Silver/DMOS
 

Has anyone studied the use of silver, instead of copper for bacterial diseases of orchids? Has anyone used DMSO on orchids? Should this be moved to the "expert" area?

I can't comment on use of silver or DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) on orchids, just wanted to recommend caution in any use of DMSO. It is so good at being absorbed through human (or any) skin that it carries other compounds with it that don't normally have that risk. It is such a good solvent it makes oil and water truly mix, not just emulsify. Put it in solution with any fungicide, insecticide, fertilizer, anything - and get any of that solution on your skin - and those things will be in your blood almost as if you had injected it.

I actually knew this already.

I was thinking in terms of using it with the silver, or with a growth hormone to quickly save a badly infected/dying plant. (This is hypothetical talk).

It is used in the gardening industry. I was just wondering if anyone here knew more.

The company I retired from used to produce DMSO. One time I had a fire ant infestation in my greenhouse in SC, so I mixed some Ortho Isotox (yes, as in "kills all"), but did so VERY carefully with all sorts of personal protective equipment.

Sprayed it on the ants, and it didn't do $#!%.

The concept of using it with hormones is interesting, so I have ordered some to mix with KelpMax to see if it has any significant effect.

Well you're the guy to do it! Can you publish the results once your experiment is through? I have one beat up orchid (Cattleya) that I am treating with DMSO/Silver and KLN Dyna-Grow.

I have done a LOT of research and experimentation with root- and plant growth stimulants, and have never seen one as good - or as chemically stable - as KelpMax.

When treating plants for the first time, the response rate can be between two- and six weeks. I wonder what DMSO will do to that.

FYI - DMSO arrived today.

I have two small clusters of Aerangis rhodosticta v. luteo-alba that have been languishing on a cypress knee since moving them out of a greenhouse environment. I think I'll move them into air-cone pots of sphagnum, treating one with KelpMax, the other with KelpMax + DMSO.

Ideally you should do a DMSO only control. As a source of organic sulfur it might have effects of its own.

Don't have enough plants to add that factor.

I can, however, say unequivocally that DMSO should NOT be added to a hormone product, as was the case for the plant on the left. Yes, the KelpMax-only plant has sprouted a keiki.

http://firstrays.com/Pictures/DMSO_or_Not.jpg

In retrospect, I should have known this might be the reaction, as 2, 4-D is a herbicide that is a very strong auxin, causing the plant to basically "burn itself out." Adding an absorption enhancer to KelpMax, apparently did the same.

A direct toxic effect of DMSO cannot be excluded.