Regardless of Price
 

What do you consider the best systemic insecticide and the best systemic fungicide on the market today?

That is a tough one, Deb! I'm sure if 50 people respond to this query, you're bound to get 50 different "Best In Show" nominations. My personal fav is Bayer Advanced 3-In-1 Insec, Disease & Mite Control Concentrate. I like it because it has Imidacloprid (Merit) which is great for Aphids, Spider Mites, Whitefly and the larva stage of fungus gnats. It is meant to be used as a topical spray but I spray and soak so the roots take it up into the plant. It also has a fungicide.

2 that I've used with success are, Organocide, a little pricey and, Bayer Rose 3 in 1 systemic. I don't know if they're the best but they work!

I recently tried GardenSafe fungicide spray and that works pretty good as well. As with all fungicides, you need to use a few applications within a 10 day period for it to be effective.

Didn't know that OT, glad you mentioned this. I was using it strictly on all my Dends over the summer. They suffered, big time with fungal issues but this stuff worked great. Didn't try it on the Phals and I could kick myself because I only used the Neem on the Phals because I figured, "what the hell, let's spray everything"... NEVER AGAIN!

I claim sheer stupidty, OT. I had always been skeptical of Neem, have heard the stories but when an orchid vendor recently told me, this will do the trick for scale and that it wouldn't hurt any other orchids as a preventive, that it shines leaves, etc., I went against my own cautious nature and everything else I had heard, figuring I wasn't being steered wrong.

Oh, and I've also noticed on 1 of the Phals affected, yellowing on one of the leaf's...:((

Nah, it's not stupidity. Some things work for some people and not others. I won't use the Neem again on my Phals and neither will you....we've learned. If I must use it then I weaken it.
I rinsed my Phal leaves off with a few drops of Ivory soap in a gallon of water. I've seen no ill effects since. And I use GardenSafe insecticide with Pyrethrins (I probably butchered that spelling) When I had scale on my Catts I had to use the big guns....Bayer Tree & Shrub and Enstar II. Do you have Scale on your Phals???

No scale on my Phals, OT. In fact, there was nothing wrong with them before I used Neem, natta! They were in pristine condition and I'll get them back to that again...it'll just take some time. It's mostly my Dends that get a little problematic during the hottest months and I'll definitely go back to using the Bayer products (systemic) and will try this EnstarII and/or Organocide.

Luckily I've never had any problems on my orchids (knock on wood!) other than some mealies on 1 plant last month. But if I were to treat the orchids in the future, my favorite systemic insecticide so far is Bayers Confidor (imidaclopride). That stuff works miracles on my non orchid plants. As for fungicides, I don't have a favorite since I use different ones based on the type of fungus.