Peloric, Semi-peloric Phal questions

mccallen · Feb 7, 2010

I like to keep a few hardy but beautiful orchids by my desk at work.
So today I picked up a couple cute miniature Phalaenopsis from Trader Joe's.
One is semi-peloric and the other seems fully peloric.

I know this can sometimes be induced by cloning, and it seems like some people feel viruses might be involved. The rest of my collection is all Paphs and Phrags at this point. I grow in my apartment. I'm careful about cleaning tools and minimizing vectors, so here are my questions:

Should I keep these Phals in an entirely different part of my apartment, or not in my apartment at all to minimize any kind of virus transmission risk? How worried about transmission between Phals and Paphs/Phrags should I be?

Has anyone here tested a reasonable sample size of peloric cloned phals to determine if they all/mostly carry viruses? This last thing is something I could probably do; the store has plenty and I could order some test kits, figured I'd just ask first...

luvsorchids · Feb 7, 2010

The only way you can know for sure that a virus is present is by testing, so if you are concerned, then I would test. I personally would not be concerned about virus just because of peloric flowers. That being said, viruses are probably more common than we think.

Susan

smartie2000 · Feb 7, 2010

I have one phalaenopsis that is fully peloric and I have not kept it separate. I have confirmed that mine is not virused by a test strip. (I might have tested it twice by accident)

I am not sure if peloricism is induced by a virus, but using a virus test strip would confirm. There are plenty of peloric plants from the cattleya alliance out there, and also the cymbidiums. People don't tend to refer to them as peloric as often, but indeed the petals are lips. I doubt they are all virused

Phal mericlones do come virused due to careless practices. I've even returned a plant the next day to the shop before, right after testing. And the then it must have been resold unfortunately

cnycharles · Feb 7, 2010

I've never heard a concern about viruses causing pelorism; certain species can be very prone to pelorism and their offspring can be so as well.

Ernie · Feb 8, 2010

I agree with the others. Never heard of virus causing peloria. Per cnycharles, some species/parents just tend to do that- one biggie is Phal equestris which is used A LOT in "pot plant trade" hybrids.

-Ernie