K-Lite in Europe

[OrchidHamster]

Hello everybody, I decided to finally move from reading to writing and here is my first topic.
I've seen a lot of posts here and on the ST forum about interesting results with K-Lite fertilizer from Ray. The problem is - I live in Germany and here in Europe haven't seen a K-Lite or anything close to it.
As I wan't to give it a try in my orchid collection that would be really helpful if anyone here can give me some hints how can one get it in Europe.
Thank you!

[camille1585]

Welcome to Orchidboard!

You pretty much got it right: you can't find it in Europe. I had tried searching for the composition instead of the name (12-1-1-10ca-3mg), but no hits.

But I don't know if it would really make a big difference. I've tried several fertilizers over the years, and my orchids never grew differently each time I switched. They need so little fertilizer anyway that I've become one of those who thinks that regular feeding matters more than what you feed, especially with a diverse collection.

[Ray]

Buy some Rain Mix and add calcium nitrate.

A 50/50 mix by weight will give you a fertilizer that is about 14-2-7-15Ca-1.5Mg, and you can add some Epsom Salt to raise the Mg.

[OrchidHamster]

Thank you, Ray for your reply!
I recently bought some CaO and MgO from CANNA, would they also work or it's better to buy a dry version of calcium nitrate and epsom separately?
The Rain Mix is already ordered and will be delivered soon.

If you don't mind a short question about adding Mg and Ca at the same time, aren't they antagonists?

---------- Post added at 04:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:09 PM ----------

Thank you, Camille!
I was just simply interested in K-Lite as my main focus in collecting orchids is on slippers and I was really intrigued by the results posted on ST and thought about giving it a try.
Experiments are always an interesting thing to do

[Ray]

I am not familiar with any CANNA products, so cannot answer that question.

Just guessing, but I think your understanding of the "antagonism" between Ca and Mg relates only to their inability to "peacefully coexist" in concentrated solutions. As a dry powder or dilute solution, ready for application to the plants, it's no issue.

[OrchidHamster]

Thank you for clarification, Ray, that's really helpful!
I was trying to understand would CaO be somehow comparable by impact with calcium nitrate on making MSU more K-Liteish same is about MgO instead of Epsom salt?

[estación seca]

Calcium oxide is hazardous to handle. Be careful. There are much safer ways to put calcium into water. I would not take the risk myself. And magnesium sulfate is so readily available, and dissolves so easily, I would not use another source of magnesium.

Most plants have no trouble taking up enough calcium if there is even a small amount in the water. In fact, terrestrial plants actively exclude calcium from roots to prevent excess absorption. Calcium deficiency in orchids probably only happens when people use rain or reverse osmosis water exclusively. Rain usually contains dust, and has a slightly acid pH, due to dissolved carbon dioxide. The pH promotes calcium dissolution from the dust particles. If you have some calcium in your water you probably don't need to supplement.

The purported benefit of KLite is the much lower concentration of potassium. You can achieve this by using a smaller amount of MSU blend in the water. Most tap and bottled water is quite low in potassium, but it might be wise to check this.

The downside to using a lower concentration of MSU is less nitrogen supplementation. When your plants have optimum temperature and light for growth, you would probably want to give more nitrogen than they get with very dilute MSU. This can be done with small amounts of ammonium sulfate, readily available in the US (I don't know about the EU.) When plants are not growing actively very little nitrogen is needed.