PET Potting Method

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Ray

A couple of comments here:

Air temperature does not necessarily translate to pot temperature, especially if they're wet and evaporative cooling can occur.

Having the pellets present doesn't mean they are still releasing fertilizer, as they don't work by slowly dissolving.

Instead, they consist of a permeable polymer pellet containing water-soluble fertilizer. Once the pellet has absorbed water, fertilizer solution starts to ooze out. The rate at which it is released is determined by the porosity of the polymer, and as the polymer has a thermal expansion coefficient, the warmer the pellet, the larger the pores and the faster the fertilizer is released. Different release rates are controlled by modifying the polymer and its thickness.

Your remaining pellets might be just plastic shells.

Yet more valuable information! I'll check the shells when I get home. However, it seems like a rapid fertilizer dump would have harmed my Cattleyas.