Quote:
Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer
I would skip the "bloom boosters". Everything I have read suggests that these are not really useful. Best is to switch to low nitrogen fertilizer (or just fertilize less) when the plant is not in strong growth mode.
Wow! just big sacks of agricultural fertilizer available? Any online options (similar to Ebay or Amazon)? I have not worked with the fertilizers in the big sacks, but maybe you could try adding small amounts (ranging from 1 cubic centimeter up to 5 cc) to high quality water (such as rain) and see if you can get someone to measure electrical conductivity (EC) for you. It is possible to make a very rough estimate of total parts per million of dissolved solids from EC (roughly, about 150 uS/cm is about 100 parts per million total dissolved solids).
Epsom salts, try 1 teaspoon per gallon (or about 5 cc per 3.8 liters), add about 250 ml of that solution to 4 liters of water when you water once a week.
I hope some of this helps.
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Oh it does, it does. Very interesting. So, it's not the raised PK, but the dropped N that does it?
Well, you can buy some small amounts, but I have quite a lot of flowers, and so buying small amounts comes out very pricey. A 25 kilo sack lasts a while, and costs 50 euros, whereas to buy the same amount in small boxes would be almost ten times as much. Same with pesticides like the systemic Confidor. It is sold in the garden centres in teeny weeny little bottles. I buy it by the litre in the generic form in the agricentre for 25 euros a litre. The small bottles work out at 500 a lire.
If I can find a suitable granular 20-20-20 mix, then I can switch in the orchard from the slow release pellets to the granular mix, so it would mean I was effectively getting my orchid feed for nothing.
Next question please. This might sound silly, but how then do I drop the nitrogen? Do I just stop fertilising, or switch to something like the 6-30-30?
Thanks for the info by the way, this is all very interesting.
---------- Post added at 03:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:29 AM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by james mickelso
Your hard as nails water may or may not be hard due to calcium chlorie but instead be hard from iron or manganese. Or a combo of all. That calcium chlorie is not available to your plants. Skp the bloom boosters. It is not the amount of P/K but the ratio of N to P and K at the appropriate time. It's not necessary unless you have a reluctant plant. If you can get 20/20/20 I would use that more than any of the others you mentioned and that is just because a balance is better than switching all the time.
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OK, thanks. I'm pretty sure that the water here has plenty of calcium in the bicarbonate form, due to the amount of deposits we get in the kettle etc. I haven't got a KH test kit to verify it, but when I used to keep koi back in the UK, I was well up on my water chemistry, and the high KH water there caused the same deposit.
I'm enjoying the information here. One of the joys of boards like this is these discussions, where one can learn so much. From the point of view of fertiliser sellers, a multitude of fertiliser types and numbers is a sales asset, but when you strip away the hype, a more simple picture emerges.
Is this true for Phals as well? Stick with the 20-20-20 and then switch to a low nitrogen fertiliser at the right time?
It certainly makes things a lot simpler.
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