Miltonia -how much fertilizer?

[phragman]

Readers: I have three wonderful miltonia and they came from a very good grower in HI and were fantastic in flower. Now I am trying to get my first blooms. I have 4 nice growths on one of them and wonder if I can fertilize safely at rate of 1/8 tsp per gallon every 4 -5 days? Will I burn the roots. I feel they should fill out the bulb before spring so I get lots of flowers. Here is a photo of one of my three milts. I love them for fragrance and hope I can post blooms this spring to you all. Thanks. Hope the photo goes through? Phragman

[Merlyn]

That's a VERY safe dosage and twice that would still be very safe. You will never burn the roots if you water before fertilizing as I do. I flush thoroughly at every watering and then fertilize if it's time.
to the forum !!!

[camille1585]

1/8 tsp of what? Makes a huge difference if you're using 20-20-20 or 10-10-10 for instance. Don't forget to flush the pot with plain water every 4-5 waterings, that will help avoid root burn from long term salt build up.

A good tool for dosing fertilizer is this website:Fertilizer PPM Calculator
Scroll to the calculator at the bottom of the page, and type in the nitrogen ratio of your fert. A good target ppm of nitrogen is about 100 to 125ppm, it's a good rate for all 'average feeder' orchids, for use at almost all waterings. Based on those numbers it'll tell you how many tsp/gal to use. Ex; at a target of 125ppm N for a 20-20-20 fert, you need a bit under 1/2 tsp.

[RosieC]

Camille is exactly right, you can't judge if it's a good concentration unless you know the strength of the fertiliser.

I always advise the link Camille has given, or this one from the same website. Fertilizer Mixing Calculators

[phragman]

Originally Posted by phragman

Readers: I have three wonderful miltonia and they came from a very good grower in HI and were fantastic in flower. Now I am trying to get my first blooms. I have 4 nice growths on one of them and wonder if I can fertilize safely at rate of 1/8 tsp per gallon every 4 -5 days? Will I burn the roots. I feel they should fill out the bulb before spring so I get lots of flowers. Here is a photo of one of my three milts. I love them for fragrance and hope I can post blooms this spring to you all. Thanks. Hope the photo goes through? Phragman

I made the original post about how much fertilizer for the miltonia. Well I am using Peters 30-10-10. Right now I am putting on 1/8 tsp : gal every other watering so I think it is pretty dilute BUT ..I also wonder if I am getting enough etc. So many factors here. Winter in ND and lower light, short days etc. I hope I can get my three milts to rebloom. I just love the scent on these guys. Thanks phragman

[silken]

Did you check out the link on Ray's site? You use your fertilizer formula and will get an answer as to how much.

One thing I notice is your mix is very high in nitrogen (1st number) and low in phosphorus and potassium. Nitrogen promotes new leafy green growth and may not be the best to apply when encouraging blooms. It is thought that reducing nitrogen and/or increasing the middle number (phosphorus) is what encourages blooms. Now would be the time to start doing that as Milts (assuming they are Miltoniopsis) usually bloom in spring. You may want to buy a bloom booster fertilizer to use prior to bloom time.

[phragman]

Silken: Thank you for your reply. I find the chart sent earlier on the post as confusing? I guess I have to study it over more. Maybe if I post a photo of my miltoniopsis you will see more clearly. This plant flowered and now is making good growth but if the bulbs are not yet filled out I don't know if 'bloom booster' is the thing to use either? I thought I had this same problem with a species oncid ampliatum, was very slow and late to initiate a growth, but made up for lost time and now has two big bloom spikes...so it may still happen yet with the three milts. Leaves are tall but bulbs are not full yet. Yes, I think they should (my three plants anyway) be spring blooming. The larger bulb you see in the photo is the mother plant and the thin ones are the new ones at the side. Have to see if I can post a photo again? Love the miltonia clan PS. the medium used here is New Zealand fir bark- first time trying that out as well / phragman

[silken]

I see you have a tag, but I can't read it. Miltonia and Miltoniopsis have been separated into two separate genera because they have different growing conditions. Yours looks like a Miltoniopsis because of the close growths, but I can't say for sure. They are the pansy orchids which grow somewhat cooler than the Miltonias. I have a number of these and mine have been known to start spikes before fully mature. But mot always. So it's a tough call as to when to start using bloom booster. But once you see a spike is not the time. It should be done prior to that to encourage blooms. So if they are fairly close to maturity, I would cut back the nitrogen.

As for the amount of fertilizer, if you read the instructions on the container of fertilizer and then use 1/4 to 1/2 of that recommended amount, it is usually what is recommended for orchids. If it's specifically called an orchid food, then the actual recommended dose is likely fine, but I myself would still cut it back a bit. Orchid roots tend to burn easily.

[phragman]

Silken: Thanks much for your helps here. I usually try and stay low on the nitrogen because of fear of burning too. In winter I am using weakly/ weakly I guess and that should be safe and can step it up as spring approaches I guess. Phragman