Organic Fertilizer

[orchidsarefun]

Originally Posted by orchidsarefun

the Chickity stuff is available at my Menards for $8.99 - 25 lbs ! At that price its worth getting as if it does stink, I can still use it on my vegetable garden.
Thanks for that find !

just an update. The Chickity stuff does stink so it will be used in my veggie bed. The other stuff/Buffaloam - 1/2 the price of Amazon - doesn't, and I will update once I have used it.

[Ray]

As far as I can tell, there is not a single organic fertilizer on the market that is complete in all of the nutrients that orchids need.

And then there is the fact that the chemicals absorbed by plants are identical, whether the fertilizers are "organic" or not.


Ray Barkalow (via Tapatalk)

[Pokey49]

Ok, thanks all. I was just wondering. Guess I will stick with what I have, Orchid Plus 20-13-14.

Paul

[Ray]

Use it frequently and VERY dilutely (I'd recommend 1 teaspoon of that formula per 5 gallons of water), and your plant will be very happy. Use more, and the results will not be as good.

[Pokey49]

the directions on the bag says 1 tsp per gallon, but I have been doing 1 tsp/2 gallons......still to much??? I use it on my pahps, cyms and phals too.

[james mickelso]

I'd am curious why you felt "organic" was necessary. The plant doesn't care. The inorganic fertilizers are not hazardous to us at the dosages we use. Just curious.

[Pokey49]

I thought there might be less chance of burning a plant is all with organic. The local nurseries here seem to think using Miracle Grow and the like on my outside flowers is a "bad"........and often try to shoo me away from the commercial fertilizers, so guess the paranoia carried over? Orchids seem so touchy to the amount of fertilizer usaed, i.e. to much or to little, so thought I might cut my errors down with an organic brew is all. Likely no science in my assumption.

[james mickelso]

I don't know why the locals try to keep you from using a very good fertilizer on your plants. Probably not enough mark up in it. Orchids are very slow growers and slow feeders. They grow in nature with very little sustenance at all. Just the limited nitrogen in the rain, very limited phosphorus and potassium in the animal poop and decaying organic material falling on the roots. So there is no need to worry about under feeding them.

[Pokey49]

That all makes sense thanks

[Orchid Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Hiester

Here's another, though I have not tried it nor would I be able to recommend it. Note near the bottom of the page this does have an assay report which describes the different elements in ppm which are found in the formula. This concoction is advertised as "organic" so take it from there. I don't think plants actually use several of the trace elements listed in the assay report, so I would consider that mostly overkill, though most fertilizers, whether "organic" or not (what the heck is "organic", precisely? [Rhetorical question]), probably contain some of these metals and other elements.

Organic Orchid Grow | Agrarian Organics

I looked at the "Organic Orchid Grow" assay. Hiester, you are right to be skeptical.

Note that phosphorus is listed 3 times, 2 different concentrations! Nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations are so low, they are comparable to ambient water (such as from a river). Sodium concentration is higher than any of the NPK nutrients. Many of the concentrations for the other elements have a "<" next to the number, meaning that the element could not be detected at a level equal to or above the numeric value. Add a penny's worth of Epsom salts to some poor quality tap water, and you would be pretty close to their formula.