Diagnose orchid virus by yourself

So far, 23 kinds of viruses have been recorded to harm orchids, belonging to 9 virus groups (units of plant virus classification, each group includes a different number of virus species). Among the 23 species of orchid viruses, 4 kinds of viruses have been found in Taiwan, such as Odontog lossum ringspot virus (hereinafter referred to as ringspot virus), Cymbidium mosaic virus (hereinafter referred to as mosaic virus), orchid baculovirus and cucumber mosaic virus harmful to Phalaenopsis (unpublished by the author).

According to the author's research, among the orchid viruses in Taiwan, ringspot virus and mosaic virus are the most common. Among the 215 orchids infected by the virus, the infection rate of mosaic virus is 53.5%, and ringspot virus is 45.1%. This shows the universality of the occurrence of these two viruses.

When an orchid is harmed by these two viruses, it will often affect the quality of the flower and the growth of the plant itself, causing thousands of obvious symptoms on the flower organ or leaf, of course, the typical disease can directly tell us that the orchid has been infected by the virus. Isolation measures must be taken to avoid infecting other healthy orchids.

Unfortunately, this may not always be the case, because there are many factors that can cause diseases similar to those caused by viruses (such as discoloration of flower organs caused by cold injury). If you encounter such a situation, you will be considered to have been infected with the virus. then it is too unfair to that orchid, and a senseless loss of money and time to the grower.

Come to think of it, you may have spent a lot of money to buy that orchid, but also spent several years and painstaking efforts to take care of the beloved orchid, as a result of this kind of naked eye misdiagnosis, so that it was innocently sentenced hopeless, this is not a pity! In order to avoid misdiagnosis, this article will tell you a very simple way to diagnose two common major orchid viruses yourself.

Before introducing the method, there are a few things you need to know, which will help you to diagnose orchids. The number of hybrid orchids is the largest among all plants, so different varieties are infected with the same virus, the symptoms are often different, and some orchids do not even have any symptoms after being infected with the virus, which is very disturbing to symptom-based diagnostic methods. Because symptoms alone are used as the basis for virus infection, there must be many orchids in many orchid gardens that look sound on the outside, but in fact they have been infected by the virus. If this happens in your orchid garden, then sooner or later it will be destroyed by these viruses.

According to the author's investigation, the virus infection rate in some orchid gardens in Taiwan is as high as more than 40%. This number is very frightening, because in a very short period of time, all orchids in the orchid garden may be infected by the virus.

Ramet is a way of orchid reproduction, when you plant a batch of orchids, if the tool first comes into contact with an orchid that looks healthy but is actually infected with the virus, then the rest of the healthy orchids have a chance of being infected by the virus. In addition, it must be noted that when you buy an orchid from another orchid garden, if you make a virus diagnosis, you are likely to spread it directly or indirectly to the healthy plant as a result of inadvertently bringing in this "healthy" orchid. In order to avoid this unnecessary loss, it is absolutely necessary to check whether the orchid is infected with the virus.

The equipment required in this method includes a double-sided razor (half), Emery (0.042-0.064 mm), a spray bottle to enter the indicator plant-thousand-day red (round flower) and Wangjiangnan, etc. Emery can be packed in a small triangular bottle (50ml or 100ml), then cover the bottle mouth with two layers of gauze, and bind the gauze properly to avoid falling off, as long as the spray bottle is filled with ordinary unboiled water.

During diagnosis, cut the orchid leaf with a half-cut razor blade, gently rub the ruptured tissue surface (the surface cut by the blade) on the indicator plant leaf sprinkled with carborundum, and rub once, but the force should be evenly rubbed on the whole leaf surface to avoid mechanical damage caused by friction. What should be paid special attention here is that diamond is not sprinkled too much, as long as it can be slightly seen by the naked eye on the surface. When the diseased leaf is rubbed to the indicator plant leaf for about 1 minute, the carborundum on the leaf can be washed off with a water spray bottle, so the inoculation of diagnosis can be completed.

If thousand-day red is infected by ringspot virus, yellow spots will appear about 7 days after inoculation, and then become gangrenous spots. If Wangjiangnan is infected by mosaic virus, gangrene spots can appear about 4 days after inoculation. at this point, you can judge whether your orchid has been infected with the two most terrible orchid viruses.

If the traditional biological identification method is used to identify the virus, the necessary equipment includes mortar and grinding, carborundum, cotton stick, phosphorus buffer and so on. In order to save time and cost, according to the practical difficulties, the author simplified the traditional biological identification method to the above identification method to make it suitable for general orchid growers. This method has been used by orchid growers in the United States. At the same time, it also greatly reduces the loss caused by mosaic and roulette virus.

This simple biological identification method may have some difficulty at the beginning of operation (especially for growers who have not learned plant viruses), but as long as you can learn it yourself, it will not take long to become proficient.

Ke Nanjing