$5 rescue phal with mealybugs

[greenpassion]

Wow! I'm definitely going to try this🙂

[Dollythehun]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

Good question, but no, it will not over water the plant. I have actually been raising a few Phals this way, full time, for over a year. No adverse reaction from the plant, strong root growth, zero root rot.

The method is called 'vase culture'. It is a good method for monopodial plants like Phalaenopsis or Vanda.

And as I recall last week you bought 4 new vases!! If you look for that post GP, you will see OW's method.

[bil]

Mealy bugs here are one of the 4 white plagues. It took me a while to realise why they kept coming back. I would spray the plants, but sure enough, after a moth or so, there they were again.
Their secre is that there are always some lurking in the medium. So now, when I get one of the 4 plagues, the treatmet is the same. A strong dose of imacloporid which is both contact and systemic. For non orchids, I wait till they need water, then I spray all the plants affected plus all their neighbours, and then I go mix up a watering can with an imacloporid solution, and I water all the plants with that.
Since taking that trouble. Mealies are never the problem they used to be on the terrace, and whenever a smmall colony does appear on an orchid, I just spray the plant and then keep spraying the medium till the pesticide solution runs out the bottom.

TBH, there is a case to be made for giving all new plants, orchids or not, the same treatment.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

And as I recall last week you bought 4 new vases!! If you look for that post GP, you will see OW's method.

LeeB posted a picture of something similar on the second page of this thread: Phals, s/h and short pots