I had a thought last night and I want to run it by the gang. I've been hard at work the last few days repotting several of my orchids. I am using mostly new clay orchid pots but sometimes I recycle the old pots as well. When I have an old dirty pot, I soak it over night in a chlorine solution to sterilize it and help remove old roots. So, here is my thought: Why not add fungicide to the water I soak the pots in? You can do this with new pots as well, sans the chlorine. Then, why not soak the new bark in a fungicide solution too? You could poke a few holes in the bag the bark comes in and plop it in the solution. This way you get a head start against the dreaded black rot. Finally, add a little cinnamon and you're good to go.

Your thoughts:

Jim

Orchiata is my thought!

I know Orchiata has calcium and magnesium in it but I don't think it has a fungicide. Also, it costs about $20 for half a cubic foot. Considering how many HD bags I went through this afternoon, that would be pricy.

Jim

I have soaked my potting medium with Bayer's Rose and Flower Care (Insecticide, Fungicide, Fertilizer in one) on occasion during spring time re-potting. At least it kept some stubborn scale away, coupled with a good clean up first.

I scrub old clay pots with a soap/chlorine bleach (Clorox Clean-up), let them dry out in the sun, which evaporates the chlorine then dunk them in a Physan solution 1/2tsp. per gallon before using them to pot any orchids again. I like to be careful about combining chemicals in case the one cancels out the other, or something . ..

Can't tell if it's helping against the black rot just yet, but it certainly helps keep the pots from growing green algae on the outsides.

Trouble with living in Florida is that every fungus spore known to man is floating around in the lovely warm, humid air, ready to land on the leaves of your plants. I also sprayed my whole pool cage with Physan after it was power-washed last September. I do think that slowed down the incidence of black rot starting. I didn't have any new cases after the cleaning/spraying. Just had to battle with the ones already infected.

Jim, orchiata doesn't break down and rot easily.

Orchiata is a really great potting media. But it is very expensive. When I only had a handful of orchids, that's what I used. I don't use it now because I go through so many cubic feet of mixture each year and the cost would be prohibitive. I probably go though a total of 20 cf of my four main components for my orchids. IF I only had a few plants to re-pot, I would not hesitate using Orchiata. I like my mixture (for most of my orchids) of 1/2 (fine, medium, or coarse) heat-treated, Douglas fir bark and equal amounts of horticultural charcoal (fine or medium), expanded rock, and medium chunks of coconut fiber to make up the other 1/2. I also use this to augment the potting soil mix for my other tropical plants.

Everyone has their favorite mixture, but I have had good results with the mix I use.