White mold on bark chips.....

[gngrhill]

My 2 cents is you really don't need to be misting every day with humidity that high.

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[RoseSD]

Originally Posted by Tetra73

I am pretty sure I did something wrong. First, I have lucks with 3 of my mini phalas and they have bloomed twice for the 2 years I have them. They were in my terrarium and being air mounted with sphagnum moss ONLY. Never had issues with mold or anything else. They do dry quickly too.

With the dendrobium I got 7 days ago, I decided to put it in a very ventilated clear, plastic basket and potted it with some Better Gro orchid barks. They are kind of spongy too.hhhhmmm.. I have moved all of my plants to my newly built grow tent. The humidity is pretty consistent from 75% to 90+%. I heavily mist it daily morning. Last night I discovered a small snail and couple of spider mites on my dendrobium. This afternoon, I decided to remove some barks to check to see if the root system has any damages. The dendrobium has been potted 7 days ago.

Behold, all I saw was snowy white mold. At that point, I decided to repot it again using sphagnum moss ONLY since I have lucks with them with my phalas. It turned out the mold was only on couple of bark chips close to the center of the plant, FORTUNATELY. The roots are fine.

At this point, I am not sure if my bark chips are bad or maybe they aren't able to dry quickly enough to allow mold to develop??? Maybe because I have my orchids in my grow tent with high humidity and with frequent heavy misting and watering?

Also, couple of bark chips have some slimy substance on them.

This was how they were mounted. Now, I replaced all the bark chips with sphagnum moss ONLY and filled it only up to half way. Of course, in the process of repotting it, I disinfected both dendrobium and cattleya with hydrogen peroxide. Is a newbie mistake...to have not disinfecting outside plants.

Cattleya and Dendrobium by vracing, on Flickr

Does.the white fungus of your look.like this? What should I do to clean them?

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[Roberta]

I think that mold was from the bark chips (coconut chips?). I have had that in bags of bark. It's harmless but unaesthetic. And I think that you can expect the bark to break down faster than it otherwise would, since it was likely wet for a long time from the supplier. (If it was spongy, it was already breaking down)Getting the plant out of that stuff was a good idea. The regular orchid bark should be better. I used to use the coconut chips for Cymbidiums and some other things... when I started to use it, it would last longer than bark. But in recent years the quality has become much worse, it breaks down fast. I don't use it any more.

[SouthPark]

Orchid nurseries may have fans that move air around. That could cut down on things like mold growing on roots and plant and media etc.

Maybe enough mold or whatever that forms on roots can negatively impact the health of roots. After a fair bit of time that is.

[RoseSD]

Originally Posted by Roberta

I think that mold was from the bark chips (coconut chips?). I have had that in bags of bark. It's harmless but unaesthetic. And I think that you can expect the bark to break down faster than it otherwise would, since it was likely wet for a long time from the supplier. (If it was spongy, it was already breaking down)Getting the plant out of that stuff was a good idea. The regular orchid bark should be better. I used to use the coconut chips for Cymbidiums and some other things... when I started to use it, it would last longer than bark. But in recent years the quality has become much worse, it breaks down fast. I don't use it any more.

Is it OK to wash them off together with the orchid (it is a spike growing stage zygo) in pot for now? The spike just came out and I really hate to disturb it to shock my zygo to death. I am just sad that I can't bring it inside the house as I had originally planned to.

[Roberta]

Sure. You can put the whole pot under the sink faucet and let the water flow through. That's a good way to water it anyway. (Flushes out junk and hard-water salts, pulls air into the root zone) And there is no reason for not bringing it into the house... it is just a harmless mold, not a bug that would spread. So bring it in and enjoy it.

[RoseSD]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Sure. You can put the whole pot under the sink faucet and let the water flow through. That's a good way to water it anyway. (Flushes out junk and hard-water salts, pulls air into the root zone) And there is no reason for not bringing it into the house... it is just a harmless mold, not a bug that would spread. So bring it in and enjoy it.

I would like to give a quick update to all. I used chopsticks to pick out as many chips with white stuff as I could, give a light spray of hydrogen peroxide on surface of that section and said a little prayer. Waited 10 minutes and rinsed the whole pot and plant with running water. Then, "fill in" the hole with dry barks and topped it with moss and watered again. I plan to remove the moss after a while when the new barks got moisted enough.

Anything else I need to do? When do I fertilize? The new growth you see here is what I am trying to baby.

[estación seca]

I think it is much safer to the orchid to ignore white mold, and turn attention to fixing the cultural issues that allowed it to grow. It prefers cool, moist environments with poor air circulation. My hunch is you're watering more often than necessary, and air circulation could be improved.

[RoseSD]

Originally Posted by estación seca

I think it is much safer to the orchid to ignore white mold, and turn attention to fixing the cultural issues that allowed it to grow. It prefers cool, moist environments with poor air circulation. My hunch is you're watering more often than necessary, and air circulation could be improved.

Actually I just purchased it from a big nursery yesterday. So not my fault 🙃😉😅

Going forward, you think the current set up is safe? It is gonna be an outdoor baby with lots of indirect light and air. With primarily coconut chips in still, how often do you recommend watering? Our average day time temperature is about 70.

[estación seca]

The nursery probably watered too often so the chips molded. Zygos are high water use orchids. If there was fairly good air at the roots being quite wet doesn't bother them when in growth, if temperatures are proper.

As mentioned above, coconut fiber chips vary wildly in quality. It's impossible to water by the calendar. You will need to look at them and water when they are somewhat getting dry.

Outdoors your temperatures will probably be quite cool at night then warm up the next day, which is good for the cooler-growing Zygos. The air circulation will help prevent mold.