More Mealybug Drama!

So the little buggers are still around.  I have been meticulously spraying the plants with the Bayer Advanced Natria Insect, Disease & Mite Control. It gets rid of the bugs on contact and for a good 5 days afterwards, but they would surely find their way back.  I realized they must be hiding in the media itself.  I ordered online some Bayer 3-in-1 Insect Disease and Mite Control Concentrate.  This is a systemic poison with the main active ingredient being Imidacloprid (sold under the brand name of Merit), which has a very high success rate.  This insecticide is successful not only because of its chemical composition, but also due to the form in which it is administered.  It is fed to the plant during watering and in a few weeks, it makes the plant itself toxic so when the pests feed on the plant, they ingest the poison and die.  If this is what it takes to keep my orchids mealybug free, then so be it!

In the meantime, I took out each plant out of its pot and got rid of all of the media in the pots.  I  then carefully washed all the roots and sprayed each plant and roots with Bayer Advanced Natria Insect, Disease & Mite Control while out of the pot and left it to soak a good 10-15 minutes.  I then washed the pots thoroughly and let them sit in diluted bleach while the plants were being treated with the insecticide.  Once I was ready to repot, I prepared fresh new media, sprayed the insides of each ceramic and plastic pot with insecticide just in case any bugs were missed the first time and carefully repotted each orchid.  I also took the opportunity to sterilize the humidity trays and wipe the wooden coffee table well, even under its lip.  I didn't want to take any more chances with these resourceful and very tenacious little pests.

As I was treating the plants, I noticed Marilyn has grown a new root and leaf.  Audrey 2's roots are in much better shape and I also gave her a slight trim of a few dead roots.  Rocky is still hanging in there and appears to be doing much better.  The problem with Rocky is that he has so many nooks and crannies for the bugs to hide so he got an extra dose and time of pesticide goodness.  Vino had some great new growth, but lost 2 other leaves to the mealybugs .  I took extra time with him to ensure I got all the bugs.  Kalista was the worse off.  The bugs had established themselves in her delicate leaves and had infiltrated the media as well.  It was not pretty at all!

And lastly, Snow White's roots, unfortunately, had not only succumbed to the bugs, but also had dozens of black spots all over her roots.  Some type of fungus had attacked the weakened Phalaenopsis.  Since I didn't want the unidentified fungus to spread to my other plants, I painfully decided to toss it before it was too late.

I would say that the mealybugs won the last 2 rounds, but I came back with a killer upper cut and stunned them this time.  Let's see what happens in the next round?

Orchid Updates

This post is just to report back on how all my plants are doing.  Of course, some are doing better than others, and some plants just seem overall hardier than others.  Right now, my problem child is Rocky.  After attempting to remove an old yellowing leaf, an incoming fan right in the center of the plant, simply tore right off.  This was Rocky last week before his trim:

Judging by appearances, everything looks fine here

His foliage appeared full and green, but once I started to inspect the center of the plant to detach that left lower leaf, I discovered the center of the plant was black with rot.  To be honest, I was not entirely surprised.  After all, he was not in good shape when he was initially shipped to me.  I am trying my best to save him and he appears to be trying to grow, but those roots are still in horrible shape.  They are not any worse than when I received the plant so in a way, I do consider there has been some progress, but no new roots are growing at this time.  So, after my attempt to clean him up yesterday, this is what his foliage looks like now:

Upon closer inspection:

The important thing is that now air will get in between those leaves and heal much faster since the plant will remain drier.  Gathering from everything I had read, Paphiopedilum Spicerianum is a good grower.  It may be compact, but it has a rep for being easy to grow and quite prolific.

With all my Paphs, particularly the ones in distress, I have been feeding lightly, watering generously every couple of days since my conditions are quite dry, adding dolomite to the mix, and I have been using liquid kelp once a month to stimulate root growth.

My second most needy plant is my newest, Kalista.  She arrived quite bruised from being shipped.  She was also pretty dessicated and the leaves were mangled all together.  She also seems a bit discolored as if she had been exposed to way too much light.  Here is Kalista after almost a week of arriving in her new home:

She still needs a little more time, but she is recovering nicely.

In the opposite end of the spectrum, my success story has been my Paphiopedilum Oberhausen's Diamant, Marilyn.  She was fine until the middle of July or so when we had a bad heat wave and our family went away on vacation.  This, and the fact that I did not have a dedicated fan for the orchids, spelled heatstroke.  Out of all my orchids, she was the one that got it the worse.  Her foliage began drooping.  At first, I thought it was some type of fungal thing so I treated her with fungicide, which ended up burning her roots.  So, instead of helping, I ended up making maters worse.  She began to recuperate from the root abuse slowly, but was making steady progress.

Then, about 2 weeks ago, one of her leaves began yellowing and she began displaying numerous brown spots on the yellow leaf.  Again, my inexperienced instincts screamed out fungus or some type of rot, but a more experienced grower, recommended adding dolomite to the media for my Calcicolous Paphs.  The dolomite worked.  She is now doing much better.  You be the judge:

Before

After

And here is my collection; everyone doing much better!

