Soap bath question

[DonnaH]

I have the ingredients down for brookn's bath, but I'm not sure of the proceedure.

Do you soak the orchid in the bath just as you would for watering? Do you then spray the plant and finally drain and rinse the bath with plain water to get the soap out of the roots? There are new green roots near the surface.

My Den is continuing to sprout like crazy, but the little black spots continue to appear on different leaves and when I wiped one of them off with a wet cotton ball, a black dust/soot came off.

I'm worried.

[patticake]

Some photos would sure help! I use brookn's recipe for a spray on the plants, and once in a while, I spray the medium really well. I don't do it more than once a week, (like for soil gnats.) It pretty much clears them up after about three applications. Then I bring home some more chids with the gnats... The watering in between is enough to flush out any excess. I hope this helps a little!

[DonnaH]

It helps a lot!

Thanks

[solay]

You can also soak the whole pot in the solution to get rid of snails and other creepy crawlies that hiding in the medium. Sometimes you'll get bug and slug damage but can't find them. They will just float up or start trying to swim out. Usually most of them gets killed on contact.
You can then rinse in clean water when you're sure they bugs are all dead. Works pretty well.

[tansyflower]

CAn orchids get sooty mold?

[Brooke]

Tansy yes they can and it's probably what Donna has on the plant.

Brooke

[DonnaH]

Do you know what causes sooty mold? Does the soap/cinnamon solution reslove this problem too? If not, what should I do?

I know I'm asking a lot of questions and I really appreciate your answers. Thanks

[Brooke]

For me, sooty mold will appear in wet conditions. The soap/cinnamon solution applied to the leaves should kill the mold plus an increase in air circulation around the plant.

Brooke