deep and persistent fungal infection- when do I just give up?
I have 2 sick phals which to be honest are taking up more time than the rest of my 'chids put together. Both of them were gifts, and I suspect from the same local supermarket.
Within days, it was obvious that one had a fungal infection, so I repotted,disinfected, did all the things I'm supposed to do, very thoroughly. The roots weren't great, but still OK for a supermarket phal. In less than a week, however, significant balls of fungus were visible through the pot, (like 1"/ 3 cm across) and it has been like this for the past month maybe. I spray everyday with fungicide, and every time the problem seems sorted, another ball crops up somewhere else.
The other one just had bad root rot from the store, so I cared for it with the KLN and rested it on bark chips to get some more roots (it had 3 passable ones left). This one, however is now badly infested with fruit flies/ fungus gnats which it must have carried with it given the state of its root system. This makes me think that there may well be a fungal infection there too!
The thing is that both of these phals seem to be clinging to life- the second ones leaves have definitely improved, so I'm reluctant to bin just yet, but it is difficult keeping them isolated from my other chids in my small flat. At the risk of sounding an orchid snob, I also don't want to waste any more decent potting medium and expensive chemicals on 2 fairly worthless plants.
Should I just give up? Or should I wait until they decide to die? Or is there some sort of miracle cure I've yet to find? I can't quite bring myself to throw them in the bin!
Thanks!
Kay
|
Linear Mode
