Using povidone-iodine on orchids as a microbicide?

[Peraj]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Povidone-iodine has very limited anitmicrobial action unless it dries on the microbes you want to kill. A lot of people splatter it around like a magic potion but it doesn't work that way. Some of the bacteria that kill orchids were once called Pseudomonas, and many of these are completely resistant to povidone-iodine. I would not expect it to be useful with orchids. It is not very useful with humans for surgical preparation and is being replaced by much better options, like chlorhexidine.

I don't know how plants handle iodine excess. People have a relatively limited ability to absorb a lot of iodine all at once, so acute poisoning is very rare.

It's neither possible nor desirable to kill all the microorganisms on plants, nor skin for that matter. A much better approach is to provide good growing conditions so the plants are resistant to the microorganisms.

Thanks for your explanation. I personally think we need to treat our orchids with orchid specific bacterial and fungal biofertilizer and bioprotection as they are very much relied on them in the nature for nutrients and protecting themselves against fungal and bacterial infections. I am not aware if there is any available biofertilizer specialized for orchids in the market as their bacteria are different than land plants.