Okay, I have two Sorcerer's Apprentice phrags. The have several growths and already finished blooming on the biggest growth. One of them is in straight diatomite, and the other is in a mixture of bark/sphag/perlite/charcoal. They seem to be equally happy from what I can see above ground. I am really considering switching the bark mixture to diatomite also because the bark mix seems to be growing an amazing amount of fuzzy stuff! What the heck is all this and do I even want to know what kind of fungus is among us? :cheeky: I assume this is a pretty common problem with plants that have to stay wet. What should I do, spray with some sort of insecticide or fungicide? Or just say to hell with it and repot into diatomite???

Is it green? It is probably just moss, it will not harm the plant. Unless it takes over the whole pot.

Can we see a photo?

If it's algae, Park Bear mentioned using barley straw steeped in water in the Hsinying Alien S/H thread on the first or secong page:
http://www.slipperorchidforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=958&start=15

I tend to get algae in my S/H pots.

Ok...I don't think it's algae, it's definitely a fungus. I had sort of been poking around in the pot so I kind of destroyed the overall effect. But here is a picture of a patch of it. If left for a couple of days this white fuzzy stuff covers the whole top of the plant, and it also goes down into the medium. When I poked around there were tiny almost microscpic bugs scattering. I think they are fungus gnat babies or something equally repulsing.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a93/tdrollo/2005_0920Image0003.jpg

and here is the other one that is in the same growing space and in diatomite. Soooo clean and pristine (almost like all Heather's stuff).

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a93/tdrollo/2005_0920Image0005.jpg

It isn't moss, I think it is mold! I would definitely use a fungicide of some sort. I would repot it first. Almost as clean as Heathers.....HA!

That's better Tadd and Theresa! :whip:

I'd repot!! Yucko!
Incidentally, the pot that crashed today is my "no-repotting" experiment. Roots looked great, there was moss growing, and the media wasn't really very broken down at all, at least towards the top. It has a lot of algae, and I still plan to repot after this blooming. But I never repotted it after the last and it came in that bloom from the grower, so it could have been in there quite some time.

Ok that's what I thought! It looked like an unfriendly growth to me. The palnt is now sans pot, roots look ok, only a couple of squishy ones and many many firm ones. I have it soaking in a solution of physan while I go ride my horsey. When I come home I'll put it in a fresh pot with fresh diatomite! Thanks for your help. Hmmmm, I wonder if it need MORE LIGHT???? :poke:

Hmmmm, I wonder if it need MORE LIGHT????

How about more air? An oscillating fan blowing across the plants do them a world of good.

I think there is plenty of air. A fan blows 24/7, and everything dries out in a few days. I even wonder if there might be too much airflow and I move some plants around to keep them from drying out too fast. I keep this plant wet since the Sorcerer seems to like it wet. Apparently the mold also likes it wet! Now it is happily repotted in diatomite so no more mold!

Maybe put it in the diatomite or LECA rock of some kind. Mixes will grow molds and fungus if kept wet sometimes. I would put it inot a S/H mix like the other one and let it keep itself wet.