Garlic and Rice Water
 

"Hello everyone. It's been a while since I last visited, but I've still been following snd reading passively. I wanted to ask about this man named Mẹo; Vietnamese, who has a YouTube channel where he talks about magical garlic water and rice water. I'm not sure if anything has been posted about him or his technique, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

There may be some benefit from chemicals they release into solution, but they are of extremely limited benefit, and certainly not "magical".

Not believing in magic, I'd be asking "Why?", "What is actually in there?" and "How much?" .

Welcome back!

It might work. I know people used to recommend cooling pasta water and then using it on plants. Garlic has quite a few minerals and nutrients which is why it is good for people so it is possible it might work (and might repel pests, too). I would think that these waters would be a little like cottonseed meal or rice hulls in that it takes a little time to decompose and feed the plants. The starch and oils probably coat the media so it stays around a while, slowly decomposing and feeding the orchids.

I am always trying new things. Currently, a new trend is mint compost. It was recommended to put around my roses this autumn. For my camellias, tropical plants and blueberries, cottonseed meal or rice hulls were recommended.

THank you Estación and I have a surprise for you soon.

Water used for cooking starches will contain some starch, and also the monosaccharide sugar glucose, hydrolyzed from the starch due to heat. Plants are able to take up mono and disaccharides like table sugar and glucose through their roots to use as food. I don't know whether they can take up starch. But even if the plants can't take up the starch, beneficial microorganisms in the medium can use the starch for nutrients.

I can see where some soluble carbs could be helpful... plants make their own carbs thorugh photosynthesis, but can benefit from a few extra... there was a product on the market some years back (Jerry's Grow") that was about 1/3 methanol, it seemed to be beneficial especially for high-light plants. I have seen other recommendations for adding some alcohol, just soluble carbs. I add 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of the cheapest vodka I can find to my fertilizer water, seems to lead to better growth though I have not done a controlled study, does no harm. I figure the orchids like their little aperitif if nothing else. So the starch from the rice would likely do the same (as would sugar), the advantage of alcohol is that it doesn't attract ants. As for the garlic??? Don't know. Any supplement like this would need to be in addition to fertilizer minerals, though, not replace them. Orchids still need those minerals for building new cells.

I have recently started watering my orchids with rice water. I will alternate and use pure water on the second watering.

Interested to see the results, it will determine if i will need to supplement with another fertiliser.

Also stumbled across this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmyxi6nXNAw

Be sure to give it enough time before you draw conclusions. You may see a short-term boost in vegetative growth due to the increased carbohydrates, mineral deficiencies can take a very long time - a growth cycle of a year, or more - to show up, since orchids in particular are very efficient at "recycling" tissue. (Even a human can live and function for a significant period of time on just carbs, eventually the lack of vitamins and minerals will cause problems though.)