One Day Old Orchid Owner

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Moell

Thanks King... its good to be the king.

Lots to learn. My first goal is to keep them alive and enjoy them. I am reading today about how to water and fertilize and give them light.


Thanks for the insight on what I bought. Some just had nice blooms. I will post the pics when I get them loaded up.

Hey no problem!

I'm learning too. I also reinforce the information that works by helping others as well; and if it works for them, I know it's golden. If other people here have better ideas I'll mull it over and perhaps try out a few things. You know stuff like that.

Welcome to the OB btw!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Water for orchids...

I don't recommend the practice of using tap water. There can be too many dissolved minerals in there and prolonged use of tap water has the ability to cause problems like leaf tip burn and root tip burn, due to excessive mineral build up on the plant and the growing media. Mineral deposits on the leaves can be unsightly and can restrict the amount of light the orchids receive.

Instead, better sources of water are rainwater, distilled water, or RO/DI water.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

As for fertilizer...

Most people prefer using a fertilizer with a nitrogen - phoshorous - potassium ratio of 20-20-20 or as close to these numbers as possible.

Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg) are only 2 of the major elements plants need for proper nutrition.

There are also other major elements that escape me at the moment.

Minor elements such as iron (Fe) are important as well.

A word about the type of nitrogen that are bio-available to orchids:

Orchids readily utilize nitrate based nitrogen the best. The second most readily utilized type of nitrogen orchids can use are ammonia based.

Orchids generally cannot readily absorb urea based nitrogen.

Given this information, many people prefer the use of non-urea based nitrogen fertilizers.

Orchid fertilizers are often in concentrated crystalized form. This must be dissolved in water. Generally speaking, it is good to use a slightly lower concentration of fertilizer to water, and fertilize a bit more often. Hence you will read people post advice such as, "...fertilize weakly, weekly."

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Oh yeah, if you're using water softeners for your water, it isn't advisable to use that water.

It can cause severe root damage.

The issue isn't soft water. The problem is the water softener.