When to fertilize with blooming fert?

[Roberta]

To add to Ray's post - easiest way to reduce nitrogen is to just reduce fertilizer. The orchids really don't need the rest of the formulation - Ray has found that a low-potassium (K) formula (K-lite) works fine for him, and most of the phosphorus got added to supply phosphoric acid to adjust pH, not add to the nutrition particularly. So just reducing (or eliminating) fertilizer when the plant isn't growing much is easier (and cheaper) than maintaining an inventory of formulations that don't really contribute much anyway. Think of fertilizer as "vitamins" not "food"... the "food" part is carbohydrates, from photosynthesis. Slow-growing orchids don't need much in the way of vitamins.