The War Against Scale (Week 2)
Login
User Name
Password   


Registration is FREE. Click to become a member of OrchidBoard community
(You're NOT logged in)

menu menu

Sponsor
Donate Now
and become
Forum Supporter.

The War Against Scale (Week 2)
Many perks!
<...more...>


Sponsor
 

Google


Fauna Top Sites
Register The War Against Scale (Week 2) Members The War Against Scale (Week 2) The War Against Scale (Week 2) Today's PostsThe War Against Scale (Week 2) The War Against Scale (Week 2) The War Against Scale (Week 2)
LOG IN/REGISTER TO CLOSE THIS ADVERTISEMENT
Go Back   Orchid Board - Most Complete Orchid Forum on the web ! > >
Reply
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 01-25-2012, 10:57 AM
lycaonpictus lycaonpictus is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jan 2010
Zone: 5b
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Age: 60
Posts: 123
The War Against Scale (Week 2) Female
Default The War Against Scale (Week 2)

This weekend marked my 2nd malathion attack against the scales attempting to invade my orchid collection. I'm currently planning a 3rd assault this following weekend, followed by enhanced vigilance.

Thank you, Ray and others, for your advice following my initial dosing. Ray, the addition of a little dish soap did, indeed, keep things in suspension nicely.

As you might guess from my various questions, I'm kind of a noob to using pesticides on my plants. As a biologist (with a chem minor) I'm not a noob to handling noxious chemicals or pathogenic organisms, however, so am good about all the necessary gloves / ventilation / disposal stuff. It's more the application / interactions with the orchids themselves I'm not always sure about.

So this week's questions are:

1) I've been doing the malathion as a bucket dip because I don't have anywhere I feel safe spraying during the winter. When using it as a dip, do I just dunk in and take out? Or should I leave the plant in the dip for a few minutes? So far, I've just done the dunk, and it seems to have worked fine (no sign of bugs at all during this last treatment).

2) Before dunking, I've been giving each of the orchids a soak in clean water to let all the roots turn green. My theory is that they don't need to be absorbing malathion, so saturating the roots before dipping will minimize unnecessary chemical absorption. Does that make sense?

3) Fertilizing. While doing the malathion treatments, I haven't been fertilizing. I figure the plants can handle three weeks without fertilizer, and I wasn't sure if the malathion and fertilizers played nice together. Is that an unnecessary worry? In general, do people mix fertilizers and malathion in the same water? In other words, could I be dipping for pests and fertilizing at the same time?

Thanks again, everybody! Orchidboard is the best.

L.P.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 01-25-2012, 01:03 PM
Cym Ladye Cym Ladye is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jul 2008
Zone: 9b
Location: Northern California
Posts: 1,844
The War Against Scale (Week 2) Female
Default

Much as I hate spraying pesticides, I would never do a multi-plant, orchid dip/dunk due to possible cross contamination of virus, which has become rampant in today's pot plant market.

Cym Ladye
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 01-25-2012, 05:35 PM
King_of_orchid_growing:)'s Avatar
King_of_orchid_growing:) King_of_orchid_growing:) is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Apr 2008
Zone: 9a
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 9,313
Default

Have you tried isopropyl alcohol for scale?
__________________
Philip
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 01-25-2012, 06:43 PM
dounoharm dounoharm is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Nov 2008
Zone: 9b
Location: north florida
Posts: 3,384
Default

kill the scale as rapidly as possible by whatever means necessary....use a systemic....also, to spray, get a large plastic bag, put the plant inside, and spray away.....gl
Reply With Quote
Post Thanks / Like - 2 Likes
Likes silken, Connie Star liked this post
  #5  
Old 01-26-2012, 05:10 AM
Discus Discus is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Grahamstown, Eastern Cape
Age: 46
Posts: 1,191
The War Against Scale (Week 2) Male
Default

I've used shower stalls and baths to do indoors spraying before - shower stalls are quite nice as they're fairly easy to "decontaminate" afterwards and hold the spray well. I also live in an apartment and lack suitable spraying spaces.

I'd also be wary of multi-plant dipping.

I often use surgical spirits and cotton ear buds (q-tips) on minor outbreaks - wipe them off and have a good scrub at any little scale patches. Getting into the leaf axils is quite hard, notably on tolumnias. I've taken to pouring a little bit of a pyrethroid-based insecticide into there to take any out.

I also have a round of scale (and spider mite) dosing to do after being away for a month!
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 01-29-2012, 12:17 PM
lycaonpictus lycaonpictus is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jan 2010
Zone: 5b
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Age: 60
Posts: 123
The War Against Scale (Week 2) Female
Default

Thanks for the responses, everyone!

Yes, I use isopropyl for any individual scale I see. I resorted to chemicals after a couple weeks of intensive cleaning with alcohol and Q-tips wasn't getting on top of the problem. (As Discus mentioned, getting scale out of the leaf axils on tolumnia -- which is all I grow -- is near impossible!)

Thanks for the spraying suggestions, too. The one question which still stands: Is it OK to mix malathion with fertilizer, to do stuff all at once? Or should I hold off fertilizing on days when I "poison"? (This weekend should be the last chemical treatment, knock on wood.)

Thanks again!
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 01-30-2012, 01:36 PM
Cym Ladye Cym Ladye is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jul 2008
Zone: 9b
Location: Northern California
Posts: 1,844
The War Against Scale (Week 2) Female
Default

I do not know of any reason not to combine your malathion dip with a dilute fertilizer solution. However, I would fertilize first before using Malathion as a spray just because fertilizer is better absorbed as a flush through the plant media rather than a foliar application.

CL
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Tags
dip, fertilizing, malathion, orchids, questions, week, scale, war


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Determining watering schedule with digital scale Antilope Beginner Discussion 14 02-25-2023 09:19 PM
Scale Infestation scy Pests & Diseases 29 06-28-2011 11:33 AM
I found scale... but only one... now i'm confused let_it_grow Pests & Diseases 7 12-07-2008 09:42 AM
Did my scale spread? addictedcountryman Pests & Diseases 5 08-01-2008 02:42 AM
orthene and scale larrylmt Pests & Diseases 1 07-14-2007 02:39 PM

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:19 AM.

© 2007 OrchidBoard.com
Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO v2.0.37 (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
Feedback Buttons provided by Advanced Post Thanks / Like (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.

Clubs vBulletin Plugins by Drive Thru Online, Inc.