Orchid Board - Most Complete Orchid Forum on the web ! - Fertilizer??! So what is the deal on how to use it?

I'm pretty sure I'm one of the proponents of getting out of the way of your plants...

Orchid Grower's are second only to pot growers in that search for the "magical elixir" that magically makes your plants grow and bloom better.

I can pretty much guarantee that there is no fertilizer that fits that category, as it plays a minuscule role in growth. Essential, yes, but important, no.

What I think we all fail to grasp is that these niche plants each have definite cultural needs, and our job is to meet ALL of them if we want our plants to grow and bloom better. Unfortunately, we mostly do a pretty poor job of that in one way or another, without necessarily grasping exactly what it is we're failing to provide, so we take the easiest way out by by throwing fertilizer at them, hoping that will cure the (otherwise undefined) issues. When that doesn't happen, we assume we've got the "wrong" formula, so try a new one, then another one, then...

There's another aspect that is prevalent, that many fail to realize. Consider this scenario, and challenge yourself as to whether it applies to you:

You get into orchids, and are super involved and excited by them. After a while, when they don't necessarily respond with blooms like they did, they lose a little of their luster, and we lose a bit of our interest, and the plants don't necessarily get the degree of care they once did. They're pretty resilient, right?

Being a systemic addiction however, we can't give up altogether, so that interest is a bit resurgent, and we've just read about this new fertilizer that folks think is so good. So... We buy some, and try it, and WOW!, my plants have begun to grow like mad! Holy sh**, this stuff's amazing!

What we have failed to recognize is that with our resurgent interest, we have begun to pay pay more attention to our plants, and they are actually responding to that, not to the fertilizer alone.