Owners of Laelia milleri - An important question

[SouthPark]

Sorry guys! (and girls!) ..... my meaning was aluminum/aluminium sulphate ------ as compared to iron sulphate. Ray had mentioned it earlier already. But just made a typo. That's what I mean about we know what he means when he accidentally typed 'aluminium sulphate/aluminum sulfate' ----- we know he meant iron sulfate.

[Ray]

Yes, he meant iron sulfate (and he has edited that earlier post).

Yes, I was referring to solubility.

Back - 50 years ago - when folks relied entirely upon anecdotal evidence for such stuff with orchids, and chemical additives were mostly unavailable, throwing stuff into the pot - like nails for iron, copper pennies for fungus control, or eggshells for calcium - was pretty much the only option, but folks really didn't know how much to add or what it was really doing, so sometimes caused more issues than they cured - if they actually cured them at all.

[rbarata]

Originally Posted by Ray

Yes, he meant iron sulfate (and he has edited that earlier post).

Sorry, Ray. Didn't noticed you've edited the post.
I was getting confused searching for aluminium effect on plants. Aparp from its use as a ph corrective, everything else just scared me.

What's the concentration you propose for iron sulphate? Must be really low, right?

[rbarata]

Originally Posted by Ray

Yes, he meant iron sulfate (and he has edited that earlier post).

Sorry, Ray. Didn't noticed you've edited the post.
I was getting confused searching for aluminium effect on plants. Aparp from its use as a ph corrective, everything else just scared me.

What's the concentration you propose for iron sulphate? Must be really low, right?

[Ray]

Originally Posted by rbarata

What's the concentration you propose for iron sulphate? Must be really low, right?

I have no idea.

However, if you consider that a good quality formula like the MSU variants (WW, RO, & K-Lite) carry 0.1-0.2 wt %, I would think that something about double that might be appropriate.

[rbarata]

Hello, my friends

I was on holidays for the last week...
Ray, about the concentration, unfortunately I have no way to know the weight % of iron in y fert as it doesn't mention it. Anyway, based on the fertilizer values you gave me, and doing a rough calculation, the iron sulphate to add is really low, something around 10 ths of a gram for a lot of water.
That's something to consider (or not) after seen the result of the photo bellow:

A sheath...flower count and their color will be my indicators.

[SaraJean]

Excellent! Can you update when you see some buds in the sheath? I’m still not seeing any in mine when I shine a light through it

[rbarata]

Originally Posted by SaraJean

Excellent! Can you update when you see some buds in the sheath? I’m still not seeing any in mine when I shine a light through it

I will... if there's any. For milleri the key for a good blooming is lots of sun during winter, which I gave it. Let's see if it was enough.

[SaraJean]

Originally Posted by rbarata

I will... if there's any. For milleri the key for a good blooming is lots of sun during winter, which I gave it. Let's see if it was enough.

Same. I had mine sitting in lots of direct sun, this and my other rupicolous Laelias were just left outside all winter on the balcony, I just hope it was enough duration

[rbarata]

Does milleri blooms from dry sheaths? Green sheaths? Both?