Dendrobium Seedlings just not growing

[Shadeflower]

Originally Posted by greyblackfish

I would have to see the ph of my tap water since I mostly just fill gallon cartons up with tap water and leave the cap off overnight so the chlorine will evaporate off. It’s just some general advice I’ve found on the internet, and as the saying goes, all information from the internet must be true. I have also seen somewhere that tap water has more minerals so fertilizer should be used even less. This I haven’t kept in mind.

greyblack,
the question of fertilizing is not an easy one.

What makes it harder is that everyone believes to feed slightly differently.

ES relies on a theoretical N number.

But if you were to measure the concentration in your bucket you will find that practical values never match theoretical values.

So which do you trust? A theoretical value or a value you can measure.

The one side will argue all measuring equipment is inaccurate and notoriously misleading.

I would argue relying on a theoretical value is dangerous.

One thing I can say comparing the two by now is that the theoretical value is always 50% higher than the real value.

So which do you trust? The ones with the theoretical value will say theirs is correct on paper.

I will say I have measured it and even if my measurement might be inaccurate I would always rather trust the lower value and the value I have measured.

But is all of this really important? Yes and no.

Yes fertilizing is important long term but will you see any short term effects from fertilizing? No certainly not.

Reviving this dendrobium will not succeed or fail because of fertilizing.

Unless you overfertilize, then you will cause damage but otherwise what this dendrobium needs more than anything is just plain rain water.

You rightly recognize that the PH value is far more important than the amount of fertilizer you are feeding.

I agree with everything that Yaon has said but at the same time I know it won't actually make any difference for this particular case.

Like you said orchids do not consume many nutrients at all and when an orchid has no roots it won't need any.

All it will need is fresh water at the right ph level. That will be the most soothing for it.

Researching fertilizing is worth it but the problem is that some people like to leave out all K, others think that Nitrogen is the most important nutrient, I believe Calcium is the most important Nutrient that all others should be based on.

Everyone has their own beliefs.

So which do you go with?

[YetAnotherOrchidNut]

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

Everyone has their own beliefs.

Everyone also has different circumstances, environments, and personal habits to factor in. I use a liquid fertilizer that allows me to be lazy, i find measuring a cap full is easier to get right than measuring a gram, even on a microgram scale, so fussy to get right. :-)

[Dusty Ol' Man]

Originally Posted by YetAnotherOrchidNut

Everyone also has different circumstances, environments, and personal habits to factor in. I use a liquid fertilizer that allows me to be lazy, i find measuring a cap full is easier to get right than measuring a gram, even on a microgram scale, so fussy to get right. :-)

If you go to First Ray's website, he offers a quart size bottle to mix a concentrate, then dispense one ounce (30ml), graduated so you can adjust the dilution to achieve the strength you want. The idea is solid and you could adapt something similar if you don't want to make a purchase from the US.

[YetAnotherOrchidNut]

Originally Posted by Dusty Ol' Man

If you go to First Ray's website, he offers a quart size bottle to mix a concentrate, then dispense one ounce (30ml), graduated so you can adjust the dilution to achieve the strength you want. The idea is solid and you could adapt something similar if you don't want to make a purchase from the US.

Clever. I might try that when I run out of the fertilizer I use. Thanks for the suggestion.