Chronically ill--easiest way to care for orchids (and get rid of scale)

[eudaimonia]

Hi. I really love orchids (and gardening, in general). I have lupus and often don't feel well enough to give my orchids the most intensive care.

I have many phaeleonopsis, cattleyas, laeliocattleyas, and brassolaeliocattleyas that I've been caring for a few years. I'm looking for the easiest way to care for them. I was thinking of water culture.

I also managed to get an infestation of scale that's affected many of them. Some of them also get these white fluffy spots on them that may also be a type of scale or fungus--I'm inclined to think the former because when I squish it, some "juice" sometimes comes with it, but it's not as obvious as with the other scale.

This is the second reason why I was thinking of water culture. So that I could thoroughly clean each orchid, then put a mild poison to be drawn up through the roots, then spray each plant in neem oil. I'm generally not for using poisons, but I have many orchids, and I'd like to return them to disease-free, rather than just disease control.

I was hoping you could give me thoughts on whether water culture would be an easy way to care for these orchids. And whether it might be the best way to regain my pest-free status. I think changing out their water once a week would be easy. And if there's a store-bought solution I could add to the water, all the better.

FWIW, the orchids will soon be moved to their new disease-free environment--a conservatory that we're building onto the house (the north side--yes, I know not ideal). It has it's own climate control, but we'll be keeping it roughly the same climate as the rest of the house (plus some misting), because we plan to do a lot of lounging in there. TIA

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[Orchid Whisperer]

Water culture will neither help nor hurt your pest problem. If plants are otherwise growing well in standard pots with medium, keep doing that.

To best manage your orchids and not become over-burdened by plant care while you are ill, don't increase your collection. Limit yourself to caring for what you have.

To get rid of scale, scrub all plants with a mild dish detergent solution first. Work down into crevices with an old toothbrush and a 1-inch sash brush (paint brush). Spray all plants weekly with a systemic insecticide (imidacloprid-based inscticides will kill the bugs but are relatively benign to mammals), include leaves, stems, roots,.potting medium. Do so for at least a month.

[bethmarie]

I don't have an answer, but I do have a lot of empathy. I have an autoimmune illness that flares unpredictably, and sidelines me for extended stretches.
I'm currently trying to downsize my collection, not all that successfully. Limiting the number of plants seems like the best way to avoid overwhelm and unintentional experiments that reveal which orchids are most like cacti.
I've also been considering what my plants are potted in. Large bark is a bear for me to deal with in my indoor growing situation. It requires more frequent watering than I can keep up with. When I get a burst of energy, I'm going to repot in smaller bark and sphag for those that'll stand it.
PM me if you like. I'll tell you which orchids withstood 4+ weeks of drought and were hardly fazed by it.

[estación seca]

Sorry to hear about your illness.

As Orchid Whisperer mentioned, there is no advantage to a particular growing method from the perspective of pest control. Systemic pesticides work whether plants are in bark or water.

Water culture works for many orchids. It often makes care easier than potting in bark. People in our orchid society have found water culture seems to work better in homes rather than warm tropical settings. I have found Vandas do better in water culture in my warm to hot sunroom, rather than the rest of my house. I would encourage you to only try one or two in water culture at first, so you learn how it works for you.

You can kill all the scale on a plant by immersing it for several hours in water with a tiny bit of liquid dish soap added - the kind for washing in the sink, not the dishwasher. This will drown the pests and eggs. Even an overnight soak will not hurt most orchids if the temperatures are not too far from what they expect.

It might make sense to unpot a plant or two destined for water culture, soak it for a while, pick off the remaining old medium, let it dry one last time, and put it into water culture.

A lot of Cattleyas and Phalaenopsis easily tolerate a month of drought if they are not actively making roots or leaves at the time. Cattleyas can be badly harmed by drought when making roots, since they typically only make new roots at defined times in their growth cycle. Phals tend not to be so picky, since they can make new roots whenever it's warm.

[Ray]

The "white fluffy spots" are likely mealybugs.

Don't delay getting rid of the bugs, and be thorough about it.