Amazing New Fertilizer

[Nexogen]

By volume, dry air contains 78.09% Nitrogen, 20.95% Oxygen, 0.93% Argon, 0.039% Carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Nexogen

By volume, dry air contains 78.09% Nitrogen, 20.95% Oxygen, 0.93% Argon, 0.039% Carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases.

And your point is?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Nexogen

By volume, dry air contains 78.09% Nitrogen, 20.95% Oxygen, 0.93% Argon, 0.039% Carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases.

From my understanding, nitrogen gas, (N2), is not really a usable form of nitrogen for most higher organisms.

I believe that ammonia, (NH3), urea, (CH4N2O), and nitrate, (NO3), are more of what plants can use.

The only other thing that can interact biologically in a useful manner to a plant that I know of is nitric oxide, (NO).

If I'm mistaken, someone can go ahead and make the correction.

[Nexogen]

Some plants have symbiotic bacteria living in their roots, so through this diazotrophs they can use Nitrogen (N2) from the atmosphere.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I'm not saying that these symbiotic relationships with these microorganisms doesn't occur with orchids as well, but when I was looking into things, the bacteria you speak of are mostly symbiotic to plants in the family Fabaceae, (the legumes).

Is there anything that suggests that orchids have a symbiotic relationship with a nitrogen fixing microorganism that is able to convert N2 into NH3 or something else that the orchid can use?

[Nexogen]

I don’t know its a supposition but few orchids I never fertilized and orchids fertilized with every watering 30-70 ppm N had fewer roots while orchids that were never fertilized had at least twice as many and growing and blooming well.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Assuming that orchids don't have a symbiotic relationship with a nitrogen fixing microorganism that can convert N2 into some other form of nitrogen that the orchids can use, (and this is a big assumption, because we really don't know).

And...

Hypothetically speaking if what you're observing is correct for several individuals of orchids within the same species across several genera/species, then, in general, what I mentioned about orchids perhaps being able to thrive in low N environments might have some merit worth looking into...

Just sayin'. My .

[Nexogen]

http://www.cab.kps.ku.ac.th/db_cab/r...-09-000025.pdf

[ALToronto]

Nexogen, if you have been watering with tap water (which contains nitrates) and growing in organic media (which releases N as it decomposes) then you have been feeding your unfertilized orchids. If you had been growing them in inert media and watering with RO water, you would have seen a very different result.

70 ppm N is a huge concentration when you compare it to what orchids get in the wild. Since I stopped reading fert bottle labels and started using Ray's calculator for 10-20 ppm N, my orchids have been growing much better.

I cringe when I see other members here advise that 'weakly' is 1/4 of the manufacturer recommended amount. Do the math - most of the time that's still 200-300 ppm N. Plants will grow well for a while, then decline. The media will decompose faster, too.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Ok, at least now it is confirmed that there is a strong possibility of symbiosis with diazotrophic bacteria in orchids.

However, upon reading the abstract, (and forgive my ignorance here, because I really don't fully understand what the numbers mean), but they, at first glance, look like very small numbers. I think the author's talking about nanomols, for every 24 hrs, per colony of bacteria in a mL; that's miniscule. It's not convincing me that orchids grow in environments where N bioavailability is high.