Optimizing Culture

[Ray]

Those of you who have known me for a while are aware of my interest in constantly experimenting with stuff to improve my orchid growing, and to try to figure out why things work or don't.

After all of the discussions we have had here and at other forums, about 5-6 years ago or so, I settled on a regimen of:

• Use a potting medium and container that allows frequent watering without suffocating the roots.
• Use as pure of a water source as possible – collected rainwater, distilled, or reverse osmosis being best. Here in coastal NC, my tap water is great, as-is.
• Water frequently – the more, the better.
• Thoroughly flood the pot at every watering.
• Use K-Lite, (12-1-1-10Ca-3Mg) @ 25 ppm N (about 1/6 teaspoon/gallon) at every watering.
• Add KelpMax @ 1:250 (approximately 1 tablespoon/gallon) once per month.
• Add Inocucor Garden Solution @ 1:100 once per month (approximately 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon/gallon – I just use 3 tablespoons for simplicity).

Since doing that in my greenhouse back in Pennsylvania, I started seeing much faster growth, healthier plants with no rot issues, with better flowering and far more branching of growths than I've ever seen. About a year and a half ago, my plants were relocated and relegated to winter windowsills and summer on the deck, but I am continuing to see similar performance.

Others who follow that regimen are getting similar results, but you know me, I "have to" see if I can deduce some logical reason for that, tying it back to plants in nature. Here's what I've come up with so far:

The first four items combine to prove a moist, airy environment for the root system that remains clean of mineral buildup and plant wastes, much as tropical forest rainfall tends to be torrential, thoroughly flushing and aerating the detritus that collects around the roots of epiphytes and "semi-terrestrials" like paphs and phrags.

K-Lite’s formula mimics the nutrient mix provided by host plant exudates and accumulated airborne particulates that are flushed down from the forest canopy whenever it rains in tropical rainforests. It is also a complete formula, containing important minor, and trace elements. The low dosing provides plenty of nutrition for these slow-growing plants, while avoiding root damage or the buildup of mineral residues and wastes.

KelpMax certainly stimulates the plants into faster growth, but maybe equally importantly, it also provides a wide array of vitamins and amino acids that fertilizers do not. In nature, these are provided by indigenous bacteria and fungi which, unfortunately, are typically not compatible with our pot-culture techniques.

The Inocucor product serves several purposes: the live microorganisms populate the potting media and the plants themselves, stimulating growth, absorbing and converting otherwise unavailable nutrients into usable compounds, and transferring them directly into the plants, supplementing the low application of fertilizer. Their metabolic byproducts also include sugars, proteins and amino acids that would naturally come from native microflora and -fauna in the wild. They also “beef up” the plants’ natural defensive capabilities as well as predating pathogens directly, resulting in plants that are relatively unstressed by diseases.

[Orchid Whisperer]

$

[james j]

Ray, I have a few questions
Do you mix the Inocucor, Kelpmax, and K Lite together?
If you were to treat a plant with a systemic fungicide how long should you wait to apply Inocucor?
Do the microbes in Inocucor die off between applications?

Thanks

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

$

If by "$" you mean "sales pitch", remember that I only sell these things because they are so good, and because I have ended up using them.

If you mean "expensive" instead, at the delivered prices for the products, when used at the parameters I recommend, the costs are as follows, on a per-gallon basis:

• K-Lite $0.016
• KelpMax $0.144
• Inocucor $0.37

Keep in mind that the KelpMax and Inocucor are only used once a month, and that the Inocucor product may be used very effectively as a spray, rather than drench, to stretch it out farther.

Putting that together, if I water twice a week using 5 gallons each time, and use the Inocucor as a drench, then over the course of a month, I am spending:

• 8 times x 5 gallons x $0.016 = $0.64 on fertilizer
• 1 time x 5 gallons x $0.144 = $0.72 on KelpMax
• 1 time x 5 gallons x $0.37 = $1.85 on Inocucor.

for a grand total of $3.21 per month - in my opinion, a pittance for the benefit. When I had a greenhouse in PA, I typically used 50 gallons of RO whenever I watered, so that would make it $32.10/month - a lot less than my heating budget.

---------- Post added at 01:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:25 PM ----------

Originally Posted by james j

Ray, I have a few questions
Do you mix the Inocucor, Kelpmax, and K Lite together?
If you were to treat a plant with a systemic fungicide how long should you wait to apply Inocucor?
Do the microbes in Inocucor die off between applications?

