Hairy white mold on vanda roots.

[Sommeil]

I have a vanda I purchased at Kroger by Silvervase. It is a vase setup, which I am planning to improve over the next few days. In the meantime, I found that the roots have some hairy, white mold on them.

I sprayed them yesterday with 3%hydrogen peroxide. But here they are again this morning! What do you guys think about this? The vanda itself doesn't show any signs of distress right now. Is it even a harmful mold? If so, what should I use to get rid of it?

Thanks in advance!

[sweetjblue]

Orchids do have root hairs and hydrogen peroxide will dry out them out and cause root loss.

[Bud]

Those are not molds....I have seen those on some of my Vandas and it is ok....do not freak...

[aliceinwl]

Despite what internet videos show, don’t spray roots with hydrogen peroxide. It will kill or damage the root tissue. Yours does look to have healthy roots. Hopefully damage from the peroxide is minimal.

In cases of fungus on the roots, it’s usually feeding on dead or dying tissue and if you correct the conditions leading to the tissue death, the fungus goes away. In cases where you have a pathenogenic fungus it’s going to have hyphae throughout the plant tissue and using a surface treatment won’t touch those: you need a systemic antifungal.

[Ray]

Another bit of misinformation spread by self-proclaimed "experts" who do videos: Root hairs are not how orchids attach themselves to their hosts; that happens as the surface cells penetrate and envelope textural relief. Root hairs are for water and nutrient absorption, and tend to be less externally-prevalent in plants with heavy velamen layers, being embedded within it, to a large degree.

[Sommeil]

Thanks guys. Okay, I wont worry about the hairs. But it seems now that I have another problem that I might need to take care of.

Looks like I found eggs of some sort chilling on the roots. I removed them manually, but I'm not sure if I will need to do anything else. What do you guys think?

[Ray]

Yeah, they do look look eggs, but might also be spore bodies, as those white fibers above and below them, plus those to the lower left in that photo, are not root hairs, but mold hyphae, formed as they decompose the dead or dying root segments.

[Bud]

your second picture has molds on the roots....one cup household bleach to three cups water to spray the whole plant....spores will be left even as you spray so do it every other day until you do not see molds anymore....oh remove the whole plant from the vase and flush the whole plant in cold water in the sink until you flush out the molds then spray with the bleach....wash the vase and spray it with the bleach too....

[aliceinwl]

Don’t spray it with bleach :-O Cut off the dead parts if they bother you and let the roots dry between waterings. Dead tissue kept moist is going to mold. There’s no need to subject the healthy root tissue to a bleach treatment. There will likely be some root death from the peroxide, there’s no need to compound the problem by spraying them with bleach too.

[Ray]

FWIW, I've used bleach as a disinfectant, but at one ounce per gallon (1:128), not at the 1:4 ratio Bud suggested.