Quote:
Originally Posted by Leisurely
My neighbor moved and gave me two dendrobium phalaenopsis type and one phalaenopsis. I grow in a greenhouse but I left these three plants outside. They have received no fertilizer since February of last year. The phalaenopsis has two new spikes and is reblooming from two old spikes. One of the dendrobiums produced a total of eight spikes and the other four. So maybe all of this fertilizer we put on our plants is not necessary. My plants in the greenhouse get 1/2 to 1 tsp. of fertilizer every week and they do bloom well but is it really necessary.
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My advice would be to do a personal experiment. Grow 2 identical clones of a plant side by side. Same everything except one with fert, one without... Record the differences and go from there. I always say "well if mother nature doesnt fertilize, why should I?" Natural rain water does contain a mild amount of nitrogen, but nothing as much as what is in most orchid ferts. Another note is that the good majority of the fertalizer you use is used up by the microbes and enzymes in the media that decay the media. They get 1st dibs and the orchid gets the leftover(Hence the insanely high numbers on orchid fert VS. standard fertalizers). Also a mounted plant or ones in inorganic media needs much less fert because it contains little or none of the decaying microbes.
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