A Detailed Guide to the Characteristics and Control Methods of Bacterial Soft Rot in Orchids

Characteristics: Common in the rainy season in early summer; mainly infects young shoots and pseudobulbs, causing water-soaked lesions that lead to rot; pseudobulbs shrivel; develops rapidly with a high mortality rate. Control: 1. Block the source: disinfect new plants, new soil and new pots. 2. Prevent early: routinely water with 1 part streptomycin to 2000 parts water once every half a month to a month. 3. Treatment: pull up the affected plant, cut away the diseased tissue (fellow orchid growers, be ruthless - the more you cut away, the better), soak in 1 part potassium permanganate to 1000 parts water (the color of amaranth soup) for 5 minutes, rinse clean with fresh water, coat the wounds with cigarette ash, and replace with disinfected soil. Plant in a pot. Water with 1 part streptomycin to 2000 parts water, then water again one week later. (Discard the original soil, and heat the original pot over a liquefied gas stove until hot before reusing it.)