FERTILIZATION!!!!

[Bill U.]

@ Ray- I mix 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of the 30-10-10. I feed approximately every other watering (I normally have to water every 10 days or so). I have been making sure to flush with plenty of water because I do not want to have a high concentration of salts in my sphag moss media.

@RosieC- I will probably use mine up, but I'm looking for the future and also right now I am concerned because all of my phals are in bloom and I don't want to burn them with the nitrogen.

Question for you both/anyone- Is it necessary to use a bloom-booster formula fertilizer? I know that as my phals get cooler with the Chicago winters, they will not need as much nitrogen, but can I just space the feedings out more instead of having to buy another fertilizer?

[RosieC]

No need for a bloom fertilizer if you keep the nitrogen levels at Rays recommended levels. Blooming can be inhibited by too high nitrogen and people have mistakenly thought increased potassium helped blooming when actually that was just acting to reduce they nitrogen.

Rays recommended levels are good for both growth and blooming in most orchids.

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by Bill U.

Question for you both/anyone- Is it necessary to use a bloom-booster formula fertilizer? I know that as my phals get cooler with the Chicago winters, they will not need as much nitrogen, but can I just space the feedings out more instead of having to buy another fertilizer?

Books on orchid culture will tell you to do exactly as you have suggested. Decrease the amount of fertilizer, the frequency of fertilizing or both during the fall and winter months. Most orchids grow very little during the winter so they require little fertilizer. By the way, cooler weather may slow orchid growth to some extent but mostly it's the shorter daylight hours (photo-period) that triggers slower growth in orchids.

I'm not a believer in bloom booster fertilizer but even for those who want to use it, it's not meant to be used when an orchid is in spike or in bloom. It's meant to be used to induce blooming.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by tucker85

Books on orchid culture will tell you to do exactly as you have suggested. Decrease the amount of fertilizer, the frequency of fertilizing or both during the fall and winter months. Most orchids grow very little during the winter so they require little fertilizer. By the way, cooler weather may slow orchid growth to some extent but mostly it's the shorter daylight hours (photo-period) that triggers slower growth in orchids.

The exception, of course, being southern hemisphere plants that refuse to convert, and plants that bloom in the winter, like many phals.

I'm not a believer in bloom booster fertilizer but even for those who want to use it, it's not meant to be used when an orchid is in spike or in bloom. It's meant to be used to induce blooming.

Agreed - except for the part about "inducing blooming".

A "bloom booster" doesn't "boost" anything. If you feed heavily with a fairly high-nitrogen fertilizer, that nitrogen can suppress blooming. Switching to a lower-N formula (a "bloom booster" has had the nitrogen diluted by adding more phosphorus minerals), it relieves the suppression, "allowing" the plant to bloom.

[Ray]

Bill - a quarter-teaspoon of 30-10-10 per gallon is about 100ppm N, which isn't too strong. Feeding that every other week sounds like a pretty solid regimen to me.