Nutricote which kind ?

[Yourneedfulthings]

I have about 300 orchids in my greenhouse.
I have used for one year Nutricote type 180 (13-13-13) in all my hanging baskets, but not in my pots.
I see more places selling the (18-6-8)
I am trying to cut down on my time of fertilizing with liquid.
Which one will be a better choice if I want to forgo liquid fertilizer routine? Or at least decrease it.

[dounoharm]

i would like to hear input on this as well....i want to rig my greenhouse to care for itself for extended periods....

[WhiteRabbit]

I have only used the "balanced" formula (13-13-13 ), and only in Cyms. I would think that 18-6-8 would be fine, or possibly better. Hopefully some other members will chime in.

[estación seca]

I seem to recall OB member Voyager uses Osmocote on his plants in Hawaii, but I don't recall whether he discussed details. Maybe if you pull up his posts you can read through them and find out. There are two ways to find them:

1 Use the Search function in the maroon bar above, go Advanced, and in the user name box put Voyager;

2 Use the Members function in the maroon bar above, and look for Voyager. Click on his name and then select the tab Statistics then See all threads started by Voyager.

[Ray]

I think the formula is less important than the life span at temperature.

In general, orchids are very "light feeders" compared to much faster-growing terrestrial plants, and overdosing the fertilizer can be very detrimental.

I'm not a fan of slow release fertilizers, as the rate of release is controlled by temperature. For example, a particular one may be rated for release over 6 months, but that's usually at a constant "soil temperature" of "X". Over a season, soil temperature is relatively constant, but in the case of a potted plant or one in a basket, it will fluctuate daily, and if it gets particularly warm that day, the pellets will dump a lot of nutrients into the medium, possibly more than the plant can safely handle.

The best way to simplify feeding is to use a metering pump to inject a tiny amount of fertilizer into your irrigation water at all times, mimicking what the orchids see in nature.

After "fine tuning" my selection of containers and media, I was able to use an overhead deluge system ("rain") in my greenhouse that could be left on a lawn sprinkler timer when I was away. When at home, I had a remote control that would allow me to water from my home office.

[dounoharm]

after researching fertilizer injection systems, I realized that is much more than I want to invest in for my little gh.....so, I will have to invent something that serves my purpose...thanks for all the info!