[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I personally would prefer a systemic like Bayer Advanced Rose & Flower ready mix, or anything else with imidacloprid. The Rose & Flower, Tree & Shrub, Lawn & Grub (not sure of actual title), and Three in One (includes mites) by Bayer Advanced are orchid friendly. Look for imidacloprid on the lable.

Most here have heard my woes about using neem oil (DON'T USE ON ORCHIDS). But while discussing my woes with our last speaker (Dr. Ron McHatton) at the Desert Valley Orchid Society, I was assured that similar damage could be done with the various insecticidal soap sprays. For those of you that use insecticidal soaps, maybe you could keep an eye open for signs of stress. It took me almost 5 years to finally home in on neem oil as the root source of my problems, just because the problem generally was severe stress. Stress is not something that immediately manifests itself, but shows up as multiple variations of disease where it depends on the pathogens present.

I am very happy to report a major turn around in my collection now that I have stayed away from neem for about 3 to 9 months depending on the type of plants. I am seeing MUCH better roots this year during the repot. I realize now that one form the stress takes is the failure to bloom. Plants that were perfectly capable of blooming, known from past history, plus expectations from recent mature size, just simply produced blind grows, or even slightly smaller growths for no reasonable reason. Next spring, I am expecting such a bumper crop of blooms, I won't be able to get them all to the various orchid societies ( we should all have such problems).