Moss has black tips?

[OrchidNut555]

Hey there! i'm unsure if this is the correct category in the form to place this in, so, feel free to place it somewhere else if needed.

Recently i did the coffee method on my orchids because i had a bush snail issue. All my orchids are in mixes of moss, bark and perlite. Of course after coffee soaking and after rinsing the media after the coffee soak, the moss was sopping wet. My heat mats werent enought to dry them out well enough in time, so i opted to place them on the radiator. When they were dry or approaching dryness, i took them off to discover the moss (mostly and for some exclusively) on TOP of the media had black tips.

Some people have told me it's because of the coffee, but to me that feels illogical as it's only present at the top. If it had been the coffee, wouldn't it also be on the moss inside the pot? I've seen this blackness happening before; when i placed a potted tolumnia in moss onto a heat mat that accidentally was heated too much; the bottom moss was turning black.

I also did an experimet; i soaked dry and moist moss in coffee for two hours. I didn't see any blackening. So, this leads me to the almost definite conclusion that these tips turned black because of the radiator's heat at 17 degrees.

My question for my fellow orchid growers is; is this harmful? is this blackness a sign of accelerated decomposition? or is it simply moss that has discoloured and isn't decomposing faster?

Below is a link to an imae of one of my plants that has this. (ignore the tap, training some roots. it's working! )

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. my biggest concern is that this is a sign of accelerated decomposition and i grow mostly catts (also in moss, i cant keep up with watering otherwise) and i'd hate to have to repot them sooner due to this, because i will have to rpeat this treatment a few times for the snails; the other option is a peroxide bath, which i'd rather avoid due to the nature of peroxide.

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

[Ray]

It probably is from the coffee.

Most of the evaporation from the medium occurs at the top surface and at the pot wall interface.

The water - and whatever minor dissolved solids they contain - continue to be wicked up to counter the gradient caused by the evaporation, ultimately concentrating the solids as the water goes away.

[OrchidNut555]

hey Ray! thank you for your reply. is this something i should have to worry about in terms of decomposition? or is this a minor thing not to worry about?

I did hear about people "wicking" (i guess i can call it?) the humic acids out of the moss by using a wet paper towel on it. i tried this yesterday but it didn't seem to work, or does it only work when you put it on there and leave it for a long while?

[estación seca]

Did you rinse the coffee out with fresh water after the treatment?

[OrchidNut555]

Heya. I did yes, I described it in the first paragraph; I rinsed them and then dried it out. I do notice coffee water still comes out, despite running lots and lots of water through that moss I did what I could but it seems very difficult to rinse it out of moss, at least in my experience.

[Johndeaux22]

Originally Posted by OrchidNut555

Heya. I did yes, I described it in the first paragraph; I rinsed them and then dried it out. I do notice coffee water still comes out, despite running lots and lots of water through that moss I did what I could but it seems very difficult to rinse it out of moss, at least in my experience.

The coffee may take a while to completely clear out. I recently had a problem with snails as well, and coffee provided good control. Unfortunately some of the moss with some of my plants still hasn’t gotten rid of all the coffee, but it has gotten better over time.