Hi all
I was hoping for some advise on an emerging problem. One of my Paphs and an Oncidium have recently had a pretty significant amount of mold growing on their roots. It looks like your average bread mold-- white and fuzzy. It is growing on the base of the roots and even a little on the hydroton.
Does anyone know how to resolve mold problems? Here's a little info on my setup:
I grow using the "semi-hydro" method with hydroton as the media. For the nutrient solution I use Dyna-Gro Orchid-Pro 7-8-6 with several additives. I use RO water so I add a cal-mag formula, a silicate called Pro-Tekt and Liquid Karma which has Humic Acid, Soluble Potash, and available phosphate. The PPM is typically around 700 and the pH is stays around 6.1 (any info on optimal PPM, EC, and pH would also be greatly appreciated!). For lighting I run a 250W High Pressure Sodium dimmed anywhere between 150W-200W in the afternoon and maintain them on several LED lights. The humidity has been a bit of a wild card lately getting up very high (100%) but with a few exceptions it is kept around 75%. It never stays high (95-100%) for extended periods of time but I'm not sure if 75% is even too high. The temp is pretty constant during the day at about 82 and about 75 at night.
Only 2 of the 6 orchids in the greenhouse have mold on their roots.. Unfortunately the affected ones are both about to bloom for the first time so I would really like to keep them healthy.
Any info would be greatly appreciated!!
Mold Growing on Roots--Need Advise!
Threaded Mode
