Pest or sign of healthy plant?
 

Backstory…repotted my sweet mini phal from white bowl to larger blue container. It had an abundance of roots growing out from all the air holes in white bowl and in the media itself and was growing out of the little bowl. It was only in the larger blue container for a week or two before I noticed blue and white fuzzy mold in the media. And the previously plump and healthy roots I could see through the holes were now mushy. I have since read that the blue glazing could have toxins that harm the plant and its roots. I immediately removed phal from blue container and media, applied hydrogen peroxide and removed all the dead roots, which only left four healthy ones. :(

Since the plant seemed to like the airflow of the white bowl and I wanted to prevent more root rot, I thought it would be a good candidate for mounting.

It's been a week on its cork bark mount. In the past couple of days, I wake up in the morning to find two drops of sticky honeydew—one on the node just above and one at the small branch on the longer spike.

I see no pests whatsoever, but swabbed the dew, spike and leaves with rubbing alcohol just in case.

In researching, I found some responses that said this could be a sign of health in the plant and is a natural occurrence on spikes as blooms develop. I also saw some that said it could be pests. How does one know the difference? Pests can be sneaky, and this phal has been stressed by two repottings (one repot, one mount) and loss of a majority of its roots.

Those sweet honey dew will attract ants which can carried all kind of bugs/disease to your plant in the future. So, wiping it off will definitely avoid this problem.

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A lot of my plants have sap every now and then. I just leave it, my plants are indoors and no ant problem.

Yeah a lot of orchids do that. I suspect that they do it to attract ants which then will kkill and eat caterpillars etc.

OK, there is a risk of ants bringing in pests, but is your home a highway for ants?

I have thousands of them trekking thru the greenhouse, they even use the pots the orchids grow in to house their larvae in..

So far they haven't caused me any problems, and as I say I don't see it as anything to worry about.

Some of us call it happy sap. A healthy well hydrated orchid does produce it quite often. I would think in your home, unless you have fruit flies or ants that is shouldn't be a problem. I just leave mine be.

No fruit flies or ants (that I know of—I say this because I moved an orchid pot yesterday and the movement caused a spider hanging out nearby in a window well to scurry out the hole of a window frame. Yuck! I always wondered how they got in to my place. They should make itty bitty screens for those holes.)

I have seen a fungus gnat flying around again though. Gross!!!! :((

You need some butterworts/Pinguicula :)

Cool! Yes, I do!

I think someone once told me that sap is a result of excess sugar the plant produced. My darf mango tree's underside of all its leaves are covered in It the sap tastes exactly like a mango 😋

I agree that most likely Happy Sap is a precursor to blooms and I leave mine alone.