Before things go too wild, a couple comments.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ovanoshio
(Post 653424)
Banana peels break down to gibberellic acid, which would stoke growth but it can mutate the genetic information and change them for better or worse. (like peloric, meaning changing the petals to 2 extra lips, or in the case of cattleyas make them splash petal). Just fertilize weakly weekly and use a low concentration of superthrive if you want them to grow faster without mutating.
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As far as we scientists know, plant hormones are unlikely to cause genetic mutation. Overdosing with hormones do cause developmental abnormality like what you mentioned, but they do not change the genetic information (DNA). Epigenetics (e.g. methylation status) could be influenced by hormones, but nobody would call it as "mutation".
Also, I'd like to know where you have seen the information that banana peels break down to gibberellic acid (GA). No, I'm not attacking you or anything. I'm just curious and I'd like to know the concentration of GA in banana. GA is important in maturation of fruits. It is involved in production of ethylene (which cause the maturation of fruits). So I have no doubt that banana contains GA (as well as quite a lot of other hormones), but I'd like to know if it has high concentration of GA to influence other plants.
Quote:
Originally Posted by orchidsamore
(Post 653444)
As for the gibberellic acid produced, I do not know but I use large amounts of Giberellic acid on my orchids as do several other large growers I know.
I use Essentials a growth product with high gibbellic acid concentrated from seaweed. It is 1000 times stronger than Superthrive (IAB and NDD) growth products and does not ever burn orchids. It produces fabulous results.
I have used it for over 5 years and never had the problems of which you warn. Another grower I know with over 1 million orchids in production uses it a lot and never has had any issues.
Anyone using seaweed as a fertilizer also is adding gibberillic acid to their plans.
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From your other post, I think you are confused gibberellins with auxins. Most of the Superthrive, KLN, Kelp products are auxins, which has lots of physiological effects, but we are mostly using it for promoting branching of roots. In industry, I'm sure GA is also used. Gibberellins are used for promoting seed germinations (some germination media contains GA). Other than this, I don't see why someone wants to use GA for orchids. It also can cause development of fruits without fertilization for some plants (you can think of seedless grape, even though this is not how they make seedless grape). This is called parthenocarpy, and I'm not sure if this happens for orchids. Parthenocarpy is not desirable, though (other than maybe for Vanilla). Auxins can cause parthenocarpy, too.
A minor point: you meant IBA (Indole-3-butyric acid) and NAA (1-Naphthaleneacetic acid), which are synthetic auxin, not IAB and NDD.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Orquiadicto
(Post 653472)
I've read in another forum (a Spanish one) that people actually boil 3 0r 4 banana peels in 1 liter of water, filter it and water their Phals with this. It seems to trigger spikes. I've never done it though. Perhaps I'll try next year, since this year I've only got one Phal to spike (through they get all the same cares).
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Interesting, you should try it out of season. For some plants, GA can cause bolting (initiation of flowering stalk). I know this happens for Brassicaceae plants, and I confirmed it with Poppy, too. Plants use some environmental cues (day length, temperature etc), but GA could cause the bolting without the proper cue in some plants. So, instead of waiting for the usual time when your Phals flower, you should try it in a wrong time to confirm the effect of banana peel. I'm not sure if GA is heat-stable, though.