How regularly to feed orchids?

[everlastingspirit]

Hi There,

Another newbie question. Have bought the below orchid feed.



The instructions say to add few drops(not got bottle to confirm exact amount) to water & use every water!

Can anyone advise if this is a good idea or if i should regulate say every week/two weeks instead?

Also for orchid such as vanda's (which requrie misting bare root) & other orchids should the dosage be different? So would you say fed a dendrobium less than a phal, etc?

Thanks for any advice.
Ben

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[ShannonH1984]

Hi Ben,

I've personally never used this particular brand. Right now I use two different orchid foods, Schultz (19-31-17) and Gubler pro blend(19-8-16). As far as when to feed I follow the instructions on my gublers food.

"When to Feed"

Every 2nd watering:

Phalaenopsis
Dendrobium
Vanda

Every 3rd Watering:

Cattelya
Cymbidium
Intergeneric
Oncidium

Every 4th Watering:

Miltonia
Paphiopedilum

As far as how much to feed, I use the two little scoops that came with the food and give each about 1/3 of a scoop. I'm getting excellent results with mine, almost all of my orchids have developed new growths. However I would suggest following the instructions on the label at least until you get familiar with this food and see how strong it really is. If you don't feel after a while that your orchids are getting enough you can always up the dose. It's better to give too little than too much.

Please keep in mind I'm no expert and I'm sure there are plenty of people here that can give you better instructions than I can. I've only been growing orchids about a year and a half. This is simply the regimen that works for me.

Hope this helps,
Shannon

[Ray]

I try to look at nature as a guide.

In the wild, plants do not have a great deal of nutrition available, but it is mostly there constantly. Based upon that, I prefer to feed a relatively dilute solution at every watering.

Specifically, I use 125 ppm N. If you divide 10 by the %N on the label, the result is the teaspoons per gallon to use (divide 13 by the %N to get ml/L).

[Donald]

If everyone who belongs to this forum were to post an answer there would be a cornucopia of responses with a variance of feeding methods that would leave you totally baffled. Find what's best for you and your conditions.

[Cym Ladye]

I fully agree with Donald. I have found with orchid people that if you ask 10 different people, you will get at least 12 different answers.

With Cymbidiums, I use the rule of "weekly - weakly" when using a liquid application. With long lasting products like Nutricote and Dynamite, which are applied on the surface of the pot, water releases the nutrients at each watering.

And that said, listen to all the ideas presented on this Board and then do what works best for you.

CL

[camille1585]

I also feed weakly weekly, because it is so much easier to remember when to fertilize! All my orchids (except my masdie) get 125ppm. The masdie gets only 80. I flush out the pots with clear water about once a month. Works for me at least!

[Hedge]

baby bio products have usually been based on the weakly weekly principle - my mother has used their standard food on all her African Violets (Saintipaulias) for years with amazing results. I would follow the instructions to start with. As Camille says, it's much easier than trying to remember whether you fed last time.

Heather

[everlastingspirit]

Originally Posted by Hedge

baby bio products have usually been based on the weakly weekly principle - my mother has used their standard food on all her African Violets (Saintipaulias) for years with amazing results. I would follow the instructions to start with. As Camille says, it's much easier than trying to remember whether you fed last time.

Heather

I suppose it makes sense to follow the instructions as they are a good brand. Thansk for the advise.

Will try waterign every time with the lower advised dilution on the bottle and see how it goes.

How will i know i am feedign them too much. what signs do i look for.

Thanks again for everyones advise so far

Ben

[myshka]

i'm new and i could be wrong, but:

i read in some book that people tend to think that fertilizer is the only source of a plant's food. but this is not necessarily true. plants make their own food through photosynthesis.

fertilizer is just a supplement.

with that in mind, you probably won't kill them by under-fertilizer. but you'll definitely burn them up if you over do it.

when in doubt, i would just wait or dilute.

and here is a great article on what happens if you over-do the fertilizer: http://www.aos.org/AM/Template.cfm?S...entDisplay.cfm

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by myshka

i'm new and i could be wrong, but:

i read in some book that people tend to think that fertilizer is the only source of a plant's food. but this is not necessarily true. plants make their own food through photosynthesis.

fertilizer is just a supplement.

That is absolutely not true at all. Would be nice if it was. Photosynthesis is the process in which plants use the energy from the sun to convert water and carbon dioxide (6H2O + 6CO2) into C6H12O6 + 6O2, i.e. sugars + oxygen. The plant cells then use these sugars as fuel. All the other nutrients (macro nutrients and trace elements) must come from the soil (thus the use of fertilizers), and many are essential for photosynthesis to occur or for the sugars to be used as energy.