My track record with Cattleya is absolutely terrible, so I am very open to suggestions ... media ... hardening ... successful voodoo incantations ... anything and everything:-))
Regards/Roger, in Bangkok Roger, I lost every flask I tried for 40 years to damp off. Probably too lazy to do the fungicide thing. So, my recent successes (4) involve opening the flask and filling the jar with Cleary's 3336 equivalent (Thiophanate Methyl) and letting this set for an hour or 2, then drain and replace the lid with a little air gap, like a sq. inch. Then every day I soak the plantlets with the same stuff and drain and replace the lid for the next 3 or 4 weeks, AND gradually open the lid area further. I had to break off the upper third of the whiskey bottles some came in. After this gradual toughening up, I plant out in a fine mix, and keep up the Cleary's every few days. Not sure if this actually slows the plants down, but I had so much probable fusarium wilt in the GH, that I have to assume that there are a ton of spores around. I believe the virulence of the Fusarium, and a little rust, and a lot of severe damage/death to fine terete leaved plants and fine leaved bulbless plants like Bollea and Cochleathes, was due to repeated use of Neem oil. I suspect that in our area, the retailers, and possibly the supply chain, are damaging the stuff by high and low temp storage. Storage temps are supposed to be 55 to 85 F with special requirement of protect from freezing. It is being stored outside here in Prescott down to 5 F and stored out side in Phoenix up to 120 F. I also suspect the dreaded Phal micro fungus is due to neem oil use, or other improperly treated horticultural oil use. I have had similar damage on a few Phals when I only had a few of these plants. I now have 2 dozen Phals, and the only plant showing similar damage was a Phal hanging on the edge of my bench where it was receiving the over spray of neem oil while I was limiting the spray to only plants known to attract mites, and doing individual spraying standing in the middle of my GH aisle. I will never use Neem oil again, or any other oil, as there is no way to tell what the product has been thru. Well, if they add some of those temp sensitive color patches on the bottle, it might make me reconsider. But they would never do it, as they would lose their shirt on returned product. Cynthia, Prescott, AZ _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
