I think I'm having the same problem. Do your black things look like the ones in my close-up picture? I am trying to identify these, too. They are on my milkweed plants and green beans. (This is my first post. Hope I linked the pic correctly.) Here is a link that might be useful: bug photo

I think Kate misunderstood me. The public looked at me as BAD, NOT you. This happened 15 years ago when I was spraying my roses with chemicals. A neighbor walked to me and said, "why do you even bother growing roses with all these spraying?" It's even worse now, like the protest of bee keepers in France against Bayer. My observations do not apply to anyone else, since it's different with them. If I live in a hot area, I would pile up the bark mulch. But I live in a wet area - where it's more conductive to fungi growth. My defense is with the OGR and the fragrant Austins. These get the bad rap of black-spot prone, poor disease resistance - and less people bother to grow them. I did not want to buy Radio Times and Wise Portia because of the bad reports about their poor disease resistance. They were the only ones available, so I had no choice. Now both I and the bees enjoy these. I have never seen any bees on Knock-outs. We tend to reject certain roses as being disease prone, rather than seeing what we can do to protect them. The fault lies in us, and not in the roses. How did these old fragrant rose flourish in the old days without chemicals? Chemicals get the bad rap. Roses get the bad rap as NEEDING chemicals. Then Knock-outs take over the land. I'm trying to find a way to break this cycle, making roses to be more environmentally friendly. Lainey2: you don't have to dig down to get to the bottom. It's a big pile higher than a house. Actually it's easier to get the bottom, most aged stuff, since it's at your height. You would have to climb up a big mountain to get the fresh manure on top.

Well, the concept of 'tank mixes ' is geared for those who are protecting agricultural crops, orchards, nurseries, golf courses, and similar. The directions for combinations are pretty explicit. And that's pretty much the extent of my experience. The efficacy of mixing ready-to-use products is really out of my comfort zone. My sense of it is that the end result would be diluted....with the active ingredient in each being diluted with twice as much carrier (water) . It's not something that I would suggest. In this particular example, I'd be tempted to use the spinosad as directed and add a very small amount of a horticultural oil as a sticker. Oils are often used that way. Since we are both talking about mixing stuff together, it's probably a good idea to mention that these combinations can't be made with everything. Some 'brews ' can end up being downright dangerous, either for us or for the plant...or both.

I’m glad to hear your opinion Jane. From all appearances the roots look ok, so I think I’ll dive into repotting and then isolation. I do like an occasional challenge! I always enjoy your posts. I’m a NY born, S FL raised girl and got my start in orchids there when I was very young. Grew them outside on trees, etc. many many years ago. Moved to N FL then back south again to Ft. Lauderdale. Probably had close to 50 until hurricane Wilma wiped us out in 2005 and we had 3 storms go through that season. We moved to N. GA in 2010 after retirement and I slowly started acquiring phals. Hubby built on a sunroom for me to winter them but now I keep them in all year and they do great! I just have 10 and 1 paph. Funny I couldn’t grow a Phal to save my life when in FL! Ha! ;-) I do miss growing orchids of all kinds outdoors all year long. Thanks!