Rooty Brassavola

[isurus79]

Ya, bloom boosters are snake oil. Stick with a balanced fertilizer and feed at reduced rates. Less is more with orchids!

---------- Post added at 04:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:10 PM ----------

But those roots sure look amazing!!

[dougbraz]

Good to know the roots are looking good at least

[Ray]

If you look at the plants' makeup, they're about 95% water. Of the "dry" mass, the vast majority is carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen (obtained from air and water) and nitrogen (obtained from fertilizers we apply). All of the other minerals, combined, make up about 1% of the plants' dry mass.

Orchids are particularly undemanding of fertilizer, because they are so slow-growing, compared to most other plants.

If you do the calculations of the chemical processes going on in plants, to gain 1 kg of mass - maybe 45 or 60 days for corn, a couple of years for a cattleya, a decade for a phal, or a lifetime for a tiny pleuorthallid - they must absorb and process about 200 liters of water, but only 10g of nutrient minerals!

Studies have shown that the "throughfall" and "trunk flow" water reaching epiphytes after cascading through a tropical forest canopy has a mineral content typically below 15 ppm, and the vast majority of that is nitrogen.

K-Lite fertilizer (12-1-1-10Ca-3Mg) was developed to try to mimic that, and my recommendation of using only a little, but using it frequently, is intended to mimic what the plants see in nature.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Ray

K-Lite fertilizer (12-1-1-10Ca-3Mg) was developed to try to mimic that, and my recommendation of using only a little, but using it frequently, is intended to mimic what the plants see in nature.

Or simply use time release fertilizer which mimics the same process with a tiny fraction of the effort

[Ray]

Originally Posted by isurus79

Or simply use time release fertilizer which mimics the same process with a tiny fraction of the effort

"Time release" fertilizers are actually temperature dependent, not time, and as that varies, it smacks of "less control" to me.

So if I put a teaspoon of "controlled release" fertilizer in my pot, how do I know how much nutrient is actually being released?

[dougbraz]

Thanks everybody for the info!

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Ray

"Time release" fertilizers are actually temperature dependent, not time, and as that varies, it smacks of "less control" to me.

So if I put a teaspoon of "controlled release" fertilizer in my pot, how do I know how much nutrient is actually being released?

I didn't mention control.

However, less fertilizer gets to the roots over an extended period of time than weekly or monthly dosing since a small amount is released with each watering, which is daily for my 100+ degree temps.

Mixing fertilizer using liquids mostly runs out of the pot and onto the ground, so the amount of fertilizer hitting the media is less important than the amount that reaches the roots AND gets absorbed. Therefore, timed (controlled) release is better replication of natural conditions since small dosing occurs with every watering. Its also less work for the grower to "set it and forget it" for a year.

Some controlled release fertilizers are more temperature dependent than others. I understand osmocote melts completely in high temps and nutricote holds together in high heat.