[cattlover]

<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="alt2" style="border: 1px inset ;">Originally Posted by lja
Sounds like some kind of mold. I've never heard of mold harming mature plants but, just in case, pick off as much as you can, push some of the medium away from the base of the plant, and wipe the plant's base with either a five percent solution of bleach and water or some listerine..... That should keep the stuff away. (!!)
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WOW! So mold isn't BAD? That sounds great. I think I had mold at the bottom of my chid pots and I use a pretty drainable medium--well, at least i THINK i do! It's orchid potting mix by shultz--charcoal, bark, stone (the ceramic kind?). Anyway, I'm sure some of you are familiar with it. Well, I bought some sphagnum at the HD yesterday because one of my blc's needs TLC--it's kinda small, it does have roots, but I'm worried about it cause its leaves are getting leathery and kinda wrinkled...
Anywho, I soaked the sphag in rootone with fungicide and made the medium half that and the mix. Then I got the instinct to look at the other chids and they all had this fuzzy white growth at the bottom of the pots along the mix, too. Well, long story a little shorter, I washed the mediums and pots completely with boiling hot water and hydro-peroxide (also, the pots with bleach). I also did the sphag method with these as with the blc. Will this be sufficient? Are there any household mold killers/deterrents? I dn't think i tend to overwater, I have a windowsill humidity tray with blue rock gravel lining it, so there is water in it. I sit my pots on them. And I thought the mix drained easily...and I have a ceiling fan, so....I'm worried and clueless.
I water maybe 1x a week...maybe 2x. Every 4-5 days. I have tried the sphag/bag method with very little success--mold again...

Oh, and I dipped the roots in the rootone as well...
M

[uncasteeb]

The mold may be "snow mold" , this usually occurs when th mixture is breaking down or it isn,t draining properly.

House old bleach is good at killing the mold but it doesn,t do 'chids much good.
Never experienced mold myself so i,m only going on what i,ve read !

[PAGrower]

Sorry, cattlover -- I've never had mold, either.