White mold on cat's roots?

[cpeters5]

I won this Lc. from Ebay. It arrived last week, in clay pot with barks. Viewing from outside it seems healthy, with two new shoots one about 2 inches and the smaller on (about 1/2 inches with healthy red color. A couple of days ago, the small shoot turned ugly yellow. I left it alone thinking it is caused by the stress from shipping.

Today, the small shoot is dead. The larger shoot is still doing ok and is growing at the rate of about 1/8 inches each day. So I removed the plant from the pot this morning. The potting material, mostly barks, were decomposed. The roots around the dead shoot were soft and soggy and covered with white powder. Is this a kind of mold? And if so, any suggestion how best to get rid of it and prevent it from spreading to other plants?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

It is mold. Usually a bright location with good air circulation, low humidity, and very little moisture on the roots will be inhospitable to the mold.

If it still persists, then a fungicide is needed.

I don't know what kinds of fungicide you could use though.

[silken]

Would some sulfur powder work? It sure cleared up some powdery mildew on an evergreen we have and I have used it on the roots and bulb of an Onc. with bulb rot. Doesn't seem to cause any harm to the plant.

[cpeters5]

Thanks King* and Silken. Unfortunately I don't have sulfur powder. I ended up spraying the roots with some alcohol mixed with tiny bit of bleach (read that somewhere) after cleaning the roots and removed all dead and soggy roots. I repotted the plant in coconut husk chips, my preferred medium over barks.
Thanks for your in put.

There is another problem with another plant from the same seller, same shipment. I will post that in a different thread.

Thanks again.
pax

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by cpeters5

Thanks King* and Silken. Unfortunately I don't have sulfur powder. I ended up spraying the roots with some alcohol mixed with tiny bit of bleach (read that somewhere) after cleaning the roots and removed all dead and soggy roots. I repotted the plant in coconut husk chips, my preferred medium over barks.
Thanks for your in put.

There is another problem with another plant from the same seller, same shipment. I will post that in a different thread.

Thanks again.
pax

Um…I don't know how to tell you this...

Bleach and alcohol on the roots are a huge, huge no-no. I don't know where you read that from, but this advice should never have been given out, nor heeded. You've just unknowingly put your plant's health at far greater risk than when the plant had the problem with the mold.

Unless the person who gave out this "advice" has photo evidence of before and after pics of the same plant over a period of 1 month or more, I have a difficult time believing that bleach and alcohol sprayed on the roots will do the orchid some good, when in my personal experience, applying harsh chemicals such as bleach and alcohol can have severe negative consequences on a plant.

Should the roots die off, you have 2 choices:

1. Keep warm and humid, and grow under bright indirect light and pray that the orchid pushes out new roots before it starts going into dormancy - which is soon, (late fall - winter).

or

2. Throw it out and buy a new one.

I hope your plant's roots survive that potentially toxic treatment.

For future reference and for anybody else reading this, DO NOT EVER PUT BLEACH AND ALCOHOL ON THE ROOTS OF AN ORCHID TO DISINFECT IT OF MOLD OR FUNGI, YOU RUN A HIGH RISK OF DECIMATING ANY LIVING ROOTS THAT MAY BE ON THE PLANT. (Note: All caps, underlining, and boldface in this case is for emphasis so people can notice/see the advice clearly, I'm not "shouting".)

Good luck.

[cpeters5]

Ohhhhh what have I done!!!
Thanks for the info. I wish I could have waited for more suggestions before taking such a stupid action.

[Orchid Whisperer]

I agree about the bleach & alcohol - I hope you have some roots that make it.

I strongly suggest with future purchases that, as soon as you receive the plant, you take it out of the pot it is growing in to assess the health of the roots and medium. Decide to re-pot or not; in my opinion, it is often best to re-pot at that time (conditions vary from plant to plant, though). Whether you do or don't repot, water infrequently until the plant seems to be growing again.

[cpeters5]

Thank you Orchid Whisperer. Great suggestions. Unfortunately, I sprayed the poor plant with full strenght alcohol with just a little bit of bleach. But did really give it full and thorough blast... Would be difficult for roots to survive. Sigh... live and learn (even at my 66 years life experience :-))

I have been raising orchids for 3-4 months, and have been purchasing several orchids from ebay of late to populate my collection. I am always uncomfortable when they arrived in a pot completely covered with live moss, or worse with dry moss painted with green color! Not seeing what's underneath, I always open them up and usually ended up repotting.

pax

[Orchid Whisperer]

The plant seems mostly in good shape except for the problems you noted. Even if the existing roots are damaged, there is good reason to believe that the newer growths will send out roots soon, so all is not lost. I would rinse the roots really well, & afterward not water too often until you figure out if any of the roots survive.

[silken]

I hope your roots survive. I think its a good idea to purchase a few items such as a fungicide/bactericide just to have on hand before you have problems. For me, those things are not easy to find in local stores so I would have to order them and by then a plant could be dead or in big trouble. So I always keep a few items for treating 'just in case' something happens.