Using povidone-iodine on orchids as a microbicide?

[lais817]

Hi guys, just wanted your thoughts on this, as I've got a huge bottle of Betadine (Betadine.com.au) here at home and I wanted a sort of preventative rot solution I can apply to my plants. If I dilute some Betadine with water and apply, is this going to knock my plants about at all? I'm just not sure how orchids and plants in general react to Iodine applications.

Thanks in advance!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

This is my uneducated opinion on this subject.

I would limit the use of salts as a source of disinfection. It could cause severe root damage somehow.

Again, this is a totally uneducated response to the chemical's properties.

[orchidsamore]

First rot is a fungal infection and Betadine is a bacteria anti-septic. Chemically it probably would not work.

As a bacterial agent you are probably just as well off using alcohol or peroxide which would be safer and cheaper.

Also nothing will work as a preventative unless it is absorbed into the plant to work systemically.

Contact killers only work on what they touch.

For a hobbyist the only solution to rot is a pair of scissors and removal of the infected portion.

The best prevention is better hygiene. Allowing plants to dry properly after watering and good air circulation. An inexpensive fan will do more good than all the medicines sold.

[lais817]

Originally Posted by orchidsamore

First rot is a fungal infection and Betadine is a bacteria anti-septic. Chemically it probably would not work.

Betadine is actually an anti-microbial; it gets bacteria fungi and some viruses. Thanks for the advice though, I just have a phal which I think might have a mild case of rot, and I wanted to get away with treating it on the cheap and without cutting it up, as it's only a smallish plant. Will post pics of it as soon as my camera is charged

[Peraj]

In Thailand they use Betadine as antimicrobial agent for deflasking orchids. I assume as Betadine works safe on fragile small orchids it should be fine on the bigger plants too.

[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.

[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.

[bil]

I would be very against antibacterial solutions, as it would probably end up boosting the bad ones, as they recover best from such treatments. As said, I don't like the idea of a lot of iodine either.