all though i don't really know, I'm sure it's possible

bake at 450 for 3 hours you should be good. also a good idea to wash with a 25% bleach solution before jamming it in the oven.

=) have fun
Gaston

I would use bleach. Just soak it for a few hours and let it air dry. You could stick it in the dishwasher I suppose as the detergent has bleach in it. I use Clorox Clean-up which has bleach.

Gastons suggestion sounds good also. Might smell weird, but what the heck -- its for the plants.

Jane

i forgot to mention that you should probably rinse before the oven XD lol yeah that would probably smell kinda funky

i was also thinking that an over night soak in physan would prove effective. but the problem in that lies in any contaminants finding their way into the small cracks of stones and water trays, on a similar note i do know that it takes extreme heat to effectively sterilize things. and this comes from the knowledge i gained while working growing orchids from seed

A bleach solution is fine. Or a solution of Phsysan to disinfect pots and rocks etc. I don't know how a virus was spread through the rocks or saucer unless you had a virused plant on it before. There might be another vector that infected your plant. Sucking insects like aphids that can possible travel from plant to plant or slugs can become a vector. Or you might have infected the plant by cutting it with an un-sterilized blade. I always flame sterilize my cutting tools with a propane blowtorch till red hot. Or your plant may have been virused when you got it.

toyo has it right.

You could do all those things to the saucers and rocks and it will make pretty much no difference at all. Not because it won't work to kill the viri, if they're really there (i doubt), but because plant-borne virus are not transmitted via air or touch. Ok if the plant had an open wound it *could* be transmitted by touch i suppose, but basically as toyo said, bugs biting into the plant tissues is how virus gets spread, or from cutting tools.

You cannot get rid of virus. They, and bacteria, are everywhere. There's only really two that affect orchids I think...tobacco mosaic and one other one. The rest really aren't worth worrying about. I'd be a lot more worried about bugs and general cultural conditions than virus.

The fact is, plants are no different than anything else that gets infected by pathogens. They have systems in place to deal with invaders and if the plant is generally healthy, it should be able to fight off any virus that might attack it. They fight them off by isolating them by surrounding them with dead tissue, thus preventing them spreading farther into the leaf. Sometimes the plant cells at the base of a leaf will 'sense' the problem and undergo changes resulting in the entire leaf dropping off as a defense against the pathogen spreading to the rest of the plant.

I personally think virus contamination is the most overrated 'problem' in the orchid growing hobby. Bugs, bad water, improper temps, and similar things are far more likely to hurt and/or kill an orchid than a virus. Pretty much the worst thing a virus is going to do will be to make the flowers look weird or maybe cause the leaves to be ugly. If you're not a breeder or plan to display the plant at a show, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Thanks, everyone. This plant arrived w/ weird coloration on the leaves. When an experienced, local grower looked at it under a microscope as a favor and said it had a virus, I sent pix to the vendor, but he thought it was okay.

A few months later, the local person said it still had a virus. I'd never Kev'ed a kid then and was reluctant to let it go. Recently, Kevin said it got easier as you went along. He was right, and tonight was the night. Now the only decisions are about the stones and the saucer.

WC8

The "worst virus" is TMV Tobacco Mosaic Virus or Color Break virus. The virus causes discoloration, streaking both light and dark in the flower. Leaves will show dark necrotic or colored ringspots like Odont ringspot virus. Or there will be purplish streaking and discoloration on the undersides of new leaves. Cybmidium Mosiac Virus (CyMV) usually causes yellow then necrotic streaking in leaves. It usually doesn't affect the flower, however, it ages it quickly and sometimes dark sunken necrotic areas will form on an old fading flower.
Aphids, crawling insects, and slugs can be vectors for virus. But in most cases it is human negligence. Cutting with an unsterilized tool. Also, never soak bareoot plants together in the same bucket, or dunk plants into a pesticide solution one after the other; virus can be spread that way. If you have to use pesticides, get a good hudson sprayer and use a good systemic insecticide. I wash and scrub my used plastic pots in a solution of Physan. Kills virus on contact. I also spray my orchids a solution of Physan to keep the boltrytis down in the winter months. I wouldn't dip my tools in bleach, Physan or TSP. It ruins and corrodes the blades. I used a standard propane blowtorch and flame sterilize my cutting tools for several minutes till it gets red hot to use them between each plant. IF you suspect virus immediately, don't buy the plant. Also, if you do buy it and are uncomfortable, have a lab do a quick assay of it. Then send a copy of the test (if it's positive) to the vendor indicating that he or she has sold you a virused plant. Do this quickly.
Virus spread rather slowly and there is a certain amount of incubation time before it manifests itself. But if you are suspicious and the vendor guarantees virus free plants, and your plant seems sick, get it tested quickly.

Toyo, thanks for the good info. I follow the procedures you mention for good orchid hygiene. About bleach - I was leaving pots, stones, stakes, etc. in the solution for so long at a time that the stainless steel pot corroded right through. :) WC8

The local plant guy looked at it under a microscope? that must be some microscope...Viruses can be seen but it takes VERY powerfull equipment to do so and most microscopes you find being used by the average user are not going to be anywhere near powerfull enough to positively identify a virus. Viruses are so small that they neatly fit inside a cell, then they take over that cells ability to reproduce..hijaking the reproductive activities inside the nucleus of that cell. Afterwards they begin to replicate and produce many copies of themselves all within the confines of the host cell. Finally when there is no more room inside they burst out of the cell killing it and all the copies scatter to find a new host cell to hijack. Viruses are so small that hundreds to thousands can fit with in a single cell. I say this to illustate why I say what i do about doubting your plant guys ability to id the virus positively. He may have expieience with viral infections in plants and used that info to make his descision but untill you send off a sample to a lab and let the experts run a few tests you can not be certain.