Thanks

I metered fertilizer into my water in my PA greenhouse, so I used KelpMax in a hose-end sprayer one week, Inocucor two weeks later. Now that I'm watering by hand from a bucket, I do mix all three one time per month.

If you have used a fungicide at all, I'd wait 3-4 weeks before using Inocucor, or you'll just kill some of the beneficial critters. That same holds true of disinfectants like Physan, only I doubt you have to wait as long.

The the microbes die? It seem s probably that at lease some do. Is it a complete die-off? Probably not, especially those that have populated the plants themselves.

[estación seca]

Orchids are expensive, and things that work to keep them alive are worth the price.

In my experience KelpMax has a huge positive effect on the roots of my Vandas. It is visible the day after an application. I will not be without it.

I have never had any rot problems in my lower humidity. I did get some Inocucor, and use it about twice a year. My growing area is not a good place to test this product, because I didn't have a fungus problem before I got it.

[greenpassion]

Thank you Ray for that post. I have been doing pretty much exactly what you've written, including using the Kelpmax and Klite, due to this board and so much experiences shared. And as E.S. stated, I've seen immediate results, and this year's bloom and over all health of all my orchids has far exceeded previous ones, which I attribute to having improved the culture and added the above mentioned additives.
I will not be, again as E.S. says, without Kelpmax, nor the klite, and I am without a doubt intending on adding Inocucor as soon as my budget allows.
My phals, of which ALL are in bloom, have thrown double spikes, and despite being still in bloom, are growing more spikes and buds. A friend saw them the other day and actually stated " Wow! I have never EVER seen such healthy looking orchids!"
This compliment I attribute to all you guys here...

[Ray]

I think that the two most obvious results from the use of Inocucor's product are when deflasking seedlings, which results in much better survival rate and vigor, and if you have a rot issue, as it can be a curative measure.

Prevention of issues is not so obvious to the observer...

[greenpassion]

Originally Posted by Ray

I think that the two most obvious results from the use of Inocucor's product are when deflasking seedlings, which results in much better survival rate and vigor, and if you have a rot issue, as it can be a curative measure.

Prevention of issues is not so obvious to the observer...

Good point!

[Optimist]

I do not know whether this has become the Inocucor appreciation thread. I have only been using it for a few months, but have noticed that the new growths on the paphs are "bushier." It is still a wait and see thing, but I am starting to think that if I do ever get some flasks, I will be a bit less worried about losing all the seedlings. If anything, it has stepped up my culture game. K-lite as well.

---------- Post added at 08:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 AM ----------

Oh, adding, I will start to use your ratios for my orchids. I do not have many orchids now, about 50, but still, would like them to be as nice as possible.

I was using much less incocucor, (2 tsp per 3 gallons) and more k-lite. (3 tsp per 3 gallons) Except for the Phrags, they are all in lecca or other non-nitrogen producing medium with lots of holes. I use RO water that I get at a water kiosk at a grocery store as "drinking water," which is supposedly quite pure, and of course, rainwater when I can get it. One of the biggest improvements I have made (last year) is when inside during the winter, they now have lights plus window light. I a giving even the paphs (mottled leaf) much more light. I lost most of them but still have a few, and they are presently doing well.

In about a month I will get some of that Kelp max from you. I have been using a dry type of kelp powder which I mix, and am nearly out so I can budget a replacement.

I think letting air get to the roots is one major improvement. I actually am not too fond of bark, but use it sometimes. Basically, as the bark decays, you have decay bi-products like nitrogen, and in the "wild" they would not be sitting on a decaying surface, although they might sit in random flotsam that lands on them. I also like the non-nitrogen producing medium because I really think that re-potting actually stresses them out something massive, and this stress can kill some plants, especially if repotting means to rip roots off or otherwise damage the plant. I have also started to theorize that to an orchid (possibly only a mount or when in the wild) a root ball of "dead" roots also creates a certain amount of "fertilizer" as well as moisture for the orchid. My thought is that orchids are so well adapted to epiphytic growing conditions that the old roots must serve some water-conservation purpose. This should be studied by people with more scientific minds then I have.

[berthabloom]

Ray- Silly me. I thought that '$' meant that you are "right on the money" as far as your methods and strategy. So in that vein, I give you $$. Thanks for being willing to share your knowledge and experience.