{"id":13149,"date":"2012-09-25T06:40:34","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T14:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/?p=13149"},"modified":"2012-12-11T23:20:48","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T07:20:48","slug":"sanitize-pots-tools-to-prevent-plant-viruses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/25\/sanitize-pots-tools-to-prevent-plant-viruses\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanitize Pots, Tools to Prevent Plant Viruses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www2.journalnow.com\/lifestyles\/2012\/sep\/21\/sanitize-pots-tools-to-prevent-plant-viruses-ar-2625306\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Winston-Salem Journal<\/em> posts a thorough response to an orchid virus question.<\/a> The column covers a lot of details, including how to kill orchid viruses by sanitizing pots and clippers with a 10% bleach \/ 90% water solution. Streaked colors on flowers and deformed growth might mean an orchid virus has infected a plant, and that&#8217;s bad news. Orchid viruses have no cure. Some plants may continue to grow and bloom while infected, but most will eventually fade and die. The usual fate is to throw away the infected orchid.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The question of whether a diseased plant should be kept depends on the owner. For a casual grower with just a few plants, it probably isn&#8217;t a big deal. But for a serious grower with a valuable collection, a single infected specimen is a threat to the entire plant population.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The best remedy is prevention. Sterilize pots, clippers, and any tool before it comes in contact with an orchid. Wash your hands before working with an orchid, especially if you have just touched another plant. Do not reuse <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/care\/details\/water.html\">water<\/a> or allow it to drip from one plant to another. Do not reuse <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/care\/details\/potting.html\">potting material<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Test kits are available for the 2 most common virus types, but they are pricey, and they require precise handling. However, they can help to identify infected plants before disease spreads to other orchids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Winston-Salem Journal posts a thorough response to an orchid virus question. The column covers a lot of details, including how to kill orchid viruses by sanitizing pots and clippers with a 10% bleach \/ 90% water solution. Streaked colors on flowers and deformed growth might mean an orchid virus has infected a plant, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-problems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13149"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13159,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13149\/revisions\/13159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}