do you fertilize when blooming

[orchids44]

Do you fertilize with bloom booster or "regular" fertilizer when orchids are blooming? Also, should it be just 1/2 or 1/4 strength? Thanks for all your help!

[WhiteRabbit]

Yes. Same dilution as I regularly use.

[tucker85]

I do the same as Sonya. I fertilize all my orchids the same, whether they're blooming or not.

[Orchid Whisperer]

I use a 30-10-10 fertilizer with urea nitrogen anytime the orchids are growing, except late summer when the current year's growth is maturing (then I switch to lower nitrogen, higher P and K relative to N).

Once the orchid has started blooming, the type of fertilizer you use is irrelevant to that bloom. That bloom is influenced by whatever fertilizer you gave at the time that the blooming growth was developing - months ago.

Oh - and I fertilize 1/4 strength in winter, 1/2 strength when actively growing in summer.

[MrHappyRotter]

I fertilize very weakly at each watering, so yes, I feed when the plants are in spike & bloom.

I don't use any special bloom booster fertilizers. I've never seen convincing evidence or reports that they help. Years ago I tried one of the bloom booster products that was labelled for orchids, needless to say, it didn't appear to increase frequency or quality of flowering, so I moved on. Recently, I've read a couple fairly convincing articles and reports that those products can be counter productive.

One thing to point out is that I would definitely avoid using any products that contain hormones when plants are close to blooming or in bloom. They aren't usually added to most ferts you'd buy, typically they're sold as additives, such as Superthrive. Those products can sometimes cause plants to initiate new growth instead of blooms and their use has been linked, at least anecdotally, to an increase in flower deformities.

[OrchidLoverSA]

I don't generally fertilize my orchids while in bloom, I only fertilize when I can see active growth. Only when they stay in flower for months would I start giving them fert towards the end (or when I see a developing leaf of p.bulb).

[RosieC]

I use the same fertilizer, same strength whether they are flowering or not.

Bloom boosters were originally designed to promote the start of blooming, not change anything once the plant started blooming. They lowered the nitrogen and raised one of the other elements (can't remember which). However it's now thought that it was too high nitrogen that suppressed flowering, rather than being the raising of the other element promoting blooming, and so using these bloom boosters lowered the nitrogen and allowed blooming. You could do that just by using a lower concentration fertilizer rather than buying a different one. However current recommendations for fertilizer concentration are now below the nitrogen levels that were suppressing blooming anyway... so just carrying on as normal is fine.