Copper and your orchids

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by cirillonb

I am probably beginning to sound like a broken record but it continues to baffle me why, with all the tried and true commercial and home-remedy products available to handle all the woes of orchid growing someone would want to try an unproved and possibly dangerous (to orchids and self) remedy. I notice that several broad spectrum antifungal/anti-pest products contain a tiny bit of copper. I presume they know what they are doing. I suspect the French product may be used on bigger and hardier plants like grape vines where a little persistence of antifungal is a good thing and where rains will dilute then remove the copper which is not good for people either.
Nick

The french stuff is used almost exclusively on outdoor plants, mainly vinyards, orchards, tomatoes, potatoes. I have never heard of it being used on indoor pot plants, so trying it on orchids might be really risky.

And I agree, there are many good chemical fongicides out there that probably do a much better job with lower risks compared to copper based stuff. In France, 2 often used active ingredients are Dithane and mancozebe. Those have always worked for me!