Fertilizer ( the nitty gritty )

[jai_star]

Straight to the point i've been growing orchids for 3 years and has had a lot of great results and some not so good. I tend to fertilize weakly with every watering and do a flush of clean water every now and then. I do this for all my orchids is this really necessary? I know for Phalaenopsis they are heavy feeders and love to be fertilized often. How about for rhe pseudobulb types such as Cattleya and Miltonia , Oncidium and Zygos? Surely they should have stored reserve and not need as much food.

I ask this because I have a Cattleya that always put out growth and sledom flowers and when i asked an expert he said he only feed his Catts twice a year OMG i was thinking. So what's the routine that everyone on here has?

[Discus]

You want to fertilise liberally (but still with restraint...) during the growing season(s) of your various orchids; during the dormant season or when they slow down, they don't need as much. Some actually benefit from months of no fertiliser (and often no water).

It's certainly a good idea to do the regular flushing; the ideal way to do this is to water thoroughly, wait ~15-20 minutes and water thoroughly again; the first one solubilises the salts, the second one flushes them out.

Zygos are supposed to like having two dryish and two wettish seasons a year.

Note that not all orchids like the same amounts of fertiliser; what is weak to one orchid can be fatally strong to another. I tried to find as many preferred fertiliser levels for orchids as I could - the higher the EC, the more fertiliser they can take.

It helps to start out with pure water (rain/RO) and then use a fertiliser designed for it; if you don't have access to an EC/pH meter, it's worth borrowing one or taking a sample of your water somewhere to find out what these values are before and after you add your chosen fertiliser.

[RosieC]

It can all depend how strong your fertiliser solution is... you don't say.

If you fertilizer every week with high nitrogen it could suppress blooming. However fertilizing very weakly on a weekly basis might not even need a flush. I use an in-between level that is good for blooming but has a flush.

As Discus said, different orchids need different levels of fertiliser, and some like lower levels in winter (or none) while others do fine with it all year.