Prevention of orchid rot and mastery of topdressing methods of edible fungi

Orchid pests mostly feed on the surface of the plant, while orchid rot is the opposite. It penetrates the surface of the tissue and then spreads, destroying the internal tissues of the plant. Therefore, spraying chemicals on the surface after infection has begun is usually not as effective as destroying pests. If possible, the parts of the plant infected with mould and bacterial rot should be completely removed and destroyed, and then sprayed with chemicals or soaked in suitable chemical solutions, mainly to prevent further infection of the remaining tissues.

The key to dealing with orchid rot and its diseases is to prevent penetration and the onset of infection. These pathogens are ubiquitous in the environment in which they grow, but they are outside the plant body and are easily controlled by the actions of the orchid breeder, who can use various methods to reduce the possible infection caused by this rot disease. Because the pathogen penetrates the surface, moist conditions are needed to succeed. Then we should try to reduce the time that the plant is really wet. In fact, when watering, it is inevitable that the water will not stay on the leaves. However, if watering is carried out early in the day, or if the water has optimal evaporation conditions, the time that the water stays on the surface of the plant will be greatly reduced. The fluency of the air is naturally more conducive to the formation of such conditions. However, every effort should be made to avoid splashing water from one plant to another when watering, as this is the main way of spreading germs. After watering, the plants should be gently shaken to remove water from the tops, leaves, and young plants, otherwise water will remain on the plants for some time even in dry conditions. When it is a dark winter day and the climate does not promote rapid evaporation of water, watering measures must be reduced.

For the prevention of infection and rot of roots and underground stems below the surface, it should be protected from long-term wet conditions, rot of potted plants, or excessive watering, which will cause a black rot infection. Therefore, changing pots is one of the good ways to prevent infection. In addition, good cultivation practices, such as frequent use of sterilized tools to cut branches and leaves, keep the cut openings on the plants clean, and also help prevent infection. Personally, I found that using cheap lighters on the market to burn knives or scissors is a convenient and fast disinfection method. Other methods such as boiling water, or 2% formalin, or Clorox aqueous solution to soak scissors, or cutting blades, will not be used a second time after use.(If you want to use again, you must use it after disinfection), are good disinfection methods, if the use of unclean scissors to cut orchids, will spread the bacteria to all plants, in the plant cut wound is the most likely to provoke infectious diseases, so experienced orchid farmers, often with some materials to seal the wound, to block the way of infection, or in the wound on some disinfectant powder (such as sulfur powder, raw powder). Others use a hot blade to sear the cut surface. General environmental hygiene, such as removing dead branches and leaves, or orchid plants with infectious diseases, also reduces the possibility of infection and can achieve the purpose of preventing infection.

In the cultivation of orchids, bacterial or fungal decay still occurs from time to time, even if various precautions are taken. Therefore, the orchid grower should pay special attention to the cold, dark and wet conditions of the farm in winter, because this is the time when decay occurs most frequently, as mentioned above (of course, it also occurs in warm weather). The victims of this disease may be small seedlings and meristems, which are destroyed in their infancy. Although we do not say that all healthy and flowering plants rarely die, the smaller and weaker the general type of seedlings, it is more likely to encounter fatal attacks. Especially those who grow in aggregation pots are the objects of infection. In the center of these aggregation pots, a core of plant material appears, which is the last to dry out and the first to decay, usually the top is the oldest, and the false bulbs produced are the most fragile. Black rot or root rot takes advantage of this favorable situation, so many seedlings lose their ecology and even life at the beginning of growth.

Finally, a preventive programme for putrefaction should generally include regular spraying of chemicals to combat fungal wilt and bacterial putrefaction of seedlings. Readers are advised to use "corn flour", 600 times per gram of water, sprayed on plants once a month as a preventive maintenance of plants. So there's a protective layer on the surface of the plant, and it's eliminated before the disease starts to spread.