Orchid fertilizer.

[Sharlynn]

Has anyone used miracle grow orchid fertilizer for their orchids?Is it okay because of the urea in it?

[Orchid Whisperer]

I have used Miracle Gro, it works just fine.

The "avoid urea" thing is a myth that has been repeated so many times that it persists, despite scientific research that demonstrates that it is not true. You can read at least the abstract of an article from a few years ago here: Phalaenopsis can absorb urea directly through their roots

For any fertilizer used with orchids, you will get best results if you mix and use the fertilizer at lower strength than recommended on the package. It is possible to do precise calculations to get the "right" fertilizer concentration, but I usually just use 1/4 of the strength recommended on the package.

[bil]

Gods, yes. In every field there are myths.

I have been trying out Ray's K Lite, and I have to say that the results have been really good. I use it at the ultra low concentrations he does, -- every time I water they get fertilised. I add it to RO water, and I'm doing about 25ppm of nitrogen.

Last year I planted up my shallow pots with rescuue hardcanes that were all the same colour. I was going to ditch all the duplicates, but when I saw them flowering together, I changed my mind, because I realised how good they looked en masse.

I filled a 35 cmm pot with as many as I reasonablly could, and put the three leftovers into a pot that I gave to a friend. They are starting to spike, and her plant has 15 flower spikes in a 25 cm pot.

So far mine looks like it will give 30 flowering spikes It might even give a couple more. I'll post pics when it flowers.

My sorrow is that this Klite is only avvailable in the US. I want to order a 25 pound sack, but to get it sent to Spain, plus pay duty will probably cost me twice what the fertiliser will.

(Still worth it tho!)

[theloyalplum]

I've been using MSU at around 30-40ppm per watering with normal tap. I talked to one of my professors and he said our tap here is pretty clean spring water and he uses it for his plants. I don't argue with the plant morphology man! I use higher concentrations because I don't water as much indoors as I do outdoors. For flowering, I can't quite tell yet because most of mine are seedlings/nbs. They all grow mighty fine though!