How to prevent soft rot? Introduction to practical control methods

There are many sources of introduced seedlings: first, wild-collected orchids; second, orchids from fellow orchid growers; third, re-exported orchids. For wild-collected orchids, the concern is southern blight and similar diseases, so there is no need to go into detail here. Orchids from fellow growers fall into two types: local ones and those from elsewhere. For local introductions, even if the plants are somewhat weak, there is not much of a problem, since after all the environment is the same; with proper disinfection and sterilization and a leaner potting mix, they are easy to keep alive. I have introduced many varieties from local fellow growers, and so far not a single variety has died; basically it is all just normal metabolism. Varieties from elsewhere, however, require more care: you should clearly ask the original owner about their previous growing methods, what kind of potting mix they used, which fertilizers, which fungicides, whether the plants were exposed to rain, and so on; the more detail the better, as it is extremely helpful for the survival of the orchid seedlings after introduction. As for re-exported orchids, some are easy to grow and some are difficult. I think the reasons are as follows: first, some re-exported seedlings come from greenhouses, so their survival rate is much lower; after all, greenhouse conditions are too good, and such orchids are rather delicate. Second, after being re-exported, they are grown in the hands of orchid dealers for a relatively long time, and because dealers frequently ship out goods, their management does not keep up, leading to the invasion of pathogens. Once you buy them and bring them home, the environment changes again, and the disease may break out, causing rapid death. This is not to say that re-exported orchids cannot be introduced, only that you should pay extra attention when introducing them: first, choose strong seedlings; second, do not choose the kind where a single seedling has many new shoots on it. After introduction, they must be strictly disinfected. Controlsoft rotdisease, and in normal times you should also pay attention to alternating the use of several fungicides for disinfection and sterilization. The following are the medicines I normally use: Daconil, Kocide, Nongge, GuanJunQing, Thiophanate-methyl, Thiazole copper, and so on. Every time I introduce new orchids, I must first disinfect and sterilize them before potting them up. The benefits are: first, it disinfects the pruning wounds to prevent new pathogens from invading; second, after the orchid roots absorb some of the medicine, it clears and kills pathogens that may be hidden inside the plant body; third, it strengthensorchids' resistance, so that when growing in a new environment they have a preventive effect against pathogens. Excerpted from "OrchidTreasury" Author: Chongqing Qinghong