How to fertilize mounted Orchids

[plumania]

Recently I bought mounted Dendrobium,Encyclia and Brassavola . Hard to fertilize with traditional methods where you dissolve fertilizer and water plants with it.

Should I spray roots of mounted orchids with fertilizer water or dip in a bucket ?
Do you also spray the leaves? I worry about damaging leaves.

Thanks.

[tucker85]

I spray my mounted orchids with a standard water soluble fertilizer. I spray the whole plant. It won't hurt the leaves.

If you only have a few mounted orchids you can get a little hand spray bottle from Home Depot and you can water and fertilize using it. I water my mounted orchids often, every day during the summer, and all I do is spray them with my little hand spray bottle. It takes 5 minutes and you're done. I actually fertilize twice a week with mounted orchids because they don't have any medium to retain the fertilizer.

Remember that in nature many orchids come from regions where condensation or morning dew provide them with much of their moisture. Spraying the plant with a mist of water is equivalent to what they experience in nature.

[plumania]

Thanks Tucker, fortunately my hose has an attachment that has a 'mist setting' and I use it for my orchids. I will spray fertilizer with the bottle per your recommendation.

Someone should invent a bottle that does not require to squeeze/pull the trigger repeatedly for spraying. My hands hurt after spraying......just saying.

[Ray]

There are battery-powered backpack sprayers....


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[Discus]

I have quite a few mounted orchids, which I spray with a pump action hand sprayer (pump 40 times, spray for a while, pump some more when the pressure gets too low) for water and fertiliser; I try not to get too much water on the leaves; if you have sufficient airflow you shouldn't have too much trouble if you do get the entire plant wet, however.

You can get much bigger ones designed for spraying insecticides too if you have a bigger collection.

[plumania]

3 mounted orchids only....
Looked at the battery operated ones. They are too expensive and smallest one is 4 gallon....too much for me.
I have not seen pump action sprayer though,I am going to google that. But 40 pumps for single spray.....hopefully that spray will run long enough to get all 3 of mounted plants.

[WhiteRabbit]

I have a hand pump pressure sprayer - really not much effort involved Got one at Home Depot for around $6

I do alternately soak in small buckets - I also only have a few small mounted orchids. In winter, or when there are buds, I only spray (In winter to avoid water sitting in leaf folds/axis)

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by plumania

3 mounted orchids only....
Looked at the battery operated ones. They are too expensive and smallest one is 4 gallon....too much for me.
I have not seen pump action sprayer though,I am going to google that. But 40 pumps for single spray.....hopefully that spray will run long enough to get all 3 of mounted plants.

You don't need a fancy sprayer for 3 orchids. The little hand sprayer from Home Depot costs less than $5 and holds a quart, which is plenty of water for three orchids. If you want to spray fertilizer just figure the amount of fertilizer for a gallon and divide it by four. That way you don't waste much. Even though I have over 80 orchids right now I still use a little hand sprayer for some things.

[Bud]

three mounted orchids at ten sprays each is not that bad....its good excercise for the grip/hold of the hand muscles(avoids crystal deposits in arthritic patients)....dont forget to wet the back of the leaves when fertilizing

[WhiteRabbit]

Originally Posted by tucker85

You don't need a fancy sprayer for 3 orchids. The little hand sprayer from Home Depot costs less than $5 and holds a quart, which is plenty of water for three orchids. If you want to spray fertilizer just figure the amount of fertilizer for a gallon and divide it by four. That way you don't waste much. Even though I have over 80 orchids right now I still use a little hand sprayer for some things.

Or even mix the fertilizer in your usual watering can, then pour into the sprayer. Yeah - I use trigger sprayers too, but do sometimes get hand and wrist pain (I also sometimes water small plants with a sprayer), so I like having the pressure sprayer as well, and easier to really soak a mount with that.