Important Note On Quarantining for Newbies

[Anton]

To all Newbies to orchid growing, there have been some threads in the past week about problems encountered with pest ridden, and diseased plants bought cheaply from hardware stores and Ebay.
One member had most of her plants infected from some plants she bought at a "fire sale".

Take note: QUARANTINE ALL NEW PLANTS NOT PURCHASED FROM A REPUTABLE GROWER !

This will save a lot of heart ache in the long run.

Usually there is for a reason for orchids being sold at "bargain basement prices", on the whole, shops don't like to NOT make a profit. So, buyer, BEWARE!

So, the message here is QUARANTINE these plants from your main stock, treat them with pesticides and fungicides JUST IN CASE.

Give them about 2 weeks for the treatments to work, THEN, and ONLY then, you can introduce them to the rest of your plants knowing that they should be clean. If after the 2 weeks you still notice scale or other pests on them, do another course of treatment, and only return them if they are pest free.

Sometimes with pests like scale (speaking from experience here) you may need to treat, wait 10 days, re-treat, and in some cases with a bad infestation, a 3rd treatment may be required, as in my case.

This way you will kill the young scale or other pests plus any eggs that may hatch after the initial first treatment.

So endeth the sermon.

[pikevi]

A very sound advice, Anton.

I recently bought some orchids( posted elsewhere) at bargain prices. Even though I was told most of the damages that were there on the plants were due to heat and/or light, I am still keeping them away from my other orchids. I have not , however , treated them with anything yet.

After reading your post I will wash them with 'safer's soap' and will spray 'neem/water' emulsion.

I hope it will be sufficient for now: or until some significant symptoms of a disease emerge.

Thanks again for a very practical advice

[fred]

I think Anton has some very useful information there

With the what to do with all new plants that come in to your possession...QUARANTINE...

A very wise tip for all the New Members as QUARANTINE may just save you alot of time and money also QUARANTINE will save your other Orchids from the new plants nastys or maybe the loss of all your beloved orchids.

I would even say that quarantine is the First Golden Rule to learn when it comes to good orchid growing.

[janet_a]

hell, quarantine 'em even if they're *are* from a reputable grower. i bought a bellina from -cof-mumble-mumble- and it had rot. spread to a couple other plants too.

[turkeytaker]

I agree with janet_a! 'Reputable' vendors aren't any better than anyone else and I've had plants come with the most extraordinary collections of boisduval scale and mealies. Made my entomology prof happy...grr... Quarantine 'em all or at least do a very thorough inspection!

[tlr0829]

Originally Posted by Anton

To all Newbies to orchid growing, there have been some threads in the past week about problems encountered with pest ridden, and diseased plants bought cheaply from hardware stores and Ebay.
One member had most of her plants infected from some plants she bought at a "fire sale".

Take note: QUARANTINE ALL NEW PLANTS NOT PURCHASED FROM A REPUTABLE GROWER !

This will save a lot of heart ache in the long run.

Usually there is for a reason for orchids being sold at "bargain basement prices", on the whole, shops don't like to NOT make a profit. So, buyer, BEWARE!

So, the message here is QUARANTINE these plants from your main stock, treat them with pesticides and fungicides JUST IN CASE.

Give them about 2 weeks for the treatments to work, THEN, and ONLY then, you can introduce them to the rest of your plants knowing that they should be clean. If after the 2 weeks you still notice scale or other pests on them, do another course of treatment, and only return them if they are pest free.

Sometimes with pests like scale (speaking from experience here) you may need to treat, wait 10 days, re-treat, and in some cases with a bad infestation, a 3rd treatment may be required, as in my case.

This way you will kill the young scale or other pests plus any eggs that may hatch after the initial first treatment.

So endeth the sermon.

I noticed you mentioned scale.
I bought orchids from a hardware store and have these tiny brown crunchy bugs on the outside edges of the leaves. Are they scale? How do I annihilate them?

[Anton]

Check out photos I have put up of MY scale infestation, which is how I originally found this Forum and see if they look like these.

It's under Photos of Pests and Diseases.
http://www.orchidgeeks.com/gallery/s...php?i=715&c=17

[Second_Chance]

Hi
I quarantine everything. I am just afraid I will miss something due to either ignorance or it being really tiny. Is phyton 27 good on everything~~ safe for the little plants? Is there something else that would be better? Also is two to three weeks long enough?
Thanks