Water with plain water first before fertilizing?

[Shadeflower]

agreed.
The velamen is like a sponge. If you dip the sponge in one bucket it will quickly absorb the liquid. Once it's full and you move it to a second bucket it won't absorb any more. If the second bucket is your fertilized water it would not be absorbed as much.
The advice varies from water first, then fertilize, fertilize first then flush or like you say use a low amount all the time. The tricky part is knowing how much for each one to use if one wants to use a regular amount as it varies.
If one is not sure then fertilizing first and flushing out any excess shortly after might be a good way.
You could even argue that it might be a better way as the only way of finding what each orchid likes otherwise is through trial and error. But watering twice and flushing each pot is more work than just watering once.

I think to start with fertizling and flushing out the excess is a good approach but as a collection grows and watering time increases it makes more sense to try and figure out how do less watering.

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

I think to start with fertizling and flushing out the excess is a good approach but as a collection grows and watering time increases it makes more sense to try and figure out how do less watering.

There seems to be a critical mass for collection size. I think it is likely, particularly for collectors that water indoors in a sink, to burn out on watering and stop watering often enough if one feel they must water twice, once with fresh and once with fertilizer, every time.

-Keith

[Girl_With_An_Orchid]

This is definitely a question I've had. I have always done a quick flush first and then soak in fertilizer for around 20 mins sometimes longer. The only times I don't soak are when its needed but I don't have time so I just do the flush. I think that the soaking allows the sphagnum to absorb enough fertilizer despite having been just watered and also makes sue that the bark doesn't get fully dehydrated. I kind of wonder whether that first flush is even necessary at that point though.

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by Girl_With_An_Orchid

This is definitely a question I've had. I have always done a quick flush first and then soak in fertilizer for around 20 mins sometimes longer. The only times I don't soak are when its needed but I don't have time so I just do the flush. I think that the soaking allows the sphagnum to absorb enough fertilizer despite having been just watered and also makes sue that the bark doesn't get fully dehydrated. I kind of wonder whether that first flush is even necessary at that point though.

Flushing occasionally is a good idea when watering would otherwise be in too small a quantity to prevent fertilizer and hard water residues from building up in the pot. Flushing before soaking (submerging?) the pot every watering would also remove soluble residues. Unless the soak is in a very tiny amount of water the soluble residues, tannins, and other solubles in the bark will diffuse into the water during the soak and be tossed when the soak is done. Hence the brown coloration of the water. I can't think of anything a rinse and soak would do that either a good rinse or a soak would not already accomplish alone.

That said, when I grew indoors I found soaking for 15 minutes or more did wonders to keep my Phalaenopsis from needing a watering more than once per week (Besgrow bark, no sphagnum). With the much higher humidity in my greenhouse even large chunks of Orchiata are not hard to moisten with drench watering, (after starting them out with daily watering for the first two weeks or so). My orchids in moss would become waterlogged and never dry out if I soaked them once per week.

During my winter schedule I water with RO sprinkling from a water can daily (e.g. vanda with no media) twice weekly (mounts with moss, Neofinetia, & C. Walkeriana in jumbo Orchiata), or weekly (Cattleya and most everything else in LECA and Orchiata). I give all my orchids a good rinse once per month with (almost rock hard) tap water from a garden hose to remove solubles and give them a healthy dose of Ca and Mg.

-Keith