I've been told by a person from the AOS here in PR to use "clorox" (4tbs x 1 gl) as an antibacterial-antifungal (or somthing like that) treatment on my 'chids once a month.
I've never heard of this before. Has anyone ever tried this???
Wanda, I use bleach on a leaf that has something that I wish to remove (surgerize) before I break out the ol' scalpel, then I wash it off. So using bleach, even diluted, as a general maintainence thing...?????? most use stuff like RD-20 or Physan 20, but that might be a problem having it shipped to the island....then again who am I to question an authority like The AOS
Wanda, when I was in Puerto Rico I have a lot of orchids and I use to give a bath in Clorox solution every month. One day I put to much clorox and I lost all my orchids. The practice is good if you have a good and constant way to measure the amount of clorox. BTW I never suffer from any problem my orchids grow very healthy and everybody was very impress with my result. I use rock "Cascajo" the same they use in the house builder as my soild for my orchids. Now I discover that I was making Hydroponic Orchids back in 1990. I will try clorox again here in Ohio to see if I got good result again. this time I will use my Measure Cups not my eyes.
Although I use a 5% solution of Clorox in water to sterilize my pots and utensils, I WOULD NEVER USE IT DIRECTLY ON AN ORCHID IN ANY CONCENTRATION! Just no need to and it can have disastrous results as jg discovered!
I use chlorox bleach on the roots of my vandas...and chlorox is also used as an ingredient to clean and disinfect the seeds of orchids before they are put in flasks
Thank you Cym and Bud for your reply. I cant say Was wrong. I comit a mistake with my eyes. If I use a measure cup that fiasco never happend.
Bud, I do reproduce orchids via Tissue Culture, but I did not use any Clorox. I use Hydrogen Peroxide 3% for 30 min. So far work without contamination. I also grab the seed with the water and spread with the water in the media.
I do have problem removing the orchids to a regular enviroment. No to much success there. Still get a lot of death plants after trying to adapt the new plants.