My Phal does not want to bloom...

[camille1585]

I agree, if you're using distilled water you need to get a fertilizer made for pure water. Distilled water is completely void of nutrients and a normal fert (that keeps in mind the minerals present in tapwater in general) is not adapted to it. You phal won't be getting the right nutrients, and you could have issues with pH imbalance. So I suggest that you either switch to tapwater, or get a pure water fertilizer. MSU is very good and designed specifically for orchids. You can easily get it from Ray's website (an OB member) at firstrays.com

[Pilot]

Originally Posted by Ornella

Thanks everyone for your support and advice. I moved my Phal from NW window to the South side of the house. Now it will be enjoying bright filtered light behind the sliding door. Do I need some kind of artificial light going on later in a day, after 5-6 pm? Any advice? It gets dark outside so early now... About fertilizer: I use Blooming& Rooting soluble plant food 9-59-8 every time I water it (ferti-lome brand). I use only distill water.

Ornella

I have this fertilizer and yes, it is 59 for the phos-- which is really really high. Please do not use this fert full strength-- its a waste and may even burn the roots. When I do use it, I use it at quarter strength. The phals seem to like it-- but I should mention that all of my chids are in s/h. So if I do see building up of fert salts, which I rarely do, then I flush the pot and the roots are quickly free of the salts. Right now I augment the higher phas with Grow More phal fert which contains 20-10-20.

You should not bother with distilled water. Fertilome is not a "high quality" fertilizer in terms of its composition (that sounds much worse than I mean it to) but it is more for large flower and fruiting plants and trees. So use sparingly with chids. I'm currently looking for a fert higher in phos to give just to the chids.

Thanks Camille for the MSU advice... I'll check out Ra's site. Never order from him but that guy knows his stuff!

[Ornella]

Oh,I am getting all confused...What is RO water?
Pilot: chids means orchids, right? What is "my chids in s/h"? Are MSU and Grow More fertilizer brands? And yes, I do have salts in my Phal's pot - I even did not reilized that full strength of ferti-lome is too much...Thanks

[OrchidSue]

RO stands for reverse osmosis and is a method of removing minerals from water using a filtration system.

'Chids is a slang term some people use for "orchids".

S/h stands for semi-hydroponic and is a method of culture that some people like to use to grow orchids. You can search this forum if you want to know more about it.

MSU is an orchid fertilizer formula that was developed by-you guessed it-MSU. It is my understanding there is more than one manufacturer. Grow More is a brand of fertilizer. I am currently using the urea free version of Grow More, but have used others as well.

Susan

[quiltergal]

Something to keep in mind is that it is more likely a high concentration of nitrogen will prevent your plants from flowering not higher concentrations of phosphorous. The bloom boosters work because the percentage of nitrogen is greatly reduced, not because the phosporous is higher. I feed all my plants the same fertilizer year round; MSU at 125ppm nitrogen. 125 is low enough that it won't inhibit blooming but high enough that the plants grow very well. Ray has a very handy fertilzer calculator on his website to figure out how to arrive at 125ppm N with whatever fertilizer you use. Fertilizer PPM Calculator Scroll to the bottom of the page and plug in the N number from your label and then 125ppm as your target. Then click calculate and it will tell you how many tsps of your fert to use.

Some of my plants are very picky about water quality so for those I water with distilled and MSU for Pure water. All the rest get tap water and MSU for well/city water. I've been using MSU for a couple of years now and I'm very pleased with the results.

[Pilot]

Originally Posted by OrchidSue

RO stands for reverse osmosis and is a method of removing minerals from water using a filtration system.

'Chids is a slang term some people use for "orchids".

S/h stands for semi-hydroponic and is a method of culture that some people like to use to grow orchids. You can search this forum if you want to know more about it.

MSU is an orchid fertilizer formula that was developed by-you guessed it-MSU. It is my understanding there is more than one manufacturer. Grow More is a brand of fertilizer. I am currently using the urea free version of Grow More, but have used others as well.

Susan

Thanks Sue, for the clarification!

And quiltergirl, thank you also for making the point about high nitro-- that was what I was aiming for but I should have been more exact in my discussion. So thanks!

As for using fertilome at full strength, well yes, that is an extreme amount of fertilizer, sorry to say. Orchids don't need much fertilizer at all-- very low doses-- much like african violets (well, at least in my experience) where they are sensitive to the slightest amounts of nutrients because of how they grow (in the wild they grow in trees as an example)-- so they have adapted and are able to respond to very little amounts of nutrients.

For your fertilome, I would fill the scoop up to that mid-way line on the scoop and then halve that again and put it into 2 gallons of water. The water will appear a very slight blue, instead of a deep blue like you probably witness now.

Please read and search away on this forum- loads of useful advice. I only started growing orchids this past Spring and everything I know about them I learned from these awesome forum members. They know their stuff! And if they don't, there is always a great discussion on possible answers to your questions.

For now, I would run your orchids' pots (don't get the leaves and crown wet) under tepid water until those salts are gone.