Cycnoches barthiorum

[smweaver]

No, I haven't tried the rubbing alcohol. But I will now. Do you dilute it at all, or is it sprayed just as it comes from the first aid aisle at the local pharmacy? At this point I'm definitely willing to give it a go. I have a 30X power geologist's loupe, and when I looked at the underside of the leaves the other day it appeared like it was a training camp for some spider mite version of Al Qaeda. I'll try the alcohol, and if that doesn't work I'll resort to Jack Daniels (for me as I haul the plants across the street from my house and hurl them into a corn field). Thank you for your advice.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by smweaver

No, I haven't tried the rubbing alcohol. But I will now. Do you dilute it at all, or is it sprayed just as it comes from the first aid aisle at the local pharmacy? At this point I'm definitely willing to give it a go. I have a 30X power geologist's loupe, and when I looked at the underside of the leaves the other day it appeared like it was a training camp for some spider mite version of Al Qaeda. I'll try the alcohol, and if that doesn't work I'll resort to Jack Daniels (for me as I haul the plants across the street from my house and hurl them into a corn field). Thank you for your advice.

I just pour my rubbing alcohol straight into the spray bottle. No reason to go easy on the vermin/al Qaeda!

[Bruno De Toni]

Steve congratulations, beatifull blooming display. Regarding spider mites (by the way I liked very much the analogy with Al Qaeda), they are susceptibles to a very dilute ammounts of pesticides. I mixed a little bit of pesticide with alcohol and water, just spray to them and that's it.

[Raphael]

That is a beautiful barthorium, Steve! I follow the same regime as you. When winter comes, and all of my Cycnoches and Catesetinae drop their leave, they come out of the pots and I toss them in a dark corner and pretty much ignore them.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Raphael

That is a beautiful barthorium, Steve! I follow the same regime as you. When winter comes, and all of my Cycnoches and Catesetinae drop their leave, they come out of the pots and I toss them in a dark corner and pretty much ignore them.

Raphael,
Its interesting that you mention this. Last year around Thanksgiving, I was able to pop over to Gene Monnier's place and have a chat with him about Catasetinae. He said that in his opinion (which, as you can imagine, I value quite a bit!!) if the winter temps to which you expose your Catasetinae do not fall below 55 degrees F, there is no reason to stop watering these guys if you don't want to. For me, my little dark corner is rapidly getting too small for all my dormant 'chids, so this year I think I might just leave a few of my larger and few of my smaller plants out all winter to see what happen.

[lklutz]

Watch for Lubber grasshoppers. They think all new growth is salad. Last year they devastated my Catasetums.

[Merlyn]

Did you happen to notice, Iklutz, that you just posted a reply to a thread that is 2 years and 2 months old ???

I'm ACTUALLY glad that you did because it brought up a valuable piece of advice from Gene Monnier whom I ALSO ADMIRE a great deal like isurus79 does !!!

Thanks, and maybe you'll look at the date of the last post next time !!!
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