Content
- Common Diseases on Orchids - Tips on Symptoms and Control
- Recognizing and treating fungal infections - this is how it works
- Bacterial diseases target soft-leaved orchids
- Flower fall is not always a disease symptom
- Lice have Russtau in their luggage
- Tips
Diseases and pests do not stop at orchids
Common Diseases on Orchids - Tips on Symptoms and Control
It shakes our gardener heart to the core, when the lovingly groomed orchid becomes ill. Now a detailed analysis of the causes is important to choose the right treatment method. This overview gives you the most important symptoms of common orchid diseases with tips on possible treatments.
Focus on orchid fertilizer - tips on dosage and applicationRecognizing and treating fungal infections - this is how it works
Widely distributed among orchids are persistent fungal infections. Regardless of the current pathogen, the disease manifests itself as a white coating due to mildew or as brown-black spots due to the leaf blotch on the previously lush green leaves. If the infestation is limited to the foliage without affecting shoots, bulbs or aerial roots, you can fight the fungal disease by natural means. That is how it goes:
Ecologically oriented orchid gardeners also treat these diseases with garlic. Bring 500 ml of water to boil and pour 4-5 crushed garlic cloves.After half a day, siphon off the liquid and spray the infected orchid with the broth every 2 days.
Bacterial diseases target soft-leaved orchids
If you have sharply demarcated black spots without a bright border on orchid leaves, you are dealing with a life-threatening bacterial disease. As the patches expand, the remainder of the tissue becomes slimy-moist and the foliage dies. In particular, the popular Phalaenopsis are prone to infestation due to their soft leaves. This is how you fight against orchid disease:
In the quarantine room, the orchid is no longer sprayed and sparingly poured. If the plant has a stable constitution thanks to proper care, it will repel the bacteria and recover. Effective treatments are not available so far, so debilitated orchids are lost. There has been some hope for some time now, as fungicides based on difenoconazole have proved useful in practice.
Flower fall is not always a disease symptom
If the leaves are attacked by an illness, sooner or later the supply of the flowers stops and they fall off. The successful control of the disease on the leaves also causes a stop of the flower fall. If the flowers fall off despite healthy leaves, the shortcoming stems from a failure in the care protocol. To get to the root of the problem, check the site conditions for a thorough check:
Do not place a fruit basket near your orchids with ripening apples, pears or similar fruits. The effluent maturing gas ethylene causes premature wilting of the flowers.
Lice have Russtau in their luggage
Lice of all kinds act as biting and sucking pests. In their nefarious activities, aphids, scale insects and conspecifics release honeydew. This sugary excretion forms an ideal breeding ground for Russtau. It is a widespread black spot that begins to spread on the undersides of the leaves. The resulting black spots hinder vital photosynthesis. The fight against lice also heals the disease. That is how it goes:
Stay on the heels of the lice until no more pests on the leaves. Unless you're dealing with hardened lid shields, they are immune to the classic soap solution. In this case, you will not be spared to dab the lice individually with a cotton bud soaked in alcohol. On a large-scale spraying with alcohol-containing solutions most orchids react with leaf shedding.
Tips
One of the mainstays of orchid care is the use of lime-free water. Optimally suited is collected and filtered rainwater, as the noble flowers are used to from the tropical rainforest. Where there is no room for a rain barrel, resourceful hobby gardeners resort to this trick: 1 liter of peat is poured into a cotton sack and hung in a large watering can. Within 3 days, the peat has removed most of the lime from the water.