Does anyone know how to get housepaint off of orchid leaves?

[susiep]

Can anyone help me? My husband has been painting the outside of the house and he managed to get paint on just about everything. There are fine little droplets all over one of my big phal's leaves. Plus a big blob on the bottom half of a big dendrobium leaf.

I tried rinsing with water, washing with soap and water, and gently rubbing with Goo Gone on a cloth rag. None of those worked.

Anyone have experience with this? Please let me know if you have removed paint without damaging the plant.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The only thing that I know of that removes paint effectively is either paint thinner or acetone. I don't know how safe they are with plants though.

[kavanaru]

if it is not too much paint, I would leave that way... the risk of harming the plant would be too high and not worth the work...

(I am assuming it is oil based paint, as you could not clean it with water/soap)

[billc]

I don't know if it works on paint, but maybe rubbing alcohol? Acetone and mineral spirits will not be good for the plants. I don't think the paint will harm the plants themselves.
Personally, I'm more concerned about your husband. The poor guy will never hear the end of this.

Bill

[cneos]

Originally Posted by billc

I don't know if it works on paint, but maybe rubbing alcohol? Acetone and mineral spirits will not be good for the plants. I don't think the paint will harm the plants themselves.
Personally, I'm more concerned about your husband. The poor guy will never hear the end of this.

Bill

Probably the only harm the paint has done is to ruin the leaves appearance. You could try lemon juice and an EXTREMELY FINE emery cloth, but if it was my plant, I'd wait a month or two until the paint is well-hardened and then gently scrape it off with my fingernail. Whatever you do, avoid scratching the surface of the leaf as this will do more harm than a few drops of paint.

[Gin]

I would leave it if not water based . I have a couple of old plants prob . 11 years ago my husband did the same with paint ..
I slopped some water based stain on a sharry got most of it off by soaking the leaf in water . At first I thought Rot !then realized what it was . Gin

[susiep]

Thanks everyone! Nothing is taking it off so I guess rather than do more damage I will have to live with it for the next few years!

[Ray]

Latex paint is totally removable with soap and water - until it dries and the polymer chains "close up". Then it is near to impossible to remove.

Don't bother.

[bcub30]

I also have a very rare Phal. Rosie Pixie! What makes it so rare is that is variagated with cobalt blue!!
Nothing you can really do about it actually. Rosie has been this way for at least 3 years. No damage to the plant but it does make folks stop and ask what the pretty blue on is !


Scott

[kavanaru]

well, if it is latex paint, you can at least re.label your plants as "var. kinky"

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/a...29_738900a.jpg