New Orchid Plants Need A Thorough Washing to Halt Pests
As with any plant prized by people, orchids have natural enemies in the form of insects and other small creatures. The main pests are red spiders, cockroaches, thrips, woodlice, ants, and certain slugs and snails.
To grow orchids successfully, you must take measures to defeat these pests before they can damage your plants. Each pest type has at least one and sometimes several specific ways to deal with it. Your best defense against pests of whatever type is simple cleanliness.
Despite the best intentions of agricultrual control regulations, imported plants will often come with pests attached.But pests can be hiding even in the soil or on the roots of the best nursery grown orchids.
Check out any new plant completely before allowing it into your home. Immediately kill all pests that you can find with the naked eye. If you do not, in time they will destroy the foliage, ruining the plant’s appearance if not killing it. The flowers will be destroyed by these marauders, as well — a frustrating situation after you’ve lavised much care and expense on your plant.
You must suspect every new orchid of harboring pests, especially if you have other orchids already in your home. Isolate it in a “probationary” room or structure for a few days. You should waste no time in ridding your plant of any and all insects you happen to find on it.
If you wash every part of your orchid plant, you will leave little opportunity for pests to ecape destruction. The best procedure simply consists of thoroughly and systematically cleaning the bulbs and foliage. Shake the plant out of the pot, cut away all decayed roots, wash the sound roots in clean water and then re-pot in clean containers using new material.
Done efficiently, this is a pretty certain means to get rid of tiny pests that are hard to spot because of their size or coloration. Some pests could be found in the shape of eggs. Others appear as young insects but are so minute that you need a magnifying glass to find them in the foliage. Cleaning plants as outlined above will rid them of all pests, including the ones you can’t visibly spot.
A good guide to orchid growing will have many more tips and suggestions for making sure that a pest doesn’t put an end to your prized plants. The most up-to-date guide to modern orchid care, in the opinion of many, is Orchid Care Expert by Nigel Howard, which can be downloaded from the web. Howard’s wonderful guide will provide a full education on the subject. Also, check out the Orchid Secrets web site, which has a growing database of information on all aspects of orchid cultivation.
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