RE: Harmful Fungus in Sphagnum Moss?

From: Ron McHatton rmchatton at photocircuits.com> on 2001.06.21 at 19:36:27(6798) Don: When the use of sphagnum moss as a potting material for orchids caught on some 15 years or so ago, one of the first issues to surface was the purported presence of spores of a fungus which could be contracted by humans. The physical manifestation of infection is the formation of a round cyst like object deep within the skin which works its way slowly to the surface and breaks open releasing spores. These cyst like objects are typically about half the size of a pinhead or so although in some published cases they are quite large and apparently bothersome. There was an article illustrated with pictures published in the American Orchid Society Bulletin some years ago (if you would like a copy, I could probably locate it). That article demonstrates being able to culture the spores from virgin as well as used wet moss. This launched the scare that had a lot of people sterilizing their moss, working with impermeable gloves and surgical masks or for some people even respirators around the moss. What wasn't reported publicly (very well anyway) was subsequent work which demonstrated that the same fungus can be cultured from anything we use as potting material, even things like Fafard 3B and Promix. Infection in humans is possible (as far as I am aware, only through an already existing wound), but it is extremely rare and apparently not worth the effort worrying about and bottom line is that you can get the same infection from any material, fir bark, promix, sphagnum moss, coconut husk chips, etc. I have been growing orchids for something like 37 years, and I am more worried about the dust from dry perlite and the little slivers of bark than fungal problems. Ron McHatton +More -----Original Message----- From: Ron Iles [SMTP:roniles@eircom.net] Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2001 12:05 PM To: Multiple recipients of list AROID-L Subject: Re: Harmful Fungus in Sphagnum Moss? Welcome back Don! Hurray! Rural Ireland is substantially peat bog but I don't know anything about its fungal pathogens but how about its spores? Bracken is nasty I'm told, ticks, Lime Disease. Cheers Ron ----- Original Message ----- To: "Multiple recipients of list AROID-L" Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2001 3:56 PM Subject: Harmful Fungus in Sphagnum Moss? | In my few years of growing aroids I have periodically heard stories about a harmful | (to humans) fungus that grows and reproduces itself in ground or otherwise virgin | sphagnum. Has anyone else heard these stories or seen written information on | the subject? | | Don Burns | Plantation FL Zone 10b |

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