Seedlings from OS meeting

[Call_Me_Bob]

Thx!!

[Call_Me_Bob]

how much should i fertilize?

[Izzie]

Same as your others.

[Call_Me_Bob]

which is? i have never had catts. my laelia got fertilizer every watering, is that okay even though they are seedlings?

[Izzie]

Weekly, weakly is what is recommended for almost all orchids.
Ray Barkalow has a good guide here, and a ppm calculator: Fertilizer PPM Calculator

Read some of his articles about fertilizers.
I've read all of his articles- something every beginner should do!

[Izzie]

Originally Posted by help

which is? i have never had catts. my laelia got fertilizer every watering, is that okay even though they are seedlings?

Cattleyas (which Laelias are a part of) are heavy feeders, but I would only do fertilizer every watering if it is rather weak, like in the 90s-100s ppm. (explained on Ray's ppm calculator.) Most people either do weekly, weakly, or fertilize every third watering or some such thing. (which often equates to once every two to three weeks, hence weekly, weakly being more common.)
Yay convolution.

So. weekly weakly for all your plants. For a varied collection, as Ray says, everyone should thrive with something like 100-125ppm once a week.

[Call_Me_Bob]

okay, i find it funny that you say i feed my laelia too much. i was worried about feeding it too much, but it is doing GREAT

here is my system

i have 4 plants that need watered once a day, so i make a 5 gallon bucket full of water with my ferts and a little superthrive. and then i just take a cup of that water and then pour it into the pot or onto the mount, until it is fully saturated. and then once a week, when i water my other plants, i just water out of the same bucket.

do you think it would be okay to fertilize every other bucket full?

[Izzie]

As I said, read Ray's articles.
Really depends on the ppm of the nutrients.

In situ, these guys get slowly fertlilized by decaying leaf and other matter around them. So- low ppm. In culture, people supply this by just fertilizing weakly weekly. Ray's articles are great about explaining this.


I'll admit right now- I don't know the ppm of your fertilizing regime. And I don't know what it takes to 'force' an orchid with high fertilizer. I know that it can often not be best for the plant.
In garden culture with other plants, you either get very stringy growth, some great growth- and a plant that collapses from exhaustion. Which I've seen happen when people get noids from big box stores.

[Call_Me_Bob]

i read the article and used the calculator, but now im a little confused.

i put my info in, and got this.

using a 15-30-15 fert. at .25 tsp per gallon

The Results:
49 PPM Nitrogen 44 PPM Phosphorus 41 PPM Potassium

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) 134 PPM

but lower on the page, i read about the nitrogen. from what i got out of it, i should shoot or a nitrogen ppm of around 99. so the calculator said i need to use .5 tsp per gallon to get the target nitrogen. that is 2x the amount the earlier calculator said.

and for my other fertilizer. i get these results

10-15-10 fertilizer at .5 tsp per gallon

The Results:
66 PPM Nitrogen 44 PPM Phosphorus 55 PPM Potassium

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) 165 PPM

and using that same info for the nitrogen calculator, it says i should use .75 tsp per gallon

[Izzie]

Read Ray's article a little closer.
" If you use a decent, complete fertilizer, the first criterion (availability of a range of nutrients) is satisfied, so you only have to focus on the nitrogen loading."
"[Considering] the varied collection I have - from "heavy feeding" vandas to phrags that don't like a lot of dissolved solids in their irrigation water - I shoot for a considerably lower target, more in the range of 100- to 150 ppm nitrogen."
If you read down to the end of the page, you see that he recommends going by the nitrogen ppm. The second calculator should be all you need.