Use of alcohol in raising orchids

[ronaldhanko]

I like the idea of alcohol and orchids - keeping a beer or a glass of wine handy while working with your orchids. Probably doesn't do the orchids any good, but it certainly is good for the orchidophile.

[ronaldhanko]

Reminds me of the recipe for Irish whiskey cake:
Ingredients:
flour
sugar
eggs
cooking oil
butter
nuts
bottle of whiskey
Recipe:
measure three cups of flour
take swig of whiskey
mix in 1 cup of sugar (the amounts here don't matter much)
drink some whiskey
break in some eggs (who cares how many)
drink some more whiskey
thrown some nuts in the batter
drink some whiskey
mix in some butter and cooking oil
drink more whiskey
thrown out batter and drink rest of whiskey

[Ray]

A couple of things about the alcohol/fertilizer mix patent:

• The fertilizer used in the claims was a really high-nitrogen blend, which I think is inappropriate for most orchids on a routine basis.

• The blend was between 50% alcohol and 67% alcohol with fertilizer.

As to the shelf-life, in a sealed container, it should be no issue.

[bodaciousbonsai]

Originally Posted by Becca

Here is the recipe I was told about for the beer fertalizer. I am not sure if this is the same one an acquaintance gave me that she said she found off of a link on Ray's website, I tried looking for it, but didn't have any luck, and as Ray said, he hasn't tried it before. When I run out of my Dyna-Gro I am going to give this recipe a try:

"1 can of beer (yes!)
1 cup Epsom salts
1/2 cup ammonia (clear)
2 cups water
use 1/2 oz in 1 gal. of water every two weeks."

The person who gave this recipe to me uses 1 Tbls to a gal. of water every week and in the winter dilutes the fert with 4 cups water instead of the two.

I'll submit a post when I start using it!

Hmmm ray???? This seems to be the exact concontion that I told you about maybe a year ago or so. Well I have been using it for over two years with no ill effects to my plants. My paph micranthum,venustum, my tol. variegata seems to love it to. plus my dendrobium cuthbertsonii seems to have no ill effect from this mixture. the only thing that I reccommend is that you use this mixture every other feeding. supplement with a good based orchid fert that has good results. along with flushing inbetween while fertlizeing your orchids due to the salt build up.

[bodaciousbonsai]

ray blah blah blah blah blah

[silken]

Below is an address to go to about finding small amounts of methanol. copy and paste it into the browser. It is not hard to find, and not very expensive. It goes by several names.

Buying Methanol - Collaborative Biodiesel Tutorial

I am going to try an experiment using 3 plants that were split when I was repotting the one large one. I will treat one as I always do, give the other a dose of NPK fertilizer with a fairly high N ratio, and give the 3rd plant the same fertilizer but with 1/2 tsp of methanol per gallon of water added. It could be interesting!

[jcaesar]

Let me know how it goes. I was thinking of trying to reproduce Jerry's Grow (for personal use)...his patent info is on the web:

(WO/1999/023878) USE OF METHANOL FOR IMPROVING PLANT GROWTH

I haven't had the chance to throughly review it, but it mentions under the Detailed Description:

"a solution of 0.17% methanol with half strength standard fertilizer known as"DynaGro" (10-5-5, 1/4 tsp/gal) was applied to approximately 500 orchid plants at weekly intervals. The solution concentration was doubled (1/2 tsp/gal) and subsequently plants were treated with full strength fertilizer with increasing percentages of alcohol up to 5% methanol"

I'm probably going to use DynaGro & Methanol when I start experimenting. I'm currently still using my Jerry's Grow stash alternating each week with straight Dynagrow.

[kiki-do]

I didn't read every word of this thread, but I was once told that if a houseplant is sickly and you can't seem to get it to perk up, mix a tiny bit of sugar in the watering can and feed it sugar water for a few waterings. That helps in the healing of a houseplant. (Trust me, it works). Is it wrong to assume the beer is "the sugar" in that formula? I always use "used" wine corks for the bottom of all my orchid pots instead of the peanuts. They love it and attach their roots all over it. Again, there is the sugar from the soaked wine in the cork. Just my I don't have any scientific proof to any of this. An old friend, who happens to grow orchids as well as houseplants, told me about this.

[silken]

I will keep you posted. I read the patent articles as well, and it seemed that the higher amounts of methanol didn't produce better results, so I will go with 1/2 tsp. methanol to 1 gal of water with fertilizer added. I have an orchid fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 25-10-10 which I will use at its recommended dosage of 1/2 tsp to 1 gallon of water. I have already labeled all three pots, giving the poorest looking plant the methanol and fertilizer combination, so the next time they need watering they will be "under experiment".

[jcaesar]

Originally Posted by silken

I have an orchid fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 25-10-10 which I will use at its recommended dosage of 1/2 tsp to 1 gallon of water

Does your NPK fertilizer use a urea based nitrogen?...if so, the added methanol will probably not have any affect.