Ok ES! Scratch the no signs of anything questionable...I finally found something. I couldn't stop thinking about her and what to do so I got my big flashlight out and really started looking at her like a crazy person...that's when I noticed the teeny tiny white little dust almost covering the top of the LECA.
When you turn a ball over, it is only covering the side that was up towards the air, there is like a line of this white dust where it was towards the surface...if that makes sense. It looks exactly like the "white mold?" I posted about a week after transitioning and most people agreed it was just mold. I think you might have mentioned the possibility of scale on that post and you were the only one....I continued to look to find some forming right at the base of the Catt too.
OK, so I am really trying to determine if this is in fact mold that's just coming back due to all the rotting roots or maybe it is a type of scale...PLEASE, if you know about scale, read on about my description of how it acted last time and give me your opinion.
Last time, it started as white teeny dots almost like flour particles on the tops of the roots/rhizome area that quickly became almost Cobweb looking. It too dusted the top of the LECA. Someone posted a video about transitioning to s/h where it showed white mold also appearing during the transition and they looked very similar from the photos so I just assumed this was it. They said in the video you could flush the plant more often to keep it down or repot. Upon flushing, it did nothing to get rid of the white stuff. No matter how long or if I really tried spraying it with some pressure, it never washed off.
When I posted last time, it was primarily on the rotting roots so people said it was fine, it's mold eating the decaying tissue it won't harm the plant or move to live tissue. Well then it continued to move and indeed, began to cover the sheaths (not under the sheaths, just on top), and move up towards the green pseudobulbs. I then found the early, dust like signs on another seedling that wasn't in s/h but a few inches next to it. I reduced humidity on this seedling and it all went away. I continued on with lots of flushing for my s/h seedling and then I found the early dust like signs on the one new root. At this point, thinking it must just be getting out of hand and thinking how everyone told me it shouldn't move to living tissue, I sprayed with physan 20. It took quite a bit of a diluted mixture but it did finally wash away. As a result, I figured well, there is the answer, it must just be mold.
It has been gone for about a month I would say and now Is indeed coming back on the plant in s/h. But it isn't really forming on the dead roots in the LECA, it is forming on anything basically above the surface of the LECA. It isn't on the pseudobulbs though unless it is microscopic, which I'm sure maybe is possible, and it isn't on the tops or bottoms of any leaves.
I worry because I find it odd that it did cover living tissue as much as decaying tissue last time and now this time is also covering living tissue. I also hear that scale can cost leaves to slightly yellow and then prematurely fall off which is what happened to the leaf the other day although since, the pseudobulbs had turned brown...not mushy, just brown....
On the other hand, why would physan 20 wash away scale??
|