Several different types of chids fert question

[mattryan]

everyone. I am wondering if I could get some advise on what fellow posters are doing this time of year as we are trying for spikes. I have phals, oncs, catts, a den, reed stem epi's and a couple of cyms. I fed them all a 20-14-13 all year. The den i stopped all fert and am giving it the cool-dry treatment (it just finished flowering). Do any of you switch over to a bloom booster this time of year or do you find that you get spikes with a balanced fert. I have gotten 2 sheaths on my catts and 3 spikes on a couple phals already and my degamora is quite far along in spike. I am unsure if I need to switch the cyms over to a bloom booster or should I stay the coarse. I have read as many responses to using the bloom booster as not, also I did change over from 30-12-12 to this new one this year in may (20-14-13) is this balanced enough to still get spikes on the cyms? Sorry for the long post I find it will be interesting to find out what others are doing

Cheryl

[WhiteRabbit]

I use sustained release (9 months) pellet fertilizer (14-14-14, I think) in the Cyms, and they spike fine
I think you are good to stay the course with your Cyms.

[Cym Ladye]

Cheryl,

If you go to the search icon up in the menu bar, draw down the box and type in "fertilizer" you will find 500 threads on fertilizer. One just recently discussed here, was on the use of fertilizers in cooler weather.

CL

[tucker85]

If you ask 10 different growers what fertilizer to use, you'll get 10 different answers. I don't like to use too much nitrogen in the fall and winter. I've always heard that nitrogen can cause some orchids to abort blooming and grow foliage instead. I definitely wouldn't use your 30-12-12 this time of year. Your 20-14-13 might be OK if you don't use much of it. I cut my fertilizer use in half in the fall and winter. That means less fertilizer and less often.