? I should know

[stormzy]

Just a question that I am embarrassed to ask, but I will anyways. When do you stop fertilizer? When you first see a spike or when the blooms are fully open? I think my Seikai 青海 is spiking. Probably a false alarm but need to know this anyways.

[katrina]

I don't stop fertilizing when any of my orchids are blooming/getting ready to bloom.

I've read that too and I beieve that bit of "wisdom" should be considered an internet myth and you should just ignore it. Fert as you would any other time of the year w/out worry.

Obviously, never over-fert and like many orchids you can reduce/eliminate the fert in the winter if the plants are less active/not actively growing.

[MattWoelfsen]

I would not be embarrassed, this is a good question. Regardless of the plant and its condition, fertilizing Neofinetia is based on growing season. I have seen recommendations, and I followed these recommendations...

During the growing season and in warm weather, use a weak solution of fertilizer. Then on the next watering good plain water. Since it has been colder over night, I have not started fertilizing. When overnight temperature is consistently above 55F, then I'll start.

For my first application I use fish emulsion with Kelpmax. This application is done early in the morning and I let my plants dry out during the day.

Next watering, I water with plain water to flush out the root ball.

Next watering, I use a weak solution of orchid food.

Then plain water.

Because of the sphagnum moss, this kind of watering will help keep the moss from decaying and minimize the potential for algae growth--which makes the moss unsightly.

If I have a plant in spike or flowering, I try to keep the fertilized liquid away from the inflorescence--this seems to cause bud blast. I also do not do foliage fertilizing as the dry residue is unsightly. Due to small stature of these plants, it is hard to clean Neo leaves when you have big, fat fingers!

[stormzy]

Thanks, I was really confused about if I should fertilize or not in spike/bloom. Thanks for clearing it up for me. I really think my plant is in spike which really is a surprise. Hopefully it will make it to full bloom

[AnonYMouse]

Ditto, Katrina. I follow Ray's recommendation of very weak balanced fertilizer nearly every watering while growing and blooming. Just water when they aren't doing anything.