Leftover bloom booster - use or not?

[gardengirl13]

Yeah I didn't want to confuse things by saying I also add seaweed as well as an additive. Not every time, but maybe once and a while.

Have you been using the MG or do you just have it? have you opened it if you havent' used it? Maybe you can exchange it for something different if you don't want to open it. But you can't just use it once and think it's not working. If you have it and want to use it, use it regularly and you'll see if it's working or not. Unless you use WAY more then what you're supposed to it won't really do any damage. So don't worry there.

I know this is all so confusing. That's why it is confusing though, because so many different things work for different people. you just have to experiment.

[Vanda lover]

After hearing that balanced fertilizers are better, I mixed my 2 kinds together because they are all we have available here. One is Schultz 19-31-17, the other is Plant prod 25-10-10. The plants are fine, many in spike.

[james mickelso]

Most fertilizers incorporate urea into their formulations because it is cheap and has the highest concentration of nitrate of any dry fertilizer. Orchids use nitrates as food. Urea is broken down into ammonia and CO2. Two types of bacteria then nitrify the ammonia to nitrite (nitrosomonas) and then to nitrate (nitrobacter) which the plant then can use. But these bacteria reside on soil (media) surfaces and because the surface area in most orchid media is limited there are not enough of them to do the job adequately. A nitrate based fertilizer is more beneficial to orchids because the nitrate is readily available to them. But urea based fertilizers will work though more slowly. And because bacteria have to breal down the urea and don't metabolize very well at temps below 60 degrees, it just makes sense to use a nitrate or ammonium nitrate fertilizer which in theory works more efficiently. Hope this clouds the issue further.

[james mickelso]

The key to using a bloom booster is "when" to use it. And that means knowing when your orchid has finished vegetative growth (producing leaf material) and is starting to produce flower buds. I think it is called sinescence. Please someone correct me if it's the wrong term. Again, in nature the orchid comes to life making new buds which enlarge into pbulbs when nitrogen is readily available to them (the rainy season). But phosphorus and potassium (rare under most circumstances) are leached out of the environment by the rainfall. Then the rains decrease and the "ratio" of nitrogen to phosphorus and potassium increases. Both are derived from dust, decaying leaf litter, and animal excretement).That is when the orchid switches from producing leaf material and storing starches and sugars, and produces flower material. The end of the rainy season also introduces mature insects for fertilization of the coming flowers. It's the ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus and potassium the starts the process of senescence or flower production. If you know when this is for the species you grow, then that's your switch point.

[james mickelso]

Ok. My brain kicked in and the term is inductance. The initiation of flowering. Another very important consideration in when an orchid flowers is temperature and photoperiod. The dry season in many environments correlates to cooler temperatures and winter. But that is for another thread. Class dismissed.

[isurus79]

Thanks James, good info!

[gardengirl13]

Cool thanks!!!! It sounds like a fish tank, the fish poop, creating ammonia, which then bacteria turn into nitrites then to nitrates.



One thing I thought was that orchids, and other plants really, don't get fert in nature, so it's ok to do the weakly weekly thing since they don't get different things at different times. They get what's in the rain/soil/leaves/manure/etc so it's basically the same thing all the time. Plants in nature don't get fert once a month. Am I correct with this? I always thought that's why people do it all the time instead of once a month.

[ambersartain]

Thanks, will probably use a little bit of the bloom booster right now, until I can get something better. A few of them are getting spikes so I don't think it will hurt, hopefully it will help. And if I read right, I'm going to go without fertilizer when they've fully formed flowers and/or are not growing? I think the phals sort of grow continuously so I'll probably give them a little bit throughout.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by ambersartain

And if I read right, I'm going to go without fertilizer when they've fully formed flowers and/or are not growing? I think the phals sort of grow continuously so I'll probably give them a little bit throughout.

Sounds good!

[ambersartain]

Thanks all! Is more clear now.