Please Help!

[Rema]

I have a Blc. Alma Kee "Tipmalee" seedling (along with three more seedlings) that I check on every other day. It is potted in a medium that I have never seen before in all the posts I read here or in other internet pages, it resembles very thin, fine hay. Today as I went to spray some water on it (the weather has been very hot and dry) I noticed many, many ants crowling in and out of the pot. Since I've already noticed that this medium drains real fast I decided to soak the seedling in water with some dish detergent and to my suprise, hundrends of ants and thousands of ants eggs floated on the water, so I let water run over it so the eggs and ants would flow out of the pot. There are just too many eggs in the medium (it came out of the pot in a single piece). My question is, I have to repot right away, right?
The problem is I have no media other than bark (in big chunks for my phals) and some very large coco chips. I do have some old sphagnum that I saved from some phals that I reppoted out of, can I use it?
Also, I have no products to clean the plant, other than commom home remedies such as detergent, bleach, vinegar, cinamom, etc. I might be able to get some Neem oil, but not today. What should I do?

[RebelCowgirl]

Are the plants themselves healthy? It sounds like the medium may be coconut husk fibers. If it were me I would keep rinsing until no more eggs and ants came out. If I'm correct, i don't think the ants actually hurt the plants but they bring bad stuff with them.

[rcb]

Yes a large ant infestation in the pot can sometimes hurt the plant itself.

And no you do not have to repot right away, it can wait a few days.

No do not reuse any potting media from another plant, it's just a bad practice to get into because of disease.

What I would do while you are waiting to get fresh potting material.

Unpot your plant, clean the roots off with fresh clean water. This alone will get rid of most of the ants. Set the cleaned up plant in an empty pot, or clean out the current pot really really well.

Water it periodically until you are able to repot it. But don't worry about this, every day or twice a day, depending on how fast it dries for you is good.

I've left Catts unpotted at least a week or a little more sometimes, even in the middle of summer when its really hot. It really doesn't hurt them at all. They are tough.

Good luck!

[Rema]

Hi Jenny, Thank you for your reply.
It is just the one plant, it is healthy with very nice roots. And no, it is not coconut fibers, I have those on another plant, it just looks like hay - I'll try to attach a picture.
I've continued rinsing and the bulk of the medium kind of broke in my hand, showing that there are many, many eggs... just everywhere in the medium. The picture is from before the ants' invasion.

[E-Jag]

Hi, Rema
As Jenny noted, the ants won't hurt the plant but the insects they attract will. And, of course, you probably don't want an ant nest in your orchid pot. Clean the pot good - hot water and bleach - and trim any dead roots (black, mushy - leave the firm ones) and dip them in peroxide. You don't have to repot immediately - you can leave it bare root until you find smaller bark or break up the bark you have. I wouldn't use the old sphag. If it was fairly high quality, it probably isn't now. Catts like high light - mine sit in direct sun BUT they are acclimated to it and I grow everything outside year 'round. It doesn't sound like you have a big problem (eaten up with mites, for example) so enjoy your catt.

[Rema]

Hi Renee, Thank you for your reply.
I can do what you suggested, however the plant is quite small, do you think it can stand being out of the media for a few days? I don't even know where to buy finer medium, all I've seen in the stores here are bark and coco chips, so I guess it'll take me a while to find proper media for a seedling...

[Rema]

Hy Ejag, thank you for your reply.
Do you think I could use some of the bark? It came in large pieces but they are not too hard, I could try breaking it down in size using the food processor or the blender... (hehe, anything to save my seedling)

[RebelCowgirl]

That is strange looking medium, what size are your coco chips?

[Rema]

The coco chips I have are about 2 to 5 centimeters, they are more like pieces of the dry coconut shell, rather than chips...

[RebelCowgirl]

That is pretty large, for a seedling I think sphrag would be best but if you can't get it go for the bark.

[Rema]

Ok, so I unpoted the plant, I think the roots look good. I've had an idea: Since the ants don't actually hurt the orchid I'm boiling the old medium for a few minutes, then I'll rinse it real good and pot the seedling back in it until I can buy proper seedling media. Is this a good idea?

[rcb]

Rema,

yes, I think even that size plant will be fine for a few days, maybe not a week or so, just water it in the empty pot when you see the roots dry out.

BTW - the current stuff looks like tree fern fiber.

I personally wouldn't use large chunks of bark for a seedling, and myself I wouldn't reuse old media. IMO, just a bad habit to begin.

Actually, since you live in Brazil, I'm not sure what part Londrina is in, but would mounting it be an option for you?

[katrina]

Reme -- if you're finding bark and chc chunks locally that probably means it's a good growing medium for your climate. The mix that I'm seeing in your picture looks like a mix of tree fern fiber and small/fine bark.

Renee is 100% right...it's not going to hurt the plant to sit in a pot w/out medium for a couple/few days. If I'm not mistaken, your climate is pretty humid so a good spraying once a day will be fine until you find the medium you want to use.

I divided a plant more than 2 weeks ago and I still have a piece of it sitting in a pot w/a few strands of sphagnum. I water it once a day and it's not only making new roots but it's sprouting 2 new growths. Catts are tough. Remember...they grow in trees in nature = no pot. It'll be fine.

As for the ants...a few won't hurt but the infestation you are describing sounds extreme and Renee is also right in that a large infestation can do damage. That's just the N American ants...who knows what some of the many, many, many species of ants in S America might do to plants.

[Rema]

Thank you all very much for all your replies. Having read many of your threads before I feel very confident I can rely on your advices.
I have boiled the old media, rinsed it and potted the seedling back in it. I'll try and find new medium soon.
Brazil is indeed a tropical country with usually high humidity, however where I live it's been very dry for the last few months, I have to water my other vase plants every day, or the leaves get droopy.
As for mounting I'd love to, but so far I was not able to mount anything, not even dens that we can see on the trees by the streets everywhere, so I'm gessing I'd need some moss to hold some moisture. I even had my husband drag home a few tree branches, now I need to convince him to cut them.
Once again, thanks for your help and I'll try to post any uptades.

[koshki]

Rema (btw, welcome to Orchid Geeks!), I got some great advice about growing catt seedlings in this thread: Questions about catt seedlings

I've been meaning to post an update on my catt seedlings...I potted them all up in sphag and tree fern fiber (the stuff you just boiled), and they are doing great!