This is a 12-year old study, and not a particularly good one from what I recall, but it does prove Phalaenopsis can absorb urea through roots.

As I said earlier, it's a matter of degree. Humans can absorb moisture through the skin, too, but it won't slake your thirst like taking a drink!

oh cmon, Ray, you know you love that hot sauna feel over a cold drink any day!!

lol

NO thanks...and those people who have the mister setups on the patio...you are just getting wet folks

Pamela Koide Hyatt owns Bird Rock Tropicals, a specialty bromeliad nursery in Encinitas, California, on the coast just north of San Diego. She hybridizes Tillandsias. She leads ecotours to see bromeliads in habitat. She uses a custom fertilizer formulation for bromeliads, prepared for her by Total Gro, telephone in US 800-433-3055:

Attachment 145942

20-10-20
(No Dye, No Boron, No Copper & No Zn)
TOTAL NITROGEN...............................20%
12.0% Nitrate Nitrogen
8.0% Ammoniacal Nitrogen
AVAILABLE PHOSPHORIC ACID (P2O3)....10%
WATER SOLUBLE POTASH (K2O)............20%
IRON (Fe).....................................0.100%
0.10% Chelated Iron Fe)
MANGANESE (Mn)...........................0.050%
0.05% Chelated Manganese (Mn)
MOLYBDENUM (Mo).........................0.010%

DERIVED FROM: Ammonium Phosphate, Potassium Nitrate, Ammonium Nitrate, Iron EDTA Chelate, Manganese EDTA Chelate, Boric Acid and Sodium Molybdate.

POTENTIAL ACIDITY: 425 lbs calcium carbonate equivalent per ton. (193kg CaCO2/907kg)

Elecrical Conductivity Readings
EC FACTOR - 166.7
EC(mmhos/cm) x 166.7 = PPM Nitrogen

The back of the package contains table showing dilutions for various settings of various automatic injectors.

Amazing! Have been searching & searching for a no urea based nitrogen fertiliser for my Tillandsia and could not find any. So I tried Bunnings and again no fert with no urea.

So I went to a farm product store we call a produces store here. They are in good farming country.

And guess what it was hard to find a fertiliser that has any urea in it. So I got a choice to pick from a number of differing ferts that suited me and my plants. Have a N11 P1 K7 S16. Will use it as 5g per 15ltrs. Vegtables need 25g to 50g.

What does the sulphur as sulphate at 16% do to my Tillandsia?

Thanks ES! That’s awesome

I don't know. I've used ammonium sulfate on Tillandsias. They grew and flowered.

---------- Post added at 08:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:27 AM ----------

A 25# bag from her fit exactly into a large fixed price priority mail box.

Had a look at Sulphate and thought that some of it would fit in here nicely.

Supplies of Sulphur (Elemental or Sulphate)
Plants take up sulphur in the sulphate (SO4) form. The sulphate form is water soluble, and being an anion, is readily leachable. The elemental form of sulphur needs to be broken down into the sulphate form before becoming available to the plant.

Below taken from "WikiDiff"

Sulfate is a related term of sulfur.
As nouns the difference between sulfur and sulfate is that sulfur is (uncountable) a chemical element (symbol s) with an atomic number of 16 while sulfate is (organic chemistry) any ester of sulfuric acid.
As verbs the difference between sulfur and sulfate is that sulfur is to treat with sulfur, or a sulfur compound, especially to preserve or to counter agricultural pests while sulfate is (chemistry) to treat something with sulfuric acid, a sulfate, or with sulfur dioxide.

As a adjective sulfur is of a yellowish green colour, like that of sulfur.

From Extoxnet (Extension Toxicology Network)

Copper sulfate is a fungicide used to control bacterial and fungal diseases of fruit, vegetable, nut and field crops. Some of the diseases that are controlled by this fungicide include mildew, leaf spots, blights and apple scab. It is used in combination with lime and water as a protective fungicide, referred to as Bordeaux mixture, for leaf application and seed treatment. It is also used as an algaecide, an herbicide in irrigation and municipal water treatment systems, and as a molluscicide, a material used to repel and kill slugs and snails. Copper sulfate is a naturally-occurring inorganic salt and copper is an essential trace element in plant and animal nutrition (5, 6, 7, 13, 16). It is available in the following formulations: dusts, wettable powders, and fluid concentrates (17).