How often should fungicides be applied?

[Ricardo in PR]

How often fungicides destined to protect the leaves of Paphiopedilums against fungus and botrytis should be applied?

[K Barrett]

What are you using and what's the recommendation on the lable? Assuming you can still read the original lable.

[raybark]

The only preventive treatments I do is a Physan (1 tsp/gal) or bleach (1 oz/gal) spraying every 4- to 6 weeks, primarily to keep algae at bay, but it keeps other fungi quashed, as well.

[Ricardo in PR]

I have not brought yet any fungicide, although I am considering buying Cleary 3336. The subject will be two Paph. sanderianum, one Paph. Prince of Wales and a Paph. phillippinense that used to bloom with seven inflorescences and sometimes produced almost 50 flowers. The leaves of all these plants have become much marked by fungus and botrytis spotted and their health has deteriorated.

[raybark]

If you're going to use a systemic as a curative treatment, definitely follow the instructions on the label.

[Ricardo in PR]

In order to assuage everybody concerns about my use of the fungicide I want to clarify that I plan to be ultra pusillanimously careful on following the instructions on the label. However my question doesn't have anything to do with dosage or thee way one applies the fungicide. I want to know with which frequency growers apply fungicide to their plants so that fungus stays under control and you get those beautiful unspotted leaves that you see on exhibition plants. How often do you apply it? Every month? Once a week? twice a year?

[K Barrett]

Originally Posted by Ricardo in PR

I have not brought yet any fungicide, although I am considering buying Cleary 3336. The subject will be two Paph. sanderianum, one Paph. Prince of Wales and a Paph. phillippinense that used to bloom with seven inflorescences and sometimes produced almost 50 flowers. The leaves of all these plants have become much marked by fungus and botrytis spotted and their health has deteriorated.

Well I'm going to be the contrarian here and suggest that the fungus might be an indication of greater problems - that is to say root problems. If all the paphs in and around these 4 plants are healthy then you gotta wonder what's up with these guys? Sometimes broken or fractured roots allow bacteria and fungi to enter the plant through these breaks and wear the plant down. Plants that produce up to 50 flowers sound (to me) like they are specimen sized, and (maybe I should speak for myself) I'm loathe to repot a specimen sized plant. Or maybe last time you repotted you repotted into some medium the plants don't like or maybe a helper repotted these too firmly and broke more roots than they thought? Or maybe you decided to start standing them in water and they didn't like it. I dunno, I'm just guessing here. These are all from the same section of Paphiopedilum (IIRC, I could be wrong), so I'm going with potting & culture rather than creeping crud. I'd repot. Maybe Physan the roots though that's not my usual habit. I usually depend on the fact that I got the plant out a cruddy medium and they should breathe easier, sending out new roots and shoots.

Just my 2 cents.

[vvsjon]

fungicides must be applied properly over plant surfaces. These three rules depend on making correct decisions based on correct knowledge. Too many people simply spray and pray, and are often disappointed with the results.