# Will soap or alcohol hurt my opening blooms?



## SFLguy (Feb 9, 2016)

I use a bamboo skewer to measure how moist my Paphs are by keeping it in the medium with them. Today I pulled out one of the skewers and it had a little bit of mold (not too uncommon but it hasn't posed a risk and I usually soak those in alcohol) but was covered with these little brown moving dots. I don't know if they were there for the mold on the bamboo skewer or if there just underground (I saw none on any of the leaves)
I was thinking of soaking it in water and adding some soap or alcohol to kill the bugs but the Paph is almost ready to bloom and I wouldn't want to hurt it now, any ideas?







One of the buds on the Paph


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## Carkin (Feb 9, 2016)

Sounds like soil mites to me, Oribatidae.


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## SFLguy (Feb 9, 2016)

That could very well be them, it'll be a shame if they're harmless but I don't to take the chance, besides, I don't want these guys breaking down the media


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## gonewild (Feb 9, 2016)

If you put enough soap or alcohol on your media to kill soil mites or other walking critters you may very well kill your plant as a result.

If you are thinking of simply dipping the stick in a solution then that amount wont hurt your blooms.

Best to identify what the moving dots are before you try to treat them. Maybe no need to worry about anything.


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## SFLguy (Feb 9, 2016)

gonewild said:


> If you put enough soap or alcohol on your media to kill soil mites or other walking critters you may very well kill your plant as a result.
> 
> If you are thinking of simply dipping the stick in a solution then that amount wont hurt your blooms.
> 
> Best to identify what the moving dots are before you try to treat them. Maybe no need to worry about anything.


I was thinking of dipping the pot in a solution of soap and water or alcohol and water for a bit too kill any bugs and then thoroughly flush it out


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## SFLguy (Feb 9, 2016)

But I guess I'll wait it out and try to get one under a microscope first


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## gonewild (Feb 9, 2016)

Alcohol dip could kill the root tissue and all the beneficial micro organisms.


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## troy (Feb 9, 2016)

What is it?


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## Carkin (Feb 9, 2016)

Is this a new plant?


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## Carkin (Feb 9, 2016)

If it's fairly new, I would be more concerned about what other critters could be lurking. But, if you've had it for a while and just noticed those "little brown dots" (probably soil mites), I wouldn't panic. It might be a sign that it could use a repot but no emergency.


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## cnycharles (Feb 9, 2016)

I think the dots are just after decayed stuff, and aren't going to be the cause of new decay. You could always dump the old media wash roots well and use new media, likely would remove problem. Stick likely will mold, maybe better to store it outside of pot and just check periodically for moisture then keep out (if you're really concerned about any rot)


Elmer Nj


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## SFLguy (Feb 10, 2016)

troy said:


> What is it?


The plant? Paph. callosum
The bugs? Not sure


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## SFLguy (Feb 10, 2016)

Carkin said:


> If it's fairly new, I would be more concerned about what other critters could be lurking. But, if you've had it for a while and just noticed those "little brown dots" (probably soil mites), I wouldn't panic. It might be a sign that it could use a repot but no emergency.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



It's not that new, I've had it since May, I guess I'll repot it after it blooms then, hopefully it's nothing then


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## SFLguy (Feb 10, 2016)

cnycharles said:


> I think the dots are just after decayed stuff, and aren't going to be the cause of new decay. You could always dump the old media wash roots well and use new media, likely would remove problem. Stick likely will mold, maybe better to store it outside of pot and just check periodically for moisture then keep out (if you're really concerned about any rot)
> 
> 
> Elmer Nj



Yeah, I'm not really worried about the mold and the sticks aren't exactly expensive haha


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## SFLguy (Feb 10, 2016)

I'm also not too worried about rot, I grow mine much drier than most apparently


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## Carkin (Feb 10, 2016)

SFLguy said:


> It's not that new, I've had it since May, I guess I'll repot it after it blooms then, hopefully it's nothing then




If you are worried you can keep it away from your other plants until you repot it. It looks like the bloom is already starting to open, I'm looking forward to seeing it fully opened!! I love callosum!!


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## SFLguy (Feb 10, 2016)

Carkin said:


> If you are worried you can keep it away from your other plants until you repot it. It looks like the bloom is already starting to open, I'm looking forward to seeing it fully opened!! I love callosum!!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



I'm calling for it to fully open on Friday though I might get shown up by the little guy and have it by tomorrow haha. The other bud is probably only a couple of days behind this one.

This was already growing isolated from my other plants so I'm not overly worried about it spreading.

If you want a peek at last year's bloom, here you go


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## Carkin (Feb 10, 2016)

Oh, my...I love last years bloom!! That dorsal is outrageous! Now I'm even more excited about seeing this years blooms, two at that! 


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## SFLguy (Feb 11, 2016)

Carkin said:


> Oh, my...I love last years bloom!! That dorsal is outrageous! Now I'm even more excited about seeing this years blooms, two at that!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


The dorsal makes me think of an Elvis haircut, I love it haha


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## NYEric (Feb 11, 2016)

I got some scary dots/mites in a plant I got.  It took me 2 weeks washing and spraying pesticides until I didn't see any more, that might be a lot for your plant to handle. Good luck.


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## Carkin (Feb 11, 2016)

I hate spider mites!!! I've found them on a few of my thinner leaf plants this winter. Finally decided to get out the humidifier, I've been lazy about the low humidity and I think that's been part of the problem.
But what SFLguy is describing doesn't sound like it's effecting the plant just the potting medium.


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## Carkin (Feb 11, 2016)

SFLguy said:


> The dorsal makes me think of an Elvis haircut, I love it haha




So true, lol!!


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## Ozpaph (Feb 11, 2016)

Remember every time you stick the stick into the pot you could be damaging roots and allowing infection in.


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## SFLguy (Feb 12, 2016)

Ozpaph said:


> Remember every time you stick the stick into the pot you could be damaging roots and allowing infection in.


I thought of that when I started using them, I put the stick in softly and don't push if there's any resistance. At this point there's a hole in the medium that is just slightly larger than the skewer. The skewer slides in without even a bit of resistance.


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## SFLguy (Feb 12, 2016)

Carkin said:


> I hate spider mites!!! I've found them on a few of my thinner leaf plants this winter. Finally decided to get out the humidifier, I've been lazy about the low humidity and I think that's been part of the problem.
> But what SFLguy is describing doesn't sound like it's effecting the plant just the potting medium.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


They're definitely not spider mites. I found those on one very small plant that I was able to control for


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## NYEric (Feb 12, 2016)

Are they little, black, round to oval, mites and if you look closely you can see their little legs!?


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## paph_deb (Feb 12, 2016)

I don't know anything about mites, but I love that bloom! What a fabulous showing! I hope my callosum does that well when it flowers ... one day ...


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## Carkin (Feb 12, 2016)

SFLguy said:


> They're definitely not spider mites. I found those on one very small plant that I was able to control for




That's good! What you were describing didn't sound anything like spider mites. I still think what you have is just soil mites.
How's the bloom coming along?!


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## SFLguy (Feb 13, 2016)

Carkin said:


> That's good! What you were describing didn't sound anything like spider mites. I still think what you have is just soil mites.
> How's the bloom coming along?!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


It's open but the dorsal hasn't finished curling so I'm letting that happen before taking a picture haha


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## SFLguy (Feb 13, 2016)

NYEric said:


> Are they little, black, round to oval, mites and if you look closely you can see their little legs!?


They're small enough that I can't distinguish if they're ovals or circles


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## SFLguy (Feb 14, 2016)

Posted a picture in its own thread


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