How to quarantine new orchids in a small space

[astrid]

Hey everyone!

I am picking up orchids left and right, and my main collection is pest and disease free. I only have a limited number of shelves in my tiny college dorm, and I am wondering how to go about quarantining my new plants.

I have four new plants from three sources. I don't want to quarantine them all together because a pest from one could spread to the other three.

How far apart do plants have to be to be considered "quarantined"?

Simply not touching leaves and not sharing water?
A foot?
On opposite ends of the shelf?
On completely different shelves?

How long should I keep the plants quarantined? Should I just keep an eye and put all my plants together after repotting or what?

Thanks, everyone!

[Orchid Whisperer]

Just by being in a dorm room sized space you are starting to approach the distance that insects can crawl from plant to plant.

Try doing a precautionary inspection & cleaning, including the roots, followed by a growing medium change.

[PaphMadMan]

I wouldn't consider anything less than 20 feet a "safe" distance, and even that depends on circumstances and a little luck. For plants that are small enough I have used translucent plastic storage tubs as temporary terrarium quarantine units. It is far from absolute, but it does add some physical barrier to the distance aspect of isolation.

As for how long, at least 6 weeks with weekly close inspection. You do have to examine roots too for mealy bugs, snails and some others, so you might as well plan on repotting shortly after you get the plants. Changing the media also gets rid of some potential pest problems. And take precautions that you don't transfer pests as you go from plant to plant.

[kindrag23]

Oh man I remember those days....don't miss them! Haha. But serioualy, I like paphmadman's idea of a tub. If you are concerned because they come from 3 sellers you could get tall ones like for cereal (if your plants would fit.) and that way you have 3 small quarantined tubs and lessen your chance of cross contamination and a little bit more room maybe.

I keep all plants away for a month or more even if I trust the seller because I got amazing plants from a seller here in texas once.....I pulled the plant out and got
A hand full of fire ants. Not fun not fun at all. Even after cleaning it thoroughly I was still afraid of ants coming into my house.

[NYCorchidman]

Disease causing organisms are basically everywhere.
So unless you buy obviously diseased plants (spots and marks and so on), you don't need to worry as there is nothing you can do really.

Bugs, always check as much as you can before buying.
Then once brought into your room, maybe use a clear tall plasic bag (like the ones used at TJ, not sure you have them near you).
I don't think 6 weeks is necessary at all.
I would say a few days.
Here's what I do with plants that look perfectly fine.
I keep them away from my other plants like in a kitchen or in a bathroom. A few days of darkness won't harm plants.
Check the plants closely once during the day or morning, and then evening (early evening and then maybe once more round around 9 or 10).
I have seen one big mealy bug crawling up along a spike on my paph that looked perfectly 'clean' at the time of purchase. The bug came out either the next day or two days after purchase.
Haven't seen any ever since.

So, inspect the plants closely underside and cracks as much as you can at the store, then keep them away from your other plants while checking on the newly bought plants for any bugs for a few days. If you do not see any bugs for a few days, then it's all good.
never had problem.

Oh, it's also to buy just one or two at a time if space is limited so it's easier for you to deal with the whole quarantine.

Or, better yet, you can just keep them all together just make sure they don't touch other plants, but make sure to inspect the plants daily for any bugs.

[astrid]

Originally Posted by kindrag23

Oh man I remember those days....don't miss them! Haha. But serioualy, I like paphmadman's idea of a tub. If you are concerned because they come from 3 sellers you could get tall ones like for cereal (if your plants would fit.) and that way you have 3 small quarantined tubs and lessen your chance of cross contamination and a little bit more room maybe.

I keep all plants away for a month or more even if I trust the seller because I got amazing plants from a seller here in texas once.....I pulled the plant out and got
A hand full of fire ants. Not fun not fun at all. Even after cleaning it thoroughly I was still afraid of ants coming into my house.

Yikes!!

And I thought the oncidium I bought that was full of baby earwigs was bad. *shiver*

---------- Post added at 09:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 AM ----------

Originally Posted by PaphMadMan

I wouldn't consider anything less than 20 feet a "safe" distance, and even that depends on circumstances and a little luck. For plants that are small enough I have used translucent plastic storage tubs as temporary terrarium quarantine units. It is far from absolute, but it does add some physical barrier to the distance aspect of isolation.

As for how long, at least 6 weeks with weekly close inspection. You do have to examine roots too for mealy bugs, snails and some others, so you might as well plan on repotting shortly after you get the plants. Changing the media also gets rid of some potential pest problems. And take precautions that you don't transfer pests as you go from plant to plant.

Man, I don't have 20 feet any way you look at it!
As long as these bugs are easy to kill with some insecticide, I guess I don't mind. My collection is small enough still that it wouldn't be too much madness to spray (or even repot) all of them. I am just keeping all the plants in separate corners of the room, but that's only about 10 feet apart.

I plan on repotting, but I really want to enjoy the blooms on the plants for as long as I can, and as I've gotten my first miltoniopsis orchids, I haven't gotten to know them yet and don't want to anger them by repotting suddenly.

I always sterilize my cutting tools and use separate pots to water everything, so there is that protective measure!

---------- Post added at 09:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 AM ----------

Originally Posted by NYCorchidman

Oh, it's also to buy just one or two at a time if space is limited so it's easier for you to deal with the whole quarantine.

HAH!
That's all I can afford normally, but I have one on the way (delayed in the mail due to temperatures), bought two yesterday, and got another one at the start of the month!

That's like saying to only eat one potato chip. It's impossible!

[NYCorchidman]

I know, right? hahaha

I went to this show recently and I said to myself, I'm out of space and will only buy one very nice plant if I see any. Well, I came home with 13 plants!

Then I went to a greenhouse and said to myself, ok, I'm really full of stuff now and will only see how the greenhouse looks. Well, I bought 5 more there.

I did get rid of three large paphs to make space though. lol

and I plan to sell a few because I will attend another show next week and I most likely will buy at least one cute little paph or two I think.
I hope plants will be ugly and bad so I won't buy any. will see how that goes.

[lotis146]

I got a plant once full of ants too, funny I think maybe it was from a Texas ebay vendor...anywho, I dumped all the media outside that very night and that was that.

I had a Wilsonara for weeks then one day looked close at the spike after the flowers had died and noticed one little mealy bug. I immediately cut it off and treated it and the other plants that had been in close, I mean very close, proximity. I never saw another on that plant or others.

I feel like I've been pretty fortunate and I have over 60+ plants, knock on wood. Hopefully my recently more lax attitude on quarantine won't come to bite me in the butt! But I definitely don't let my plants get all touchy feely with each other right away and I've stopped soaking plants in pots.

The thing I worry about is what if the quarantine area's conditions are quite different from their permanent location? Will the plant be stressed when you relocate it? I guess this is normal considering going from greenhouse to normal house, apartment, or dorm is a big change. Then there's the issue of this: if there's room for quarantine, then certainly that room as room for more orchids.

Right now I've got five new plants, four different vendors. The one I question having bought is a Vuyl. that I got bare root. It has some spotting and yellowing at the end of several leaves and spotting on other leaves. I know some spotting is common on Oncidium and I wanted this plant for some time but now I'm curious... I just moved it. Otherwise I'm keeping the new guys basically all together on a stool maybe a few feet away from stands holding others. Not much for quarantine...but I've not had much as far as problems go.

That said if you see a post from me about pests in the next few weeks then you know I screwed up.

Also, would most of you really recommend repotting soon after arrival just for prevention? Obviously my bare root got "repotted" whereas the other four are in varying stages of bloom/in bud/in spike.