Marilyn is Getting Much Better!

This morning, I noticed that Marilyn had basically made a full comeback from the sad plant it was about 3 weeks ago.  Her centermost leaf was standing upright and there was even evidence of a new leaf growing within its folds.  I haven't dared to inspect the roots, but the one root which keeps peeking out the top of the pot, is now a healthy shade of brown and not entirely dried out as it was before.   The Orchiata based mix has served my Paphs well.  It drains well and yet retains some much needed moisture for them as well.

I did make some cultural changes recently.  We, orchid enthusiasts are a curious bunch, so I am constantly and eagerly scouring the Internet to learn more about the care of my plants.  I discovered adding some calcium to my media and a moss top layer would benefit the Paphs.  I also moved Marilyn back a bit further away from the window.  I think she prefers a shadier spot than where she had been initially placed.  It is a bright window, but the full on sun does not come in until much later in the afternoon, and it really does not hit the plants for more than an hour or two, but that seems to have been a bit much for her and was stressing her out.  2 of her leaves had been showing signs of drying out and became a bit leathery as a result.  I do find she does not seem to mind the grow lights at all so I did place her closer to the artificial lighting and further away from actual sunlight.  This arrangement seems to be working much better for her.

I am just glad she is much happier now.  I did not want to lose her as a result of my own growing pains.

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Update

So of course, as luck would have it, Marilyn had a bad relapse :( This is her leaf today:

I definitely knew something was wrong, but never in a million years did I imagine what was actually the problem.  Since I was stumped, I consulted the orchid gurus over at the orchid forum.  I was informed that sphag is not good for my Paphs at all.  What I need to add is dolomite.  I recall reading that somewhere, but there is just so many different opinions and since I wasn't familiar with the product, I kind of chose to ignore this tid-bit.  So this is what I need:

They really need to have dolomite for dummies.  Unless I searched for it online under keyword dolomite, and got the above product as a result, I would've walked right past this product on a store shelf without knowing this is what I actually needed.  In any case, during lunch tomorrow, I will be picking up my bag of dolomite.  I was also advised to do the same thing with the rest of my Paphs.

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Update - August 17, 2013

This is Marilyn today after her watering:

 

I would say the dolomite was definitely a success!

Marilyn's Recovery

Recently, due to some issues with our local weather conditions (very hot with temperatures rising into the 90's for weeks on end and high humidity), my orchids were not faring so well.  Air circulation was becoming a real problem and some opportunistic nasties started to attack my plants.  I ended up treating my plants with a fungicide described in my recent blog entry entitled Desperate Measures.  Although I followed the manufacturer's instructions, the problem was that the fungicidal solution must have been too strong and ended up burning their roots.

My only Phal did not survive the treatment, and Marilyn, one of my Paphs, also suffered some less damaging root burn.  This caused all of her leaves to simply droop, and her roots to dry out to the point where they felt like crunchy twigs.  The roots were so fragile I was afraid to crack them open just by handling them.  I had to find a way to rehydrate the roots and hope that they were still able to provide much needed moisture to the plant. 

I began watering the plant daily, but made sure the roots dried out rather quickly as to prevent any rot.  I have been doing this for a couple of weeks now and slowly Marilyn is perking up.  Her roots have also regained some elasticity and are not so dry that they will crack with the lightest touch.  They are now back to their normal light brown coloration and the little hairs regained their initial flexibility.  The roots now feel smooth and leathery to the touch as they should.  Slowly, the root system has been rehydrated.

And lastly, I repotted her into a smaller nursery pot with a layer of styrofoam peanuts at the bottom to increase drainage.  I also punched several holes into her new plastic pot for additional air circulation.   Of course, and I can't say this enough, the new mini tower fan has helped tremendously.  I know it will take time, but it's nice to see she is recovering.

Marilyn at her best!

Marilyn after heat stroke and root burn.  The leaves are completely wilted.

Marilyn looking much better!

Desperate Measures

I found out that the issues I had been having lately with Petaluma and Marilyn's droopy foliage and rotting roots were not so much as a result from watering problem, but an air circulation problem.  However, I do have to carefully monitor my generous watering habits.  With the torturous heat waves we've been having in the Northeast, the extremely high humidity, and some very stagnant air to boot; it was the perfect culture for roots to rot.  In desperation, I had ordered some Physan 20 fungicide and mixed up a gallon at 1 Tbs strength.  I took great care to disinfect all the tools I used, the media, and also soaked the plants for some time before and after trimming the roots.  I must say that the roots were in much better shape than last time, but there were some soft and mushy roots I had missed.  It was harder to tell with Marilyn since her roots are brown naturally, but I did manage to carefully get rid of all the dead tissue. 

