My Den. has the flu...or something?

[janice]

I have a den. that had 6 to 8 stalks..............at the end of last summer I noticed one of the stalks without leaves was rotting at the base.....this den. is in S/H. I also noticed a younger Lc. and a Ctna. doing the same. I cut back the rotted area and treated with cinnamon. The Den. and Ctna. have been doing well and I can see numerous new roots - the Lc. did not make it. This morning I went to water and noticed the Den. again was rotting/mushy around the area I had cut back.................also noticed a small whitish bug. I thought it was really hard to have root rot with S/H................so am I dealing with some kind of bug or is the bug showing up because of root rot. I cut off the rotted area again and treated with cinnamon.............Any advice out there.............................thanks!

[digitalgate]

sorry about the rot. There is a few post about S/H. Some curse and swear it. Some
recommend it. You take a look around and make a small statistical count. You know why
i hate the method.

[janice]

I may be cursing it right now...............but I switched a lot of my orchids over to S/H last year.....and have been really pleased with it overall.....................my growing environments in the winter months are not great.............................do you know if the buggie thing is a result of having the root rot.................and not causing it?

[jay]

Janice,

I am a big S/H fan, but there are some things that I have learned that are very important. In the S/H you have to have good air movement. Because of the constant moisture you can't let any air go stagnant around the plant or it will begin to rot. I had an Onc. that started to go soft, got bugs, then rotted away. I lost part of another one sitting right next to it. I found out that where I had them they were not getting any airflow from my fan. I lost the first one, but saved the second with an increase in air flow.

Hope this helps.

Jay

[evagentry]

It would help if you could describe the bug, there was a post the other day about a bug, if yours looks like this one than probablythey are there because of the rot not the cause of it, these bugs are small, white and move fast.

[jay]

I agree with evagentry, I think that the bugs are there due to the plant being weakened by the rot. I had the same thing happen with my Onc.

You stated that you thought it was hard to get root rot in S/H. This is due to oxygen getting to where the roots are. If there is no oxygen the the anaerobic bacteria cause rot. This is how orchids in bark rot if over watered, because air can not get to the roots.

Jay

[kmarch]

I suspect the bug sucked or chewed and the resulting hole gave an opportunity for a fungus or bacteria which resulted in the mush. I'd treat again just as you did before and hope fo rthe best.

[janice]

The bug is small/white/and fast moving..............I will get some air movement going....there are still a lot of good roots so hopefully this will work.......thanks to all!