Treating for diseases and pests in the house during winter

[MJG]

I grow all of my orchids indoors. When the weather's temperate I can take sick plants outside to treat them, and then bring them back in when dried.

I'm wondering what to do in the winter. It gets really cold here. I can't treat outside. Also, I tend to use the big guns (ie toxic) to treat many of the nasties.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[estación seca]

Dish soap is enough to control pests in the winter. It's all I used when I lived in St. Louis.

[MJG]

What brought this up is that I am treating some plants for a fungus. I'm going to have to continue treating into November. Dish soap won't work for that.

Last winter I had a mealybug outbreak. I treated the whole portion of all the orchids diligently with Safer Soap, repeatedly, repotted, and still lost 5 orchids. I just haven't been able to control everything with soap. I admire your growing skills. I haven't been able to make soap work for me.

[Roberta]

If you have to use the stronger stuff, maybe do the treatment in the bathtub or shower, let dry or at least stop dripping, then just rinse the bathtub/shower well after removing the plant.

[thefish1337]

What types of pests are you dealing with? I've used method 1-pps with great success. its a mixture of peppermint oil, rosemary oil, Lauric Acid, Polyglyceryl Oleate, Hemp Seed Oil, Isopropyl Myristate, Water and a surfactant. I've used it on mites, thrips, aphids and scale. Thrips and scale require stronger dilution rates, but the bottle has proper guidance. All of the ingredients are GRAS and it smells really good. Leaves very little residue. In fact, my wife actually likes it when I treat my collection. I grow under lights and my plants never go outside, though they get fresh air in the summer which is when I get pests.

I use a pump sprayer and treat in my bathtub:

1) treat all plants, every 3 days for 2 weeks. clean your entire grow area, vaccum, wipe down grow space with soap/bleach.

2) treat every couple of weeks for the entire season.

Azamax is also pretty good, and is systemic but it is not meant to be sprayed indoors without PPE. It also has a little bit of a weird (but not bad) smell. You could combine both of these to good effect. Spray all your plants with method 1-pps to knock down everything initially - then treat twice with azamax while the weather is still cooperative. You can then treat bi-weekly or monthly with the method 1-pps. If I can get the pests before I close my doors and windows for the winter, I find that the pests don't usually return.

I'm also planning on trying out some predatory mites at some point (don't tell my wife I'm releasing bugs into the house deliberately).

I cant understate the importance of giving your indoor grow space a thorough cleaning prior to hunkering down for the winter. Treating your plants but not cleaning the surrounding environment is shooting yourself in the foot.

[SouthPark]

Orchid-safe soap spray can definitely control insects like mealy bugs and things like that.

For indoors, one thing to watch out for is maybe not enough air-movement.

Air-movement will help to cut down on chances of fungal issues and maybe bacteria issues.

After spraying plants with water (including soap sprays), it's often beneficial to have nice air-movement to help dry the leaves. It may also be beneficial to blow out significant amounts of water that get trapped in crowns of some orchids - just to avoid water stagnating.

With enough air movement, and with temperatures that are nice for orchids leaves and roots - when indoors - the chance of fungal activity can be significantly reduced.

There are always other considerations too -- such as indoor humidity levels --- and other factors, where some growers might not encounter fungal issues even if air-movement is not much (or none).

[Leafmite]

I am not opposed to using pesticides or fungicides (Used Malathion and Captan on the fruit trees for many years) but I always follow the guidelines when I use products on my plants and do further research. If a pesticide is not recommended for indoor use, please do not use them indoors. Those that sell fungicides and pesticides do quite a bit of testing of their products and, though they would love to tell you that their products are 100% safe, they issue those guidelines for your protection.

If you are having fungus issues, use more Calcium. It will not help older growth but the newer growth will be more able to resist fungus issues. Neem oil also controls fungus issues.

Pests are a bit more difficult. This year, I bought a bunch of organic insecticidal soap and Neem Oil but I am currently trying food-grade Diatomaceous Earth. If the DE doesn't work, I am going to wash the plants off with soap and water, then spray with the Insecticidal soap for three weeks. A new one is spinosad being used as a pesticide. Here is a fact sheet:

Spinosad General Fact Sheet

[thefish1337]

I've had good to great results with spinosad for thrips and fungus gnats. Does not seem to work well on aphids, scale, may work on mites. In fact, of all the things I've tried its been most effective on thrips.

[MJG]

The more I think about this and read the feedback, the more I think it's a really bad idea to use anything toxic indoors. When I use this stuff outside I wear glasses, long pants, gloves and a mask. What would be the logic of spraying anywhere in my house when I am so wary of these chemicals outside?

I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Keep them coming please. Lots of great ideas here

[Orchid Whisperer]

As a part of preventative care, while my plants are still outdoors, I plan to treat them with a systemic insecticide a few weeks before bringing them indoors. You could potentially do this with a systemic fungicide (for any product, check the label, follow instructions).

My indoor grow area is not a well-traveled part of the house (storage space with a plant stand and grow lights). So, what I do in terms of treating the plants is maybe different from what I would do if they were in the living room.