Gah! Mold! Getitoff!

[kmccormic]

Okay, My collection (~10 plants) has a problem. Breathe. See, admitting that wasn't so hard. No, nononono, BREATHE.

Last week, I found aphids on 3 plants. I wasn't sure how far they'd spread, so Saturday I sprayed down the whole collection, leaves, flowers, and mix, heavily with the same mix; Dr. Bronner's peppermint oil soap (3 tbsp), Neem oil (1 teasp), 3/4 cup of isopropyl alcohol, and filled the rest of a 32 ou spray bottle with water. The recipe was one I found online, I added the Neem oil to it because I wanted to stop the population and I'd read Neem could help with that. Nice all natural remedy. I then pulled all the plants away from windows for 24 hours, to keep them from burning due to the oil until they'd dried.

Today I go to water them, and I find the flowers (a phal. and a zygopetelum) wilted. Ok, not so bad, I knew that might happen. Then I look at the mix, and roots that had been white or green were gray, damaged looking, and some cases black. And there was mold! Growing on the roots, making them look like fuzzy caterpillars. Usually a gray color. I thought the Neem oil was also a mold preventative. One of the ones which definitely had bugs, a psychopsis, had an iffy leaf which is now turning yellow and black.

Any ideas what my next step should be? I seem to have gone from 1 problem to another! And I'm not sure what I did wrong.







Help! Kara