Kelpak/SuperThrive to Help Plants Damaged by Pests?

[alecStewart1]

Hey friends,

Not too long ago I found a caterpillar that had munched on a newer shoot of a new bulb of my Cym. goeringii 'Rikimaru', and it seems like it got a little bit of another shoot, too. Quite frustrating, as I was excited to see all of my cymbidiums replace their old bulbs with new ones and shooting up new leaves. 'Rikimaru' is also the youngest of the cymbidiums I have (didn't come with as any bulbs).

The plant has one or two grown bulb it's maintained, the rest are "back bulbs" (2 or 3), and it has 3 maybe 4 new bulbs that it's been slowly growing out and shooting up new leaves.

While it's unfortunately the time in the season I need to be holding back on water (even though today's high is 90 degrees Fahrenheit) for my Asian cymbidiums, this did get me thinking.

For plants that receive any damage from pests, after treatment for the pests of course, is at all useful to treat them with some Kelpak and/or SuperThrive to help them recover a little bit quicker?

I know there's likely a stress response the plant has and that likely stunts or greatly slows growth for the plant so it can "figure out" how recover. With that in mind, would something like even half of a dose of Kelpak and/or SuperThrive help the plant that's been damaged, or would this give the plant too much "stimulus" while it's trying to "figure out" how to response to the external damage?

[Ray]

Superthrive is a root growth stimulant, so will really only contribute that.

Kelpak, on the other hand, is a more complete biostimulant, giving the plants a wide array of phytochemicals that should accelerate recovery.

As fas as cymbidium back bulbs are concerned, soak them in a Kelpak solution for a few hours then nestle them about 1/2" into a tray containing about 2" of perlite, then maintain water in the bottom inch.