Spots on Colomanar Wildcat leaves, phalaenopsis roots Repotting issue

[AGallon]

Well thanks for your help! I'll give ti a try and hopefully keep my plant alive...

[AGallon]

Thanks for your help Teri, and everyboday else. I'm going to get on treating these guys as soon as i can. Do you have any suggestions on how to administer the listerine? Should i have their roots bare and have them in a diluted soluiton of it or just pour some on every so often? Do you usually leave them out of their medium and just in water while treating them??? I've never had to treat one before and hope to get throught this with out troubles... When it comes to sterilizing cutting utensils and such does peroixde do the trick or am i wanting to run it under flame?? Thanks so much!!

[AGallon]

Does anyone have any tips on how to go about treating this fungal rot? I really want to treat it and help my plants but i have no idea where to start. I have been recommended to use brown listerine because here in Canada we don't have acess to products such as pysan... But i don't know how much, how to apply or how to go about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated and I'd love to get them treated! Please help.

[silken]

Yep, in Canada it is very difficult to find many chemicals for treating disease. I too can not find Physan or anything like it. I rely on sulfur powder for anything that looks like it has rot, as well as cinnamon and the brown regular old Listerine occasionally. There was another thread today with a zygo with rot going thru the pseudobulbs. I had a colmonara wildcat that looked similar to yours. I kept cutting away rot, but it always advanced. the plant kept growing new bulbs, but it was losing ground to the rot. I finally got aggressive and cut everything away except a couple bulbs that were good and not near the rot. I put sulfur powder on the cuts and dusted the roots and put some in the media. That was 6 months ago, and there is new growth and roots and no sign of rot. As for the spots, it seems the odontoglossum orchids do get brown spots and colmonara does have that in its lineage. As others have said, I don't think that is a problem. And I too think the pb's look planted too low in the moss. that could be causing the rot problem.

The phal roots like they may have been damaged but then kept on growing. It does look like rot starting on the stem. More sulfur might help!

[quiltergal]

Sorry I missed this thread. You can soak your Phal's roots in the diluted Listerine. I'd soak for say 30 minutes then let the roots dry, and repeat for the next few days. Then pot it up.

Black rot can be trickier to deal with. I've only been truly successful stopping it by cutting it out. Keep cutting (sterilize tools over open flame between cuts so you don't spread it) until you hit nothing by live green tissue. Dust the cut part with cinnamon. I'd leave it unpotted for a day to be sure the cut end dries well. Then you can repot.

[AGallon]

Thanks so much every one! I'll try out the listerine and see if i can get my hands on the sulphur. Any sugestions on where to buy the sulphur powder??? Wish me luck!

[silken]

A gardening store will have it for sure. Possibly Wall Mart or Home Depot, but ours seem to lack a lot of what the American ones carry so wouldn't bet on it. Someone mentioned in another post that regular sulfur can be found at a drug store and will work. Mine is called gardening sulfur. Good luck with your plants.

[AGallon]

Well since I posted on here last I used your sugesstions and havenèt lost any of my plants. Though, they continue to surprise me. i thought for sure I was going to lose my Phal, it had hardly any roots left, then it started growing a new leaf. It lost more roots then grew another, lost one leaf and some new air roots... So i think it will do ok.. My wild cat is looking rather small... it lost a couple bulbs, but is growing new roots and 2 new growths are coming up from its roots. So I am happy to report that they seem to be doing well. Thank you all for your help!

[quiltergal]

Good job!

[silken]

Glad to hear all is well. I bet that will make you want some more orchids