Feed Me!

[charlesf6]

---------- Post added at 11:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:25 AM ----------

Ok I have had my plants for a few weeks now and just kind of touched base with their feelings are as toward light & air conditions along with watering hole habits (more drying out periods than over hydration).

But what do I do about food? I haven't given that a lot of thought yet until I purchased Pollock, my 3rd plant and it was sitting right next to a box of orchid food.

We are getting colder real fast here in N.Y., summer has left!
Should I offer them food before the winter sets in and the days become much shorter? Thanks in advance.

[silken]

A common consensus among orchid growers is to feed a balanced fertilizer weakly, weekly. What that means is 1/2 to 1/4 the recommended dosage on the package. The weekly part means add it when you water them. Of course if you only water every 10 days, then that is when the weak ferts would be added. And once a month flush the pot well with clear water to flush out excess fertilizer salts. Orchid roots are considered more sensitive to fertilizer than other plants and don't get too much in nature.

[charlesf6]

Does their food expire? I found an older container under my sink.

[silken]

Originally Posted by charlesf6

Does their food expire? I found an older container under my sink.

I don't think mine does. If it has gone all crystalized or as a liquid some components may not dissolve properly but if It dissolves, I think it should be fine.

[charlesf6]

---------- Post added at 12:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:53 PM ----------

Just didn't know how they would take to "leftovers"
I know that I don't care too much for them.

[u bada]

i love how the only tag for this post is "feed" lol

Yeah, I'll fertilize things weekly, weakly year round, but i give a little more fert ratio in spring and summer... and take it down around now. still pretty warm here, so i may keep fert a bit higher for a couple more weeks or this whole month.

That said, there are plants that grow year round (many pleurothallis) and also those that grow mainly in all (some sophronitis for instance) so those you can keep on a regular fert or sure year around...

those that go dormant, (some dendrobiums, catasetums), you can cut off fert, and reduce watering fairly soon, when leaves or shed, etc.

[silken]

Your plant food is not a balanced one. It is often called a bloom booster with the large middle number. It will do, but it would be better to buy something like 20-20-20. I do use bloom booster sometimes when new growths (on Catts or Oncidiums) have just started to induce flower production. But some say it doesn't work and it is the lower presence of the nitrogen that actually stimulates bloom. This won't kill the plants or anything. May have less leafy green growth tho.

[estación seca]

For any given plant, something is going to be the limiting factor in how fast it grows.

Think about what an orchid needs to grow to its full genetic potential, during its normal growing season, on a suitable substrate. It needs light, proper temperature and relative humidity, carbon dioxide from the air, purer water than that required by most other plants, minerals, and nitrogen.

Plants in cultivation rely on the grower for everything, unless they are outside and get rain. We water; we select the spot for light exposure; we heat (or cool) and humidify the growing area; we provide minerals and nitrogen in the form of fertilizer.

In habitat, water and light availability commonly limit growth of plants. They have to compete with other plants for these. Rain will carry nutrients from decaying material nearby to the plants, so nutrition is proportional to water received. Areas with drenching, constant rains have very low nutrition availability; orchids solved this problem by learning to grow in symbiosis with fungi. This association increases the amount of nutrients available to the orchids. But - our orchids in cultivation, born and raised aseptically, do not have these fungi with them. We need to provide them nutrition.

Some orchids come from areas with regular rain throughout the year. Others come from areas with distinct, and frequently long, dry seasons, with no rain. No nutrients will be carried to the roots of these plants during their dormancy. The Dendrobiums mentioned above by u_bada get these long dormancies, with little or no rain and no nutrients.

In cultivation, proper temperature is frequently the limiting factor in how fast our plants grow, especially in winter. Few of us keep our houses as warm in winter as Phalaenopsis would prefer, for example. Few people on the polar side of 45 degrees latitude will be willing to heat their greenhouses enough, summer and winter, to grow Vandas to their fullest potential.

Light is also an issue for people in northern latitudes who grow with natural light only. There is much less light available to plants, especially during the winter.

When temperature and light are ideal, generous amounts of fertilizer allow plants to grow as rapidly as they can. But when temperature and light are not ideal, plants cannot use as much fertilizer. This is the condition for most northern, natural-light growers, especially in winter. The orchids aren't going to be growing, and won't use the fertilizer. Algae, moss and molds do like to grow with plentiful nutrition, low light and cool temperatures.

Growers providing optimal light and temperature, during the proper growing season, can apply more fertilizer than can growers with suboptimal conditions. With optimal light and temperature, the limiting factor in plant growth becomes availability of nutrients.

Heavily fertilized plants with optimal lighting and temperature will grow faster than those fed "weakly, weekly" with optimal lighting and temperature. I have been told by a number of excellent growers, who provide optimal light and temperature to their plants all year, that they use very high amounts of fertilizer at almost every feeding during the growing season. For example, I have very warm temperatures and lots of natural light most of the year. I have been told by these growers that I can fertilize my Cattleya seedlings in bark 3-4 times a week during the growing season, with 1/2 to 1 teaspoon / 2.5 - 5ml powder of 20-20-20 per gallon / 3.78 liters of water, and only water once a month with pure water, to wash out the salts.

The grower must ensure the amount of dissolved material in the fertilizer solution does not make the solution more concentrated than the orchid can tolerate.

But, providing more fertilizer with suboptimal light and temperature conditions will not help any plant to grow better. In that case, the fertilizer is not the limiting factor. I suspect the "weakly, weekly" idea came about because nutrient availability is not the limiting factor for most orchids in cultivation. Temperature and light are, and were, especially during the era when "weakly, weekly" was coined. There was no practical method of artificial lighting available back then. People could not provide optimal temperature and light to their plants if they lived in northern latitudes.

This is why so many people now use artificial lighting, and heat their growing areas.

I didn't address carbon dioxide. I haven't read much on how orchids absorb it. Many orchids use crassulacean acid metabolism, and absorb CO2 during the night. I don't know whether most orchids also absorb it during the day (Phlaenopsis do.) Most cacti and other succulents only absorb CO2 during the night. As they absorb the CO2 their internal acidity increases / pH decreases. When the pH reaches a certain low level, the enzymes involved in CO2 absorption stop working. Measurements of pH through the day suggest cacti are fully saturated with CO2 by about 10 pm most evenings, and they have photosynthesized all the stored CO2 within the first 1-3 hours of sunlight the following morning. This is the limiting growth factor for most succulents, and the reason they don't need much fertilizer, unless grown in non-soil media with no nutrients at all - like typical bagged "cactus mix."

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by charlesf6

Does their food expire? I found an older container under my sink.

The mineral content doesn't expire. Nitrogen compounds, however, may decompose to nitrogen gas, and you might deliver less nitrogen to the plant than you think. The higher the storage temperature the greater the likelihood of this, and it happens far faster in liquid solutions.

This is a big reason why osmotic fertilizer pellets like Osmocote should not be stored outside in hot sheds or garages, and why they don't work well in hot climates such as mine.

[Luizacft]

Talked to an orchid grower recently and he told me to use all types of orchid food during a month. It means growth, rooting and blooming interpolated. Flush every few weeks. I. Case you've got Vandas he told to use a very weak dosage sometimes a day / everyday)


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