulents, cacti and regular house plants are all put in the same peat or turf even though they require different care.)
There are multiple canes in a pot and I was surprised to see it was actually one plant. I got used to the tricks where nurseries put together single canes or few very young plants so it looks bushy and big and then they all die, because they don't have enough energy or roots to keep growing. A nice way to make profit on leftovers ;)