Anyone use Miracle Gro Orchid Food?

[Paul Mc]

I bought some a year ago, and I've read online that you should cut the dose they say in half. Has anyone ever used Miracle Gro Orchid Food and what advice would you have regarding it's use.

I've got several orchids that are flowering and some are just sending up spikes. I though I would use it in watering today for those. They are oncidiums (1 colm. whatever that is), phal's, and a phaius.

Thanks in advance, and happy holidays everyone!

[RosieC]

Have a look for the N-P-K figures. This will be three numbers on the bottle and all fertilisers should show them. For instance it might be 20-20-20 (a good balanced fertiliser) or 20-10-10 (a fertiliser higher in Nitrogen) or could be anything.

The Nitrogen figure (the first one) is the one to use to calculate the dose you should use.

Go to this website from Ray Fertilizer Mixing Calculators and enter the N figure, along with the number of times you water and flush. It will also have a figure for the target Nitrogen, you can leave this as the default of 125ppm as this is the figure Ray recomend as a good average figure for orchids.

Press the calculate button and it will give you the dose.

I find it is often different to the dose on the bottle, but it is a figure which allows both growth an blooming and has little risk of burning the roots. (Many fertilisers are either giving doses for monthly instead of the modern advise of weekly, and many doses may be optimised for growing to the extent they can inhibit blooming).

I have used Ray's dosage for a while now with good results and I believe others have as well.

[ronaldhanko]

I use it sometimes - I buy whatever is available and if it's Miracle Gro that's what I get. You do not want a high nitrogen, though, for orchids or you will get too much vegetative growth and no flowers. Right now I happen to be using Schultz 19-31-17. I never, however, use fertilizer at full or even half-dosage, but put a pinch in two gallons of water and then water with plain water very heavily every third or fourth time.

[BobInBonita]

It doesn't make scientific sense, because the numbers should be a perfect indication of the nutrition provided, but... I don't like Miracle Grow products.

I used them very successfully when I lived in MN (both the general Miracle Grow and the Orchid blend. After I moved to Florida I did NOT get the same results. I don't know if it a difference in the water, the trace minerals, a change in formula, or my growing habits.

I think you have to try different things, and see what works for YOU, your environment, and your growing habits. The numbers should tell the whole story, but in my opinion, don't.

[Paul Mc]

The numbers listed are 30-10-10. Yeah, I get that too high of nitrogen will cause vegetative growth and not flowers. This happened last year to my Passion Flower vine, but without the nitrogen they won't bloom either. I'm assuming the same is true for orchids.

[RosieC]

It's best to aim for a balanced fertiliser (all the numbers the same) for orchids. However I've found that difficult to get and adjust the concentration based on the calculator Ray provides in the link I posted above. That means you won't get too much nitrogen but you get less of everything else as well.

Bob, I've read Ray saying that water and it's existing mineral content can make a big difference to which fertilisers work best. I don't remember the details though.

[BobInBonita]

Rosie - I think it probably is a water issue. I had great luck with Miracle Grow in Minnesota, but now in Florida it seems like the kiss of death for me. Primarily indoor phals in bark and clay pots in Minnesota, phals, dends, catts and vandas in slat baskets outdoors in Florida, so quite a few variables besides fertilizer to the equation.

[trdyl]

I try to stay away from high nitrogen formulations. But I do use from time to time Miracle-Gro's 15-30-15 formulation.

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by BobInBonita

Rosie - I think it probably is a water issue. I had great luck with Miracle Grow in Minnesota, but now in Florida it seems like the kiss of death for me. Primarily indoor phals in bark and clay pots in Minnesota, phals, dends, catts and vandas in slat baskets outdoors in Florida, so quite a few variables besides fertilizer to the equation.

This is an aside, but I just wondered if something similar is done with fertlisers.

In britain, the same brand of tea is actually different arround the country (at least one of the brands does this, possibly others). The tea makers know that arround the country the water quality/flavour is different so they compensate by tweaking the tea blend to aim to get the same taste all arround the country once mixed with the local water. This means despite the differences in water the tea should taste the same whatever part of the country you are in.

However if you buy tea in the north, then travel to the south and use it there, it could taste completely wrong because it's not the same as the stuff you would buy in the south!

This conversation just made me wonder if any of the fertilisers do something similar and vary their formula arround the country, differences in water accross the USA must be even greater than in the UK.

[Paul Mc]

That's a very interesting thought. I wonder...