A couple in our orchid society, excellent growers, had their greenhouse cooler fail. They realized it would be a while before they could get it fixed. They asked the society to come get their entire collection.
Their plants were mostly large hanging Vandas and various Catts and Dens in pots 6" / 15cm and larger. They had a large collection of Laelia purpurata varieties, mostly plants from seed from a man who bred purpuratas here.
I wound up with over 40 potted or hanging plants. Very few had labels. Most were L. purpuratas, but also 6 Dens (latouria, nobile, phal), a few intergeneric Oncidiums and various Cattleya hybrids. There are plants from H&R, Hausermann's, Miranda, SVO and tags I don't recognize. Many of the Catts and Laelias are in sheath. Everything has substantial heat damage, so they may not flower this year. I also got a couple of keikiis, pieces and offsets from plants other people took home.
Some plants have dead scale. I don't want to bring pests into my collection. I decided to unpot and dunk all of them. I unpotted them at my trash barrel, removing as much old bark as possible. All the roots are in great shape. Most of the Catt alliance plants are pushing new growths and root nubs, so now is the exact time to repot.
I then put them into 32 gallon / 121 liter trash barrels and a stock tank filled with water and a little liquid soap. Orchids float, so I had to weight them down to keep them submerged. This will kill any insects, snails and eggs. I'm keeping the Oncidium intergenerics separate, since they were commercial mericlones. They're more likely to have virus.
Tomorrow morning I will rise early before work and remove them. I will lay them out in the carport to dry, then bring them into the house. After work I will begin washing them with a toothbrush to remove anything I see. Then I will continue removing old bark, and divide those ready for it. Over the next week I will give them a dunk in Kelpmax and Inococor, then repot. I'll keep them in a separate area in my sunroom, downwind from the evaporative cooler and fans.
When the couple gets their greenhouse up and running, these plants will go back to them. I'll keep smaller divisions.
Dunking in soapy water to kill pests
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