Use of alcohol in raising orchids

[tunachris]

Reading this thread, I see a reference to Jerry's Grow. I know he is no longer in business, and there is no website any longer. I am down to a couple of months worth left of the last batch I bought. I grow most of my orchids outdoors under shade cloth, and the Jerry's grow has worked very well for me. I once heard, don't remember where, that Jerry's Grow was quite acidic and lowered the Ph of hard water.

Where I live in SoCal the tap water Ph is 7.8 or higher. A lot of my Cymbidiums used to suffer from browning at the leave tips. Over the past couple of years I have stored enough rain water each season to use during the times I water with plain water. In between times I use Jerry's Grow and have not suffered the tip damage I had in the past.

Is there any plans to re-introduce Jerry's Grow, or a substitution that would acheive the same thing? I have heard the Well Water fromulation of MSU fertilizer can give the same benefits?

Chris

[Ross]

I use the MSU mix for pure water (RO and rain water) with ProTekt and it works well for me. I use it at every watering at 125ppm Nitrogen.

[Gin]

Ditto to the above post , Why go to a lot of mixing and guess work with home made Fert. when the figuring has already been done for you .. Gin

[Rane84]

I'm new to orchid growing, so keeping things as simple as possible means it's harder to do something wrong. Since the rain water mix looks easy and effective, I think it's the weay to go. Now isn't the time to experiment. Getting your first orchid, at least for me, is like getting your first pet. You love it and want it to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible, but at the same time, you have no idea what you're doing.

[gixrj18]

I was told by a grower that ammonia isn't good for the orchids at all. There are better sources of nitrogen.

[Ray]

Ammonia may not be good, but ammoniacal compounds are fine.

Bill Argo, the PhD inventor of the so-called "MSU" fertilizers (anyone want to guess where he went to school?) wrote a 5-article series on plant nutrition for the IPA journal, and he gave me permission to put them on my website. It's a little rich, but if you can glean something after wading through the details, it's a worthwhile read. Keep in mind that it's based upon terrestrial growing, so we have to modify some of the info.

Link: Plant Nutrition

[jcaesar]

Hi TunaChris...did you ever find out if there was an alternative to Jerry's Grow? I'm on my last bottle...love the stuff!

[Ray]

There is not.

I spoke to Jerry with the idea of possibly reintroducing the product line, and he did give me permission to use his patents, but he was fairly discouraging because the amount of methanol needed effects the shipping hazard class of the product, making it close to prohibitive.

[masda]

:I quite often mix beer with my orchids, in the evening I wander around my shadehouse with a beer in one hand and after a couple of cans all my orchids look bloody lovely.

[jcaesar]

Originally Posted by Ray

There is not.

I spoke to Jerry with the idea of possibly reintroducing the product line, and he did give me permission to use his patents, but he was fairly discouraging because the amount of methanol needed effects the shipping hazard class of the product, making it close to prohibitive.

Do you think it could be sold in a dry form and the buyer adds his/her own Methanol that they obtain from a local source? Did Jerry mention why he stopped production? The last time I communicated with him I believe he mentioned that someone was buying him out (sometime in '03/'04). I have great results with Jerry's Grow...I guess I have to ration my last bottle.