Fertilizer experiment

[Paul Mc]

I know this will make some of you cringe, but before this year I have never fertilized my orchids.

After reading so much about fertilizer being a good thing and understanding it at least a bit better, I decided that it really wouldn't take that long to do since I water everything anyway.

Last year, I photographed every bloom and noted its bloom time and continued this into this year, and I started fertilizing in the spring. So, I should have a fairly good pictorial base of non fertilized against fertilized...

Hope to start showing some pictorial proof of the effects of fertilizer soon!

[Paul Mc]

Also, I guess I'm hoping to learn more about fertilizing as I compare the pictures. If the blooms aren't that different, then that would tell me that something may not be quite right with fertilization. Would this be a correct assumption?

[james mickelso]

You shouldn't see a great deal of change in the flowers themselves but in the flowering frequency. When it flowers and how often it makes new pbulbs. An orchid will make new pbulbs if not dead. But how many is a function of how much nutrient is being taken in. The more neutrician, nutritian, newtrishun,(how come I can't spell now?) the more growth (number of pbulbs) and the more pbulbs the more chance of flowers. My cyms are very attuned to how much they are being fed and at what time. In nature, orchids get bird poop, dead bug guts, and nitrogen from lightning. They flower after the rainy season when their pollinators are flying (after being worms and such during the rainy season) and when the air is moving. So when we fertilize, we should be assuring they will bloom reliably. And with more blooms and more pbulbs.

[Paul Mc]

I've seen a picture where a phal was not fertilized one year and then fertilized the next. Yes, the flowers were the same, but the number of blooms in the year it was fertilized was differently superior. I guess that's ultimately what I'm looming at, as well as overall growth/health.

I will say I have a Dendrobium that bloomed last year from August until about March, it just kept sending up spikes. Well, it had just sent out three new spikes and bloomed a few weeks ago! It's number of flowers were less this time, but I'm hoping to see continued strong growth and blooms. I'm guessing the length of bloom time may change given fertilizer.

[Bud]

Paul, its good that you arenow using fertilizer....you need to imagine your plants in their original environment....they get fertilizer from nature, bird droppings, decaying moss and leaves....etc
Your plants need to feed as well as drink under your care
I was wondering why you didnt find that out from the very first

[Paul Mc]

I knew, but guess I was being lazy. Decided that it was time to move forward with fertilizing and see what differences it brings.

[james mickelso]

Dang!!!! I just ran out of Hersey bars. Be right back.

[WhiteRabbit]

I would expect to see more blooms after plants have received fertilizer regularly for a while.

[goodgollymissmolly]

Speechless

[silken]

My thought is that it is a living thing so therefor needs to eat to sustain life. We need to eat or we would die and so do plants. Luckily for them, they must have been getting at least something from the potting media or water.