Another thing I did for Marilyn was to purchase a smaller pot for her.  The 5 inch Aircone pot was simply way too big and it didn't matter how much styrofoam I used, it wasn't working out.  I got a 4" ceramic pot with nice large holes.  However, since the root mass is now substantially smaller, I repotted her in a plastic 3.5" nursery pot and made some holes in the pot before placing it inside of the decorative pot.  I also placed a layer of styrofoam peanuts at the bottom of the pot for better drainage.

For Petaluma, I placed a good 2" styrofoam layer at the bottom of the carousel pot, and made sure I avoided packing the media too tightly.  I left it nice and airy inside and made sure the roots were in between the bark mix and the styrofoam to avoid any further issues with the center of the media remaining wet while the top layer is totally dry.

I then placed each plant, after the treatment and repotting, in front of the living room tower fan.  I also made sure the media for each orchid was soaked in the Physan 20 for a good half hour or so, but at a more diluted mixed solution.  But, because the only tower fan I had is a full size one, I could not place it close to the orchids permanently without it always being in someone's path.  I decided to purchase a small tower fan.  I scoured the Internet and found a few I could choose from at my local Target...so off I went!

 After comparing a few models and even checking out the selection at the big chain electronic's store downstairs, I opted for the Holmes Mini Tower Fan with Built in Fresh Air Ionizer.  Although it was a bit more expensive than what I was looking to spend, this particular fan had a few things going for it.  The first thing was that it was compact, quiet, and aesthetically pleasing.  After all, it was going to be placed on an end table in the living room.  I wanted an oscillating fan with various speeds and preferably a timer.  The last feature I considered was that I wanted a fan with some type of protective narrowly slitted grill.  I don't want the cats to injure a paw while attempting to play with an exposed rotating blade.  This little fan has it all and a 3 year warranty.  It is absolutely perfect for what I need it to do.

So now, it is home and here is a picture of my now much happier orchids enjoying their new fan:

Had to Repot Marilyn

Yesterday morning, I went to water Marilyn and as the water hit the media and shuffled it around, her roots began to show a lot.  This continued as the water to flushed through the media and got to the point where it was very clear that the old pot was becoming a bit too snug for her.  The plant was quite unsteady now sort of bobbing up and out of the planter.  I will admit that I was hesitant to move her to the new 5 inch aircone pot, but since this is all I had, and she obviously needed more space, I went for it:

Marilyn in the smaller round pot

I couldn't see how in the world she would be able to remain in her old pot.  I decided to fill the bottom of the new pot with a large amount of styrofoam.  I figured by next year, I can begin decreasing that if need be, but the filler did decrease the substrate area quite a bit.

2"-3" of chunky styrofoam at the bottom of the pot

After I repotted her, I gave her a generous watering with very diluted fertilizer so the new media would soak up some of the nutrients for later use.

This morning, I went to check on her and she looks perkier.  I think the small pot was drying out too quickly as well so moisture in the media was becoming a problem.  I lightly misted the plants this morning and headed out the door.  It has been so very hot lately.  I know it's a bit against the Paph grain, but I honestly think she appreciated being repotted in a nice roomy pot.

This looks like one happy Paph

Marilyn Needs Support

After I repotted Marilyn.  Her roots were actually touching the sides of the pot, but not because there were way too many roots, but because it's just a Paph thing!  I took great care to reposition her in such a way that her roots would be close enough to skim the walls of the pot again.  I did not want to disturb her too much.  Once I finished repotting, she was sort of hanging to one side:

I was concerned that as she stretched out in the pot and made it her own again, that she would simply continue to grow lopsided if she wasn't positioned correctly when sunning.  I decided to give her a little help and added a bamboo skewer as a support:

The bamboo stick did the job nicely, but I still decided to place her facing away from the sun so the plant would be encouraged to stand upright a bit.  Tomorrow morning, I will give her a good watering.  After the initial repotting, the Orchiata tends to dry fast at first, and since it's been so hot lately, it does not help matters any.

My Birthday Present

I decided to order my new Paphiopedilum Oberhausen's Diamant from Carter and  Holmes.  I gave a great deal of consideration to the reviews I found online about them and Kalapana Tropicals, but that was not my only factor weighed.  They were pretty much on equal footing as far as customer satisfaction and word or mouth from the gurus on the orchid board.

I then evaluated shipping costs, which actually were not as different as I had thought originally.   Neither one of these 2 factors swayed me strongly to one nursery over another.

I finally took into consideration the culture they were grown in and realized the climate in South Carolina, where Carter and Holmes is located is more akin to our climate here in New York State.  But what really sealed the deal for me is that Carter and Holmes pollinates their plants under laboratory conditions to avoid any contamination.  Although I am not looking to show my plants, I was attracted to a business that prides themselves in the quality and purity of their stock.  So once I took everything into consideration, for me, the clear cut winner was Carter and Holmes.

I went ahead and placed my order before we left on vacation, and once we arrived back home, the carefully packed and obviously labeled package was waiting for us.  I named my new orchid, Marilyn since one day she will be quite the stunner, not today, but one day.

TODAY

ONE DAY (Next Year Sometime)

So, yours truly will be patiently waiting until that day :)