In our family we have allergies to chemicals, including herbicides and pesticides. I grow 200 orchids indoors in the winter. Many of these go out into the greenhouse in the summer. So, chemicals in my house is not okay. I use these products.

Dawn Dish soap, Peroxide, Cinnamon, Rubbing alcohol

Dawn dish soap:

With 1 tablespoon in a spray bottle, 8 ounces with warm water, sprayed on your orchid that has mealy bugs, will suffocate the mealy bugs. Some people add a little oil, like cooking oil. Do not spray on blooms if you can help it. Most mealy bugs are on the soft stems of new blooms. Do this once per week, for at least two weeks. I also take the bottle and pour the soapy water over the media and count it as that week’s watering. It kills all bugs in the media. Most orchids will go on to bloom. You recognize mealy bugs by clear droplets on the new stems that when touched are sticky. Spray your orchid and separate the infected orchid from the other orchids. Mealy bugs can travel across a room, so keep watching for these clear droplets that look like water drops. Wash your hands thoroughly, or take off your gloves and get new gloves if you have touched a sick orchid.

 Rubbing alcohol to clean tools.

If you have one moisture meter and you put it into several plants, spray off the probe and wipe clean with a paper towel after each plant. You can easily pass illness from one plant to another with your hands or tools.

When cutting back orchids, always clean between plants. Any tool you use with one plant, should be cleaned before you go on to another plant.

 Peroxide mixed with water, ½ and ½.

Use this for white mold that is powdery. It will fizz on the leaves and that is good. Use it once per week for three weeks and keep that plant and all plants with bugs or disease away from all your other orchids. I spray both the top and the bottom of the leaves. This also works on brown spots and other diseases. The brown spots will not go away but they will stop spreading. When mixing peroxide with water, only store for one week and throw out. The plastic in all bottles with peroxide, rubbing alcohol, and any strong natural product can deteriorate and make the solution toxic.

Diseases or bugs, cinnamon rubbed on the brown spots will help stop the spread. Cinnamon does deter bugs.

Cinnamon can deter bugs and will help stop the spread of brown spots. The brown spots often spread out meaning elongate or get larger on the leaf but they do not spread. Cinnamon spread lightly on the top layer of media can discourage bugs from reentering the plant. I normally remove the plant, clean off the roots, throw out the media, spray with the peroxide solution on the roots and replant in a clean pot with new media. The old media must be thrown out. The pot must be cleaned throughly. The sick orchid should not be near any other orchids for 1-2 months.