Fertilizer Change During Flower Spike

[Bloomer001]

Throughought the year I have kept a consistent artificial light, watering, and fertilizer routine for my Phaleonopsis orchids. I use MSU pellets from RePotMe NPK 13, 3, 15, and each week I also use a diluted solution of liquid Miracle Grow NPK 24, 8, 16. I occasionally flush residue with only water. This year I had tremendous root and leaf growth Spring through Fall. I believe the high nitrogen from the ferts helped with intense leaf and root development. The MSU also contains 8% calcium (I don't know if more is better for Phals), but I think calcium is essential for Phals (the Miracle Grow has no calcium). I also cut the spikes right after the last flower dried in Spring to conserve energy.
I certainly noticed stagnated growth if I skipped a feeding so I tried to feed every week.

My orchids are currently spiking (spikes are about 4" at present.) In addition to my current feeding routine, I'm considering incorporating a mid-week micro dose of Miracle Grow Bloom Booster NPK 10, 52, 10 and Orchid Focus Bloom GT by top spraying onto surface roots (I don't want too much moisture in the pot hence spraying instead of applying with a water can.)

Does anyone have experience microdosing Phals? Should I add more calcium to feedings? Does anyone have experience with using a higher concentration of Phosphorous during spikes and budding? Comments re Orchid Focus Bloom Gt, other ferts, and any thoughts concerning fert routines would be appreciated.

[thefish1337]

Seems like a lot of work and buying lots of products. I haven't found "bloom" boosters to work for me. Many people consider them a long running "garden myth" that hasn't gone away in decades. I would just stick to your usual regime, and maybe even back off a little.

[Bloomer001]

I've heard bloom boosters don't do anything, but I never tried them so wanted to experiment.

[Dusty Ol' Man]

Originally Posted by Bloomer001

I've heard bloom boosters don't do anything, but I never tried them so wanted to experiment.

Why waste money? Visit Ray's website and read his article on bloom boosters. Then read his section on nutrition. It will help.

[Bloomer001]

Do you have a link to Ray's website?

---------- Post added at 08:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:12 PM ----------

I think I found it! Firstrays.com

[Roberta]

Basically, orchids don't need much fertilizer. As far as calcium goes, it depends on your water. If your water is very pure, then yes, adding it does matter, for any orchid. (New York city water has a reputation for being quite pure) But you certainly don't need to change the regimen during blooming. Cutting spies doesn't conserve energy - the plant can actually "recycle" the tissue of the old spike as long as it's green. If you leave it, you may even get more flowers, or a keiki or both. It's an aesthetic judgement... if you don't like looking at a green spent spike, trim it. If it doesn't bother you, leaving it may even benefit the plant.

[buzzlightyear]

Originally Posted by Bloomer001

Does anyone have experience microdosing Phals? Should I add more calcium to feedings? Does anyone have experience with using a higher concentration of Phosphorous during spikes and budding? Comments re Orchid Focus Bloom Gt, other ferts, and any thoughts concerning fert routines would be appreciated.

Hi, I am new here so I don't really follow what others do growing their orchids. I like your thought process anyway, if you never experiment or try something new you will never be able to discover something new and the only way to become better at something is to discover something new to help. The other side would argue why fix something that isn't broken, ie listen to how it has been done in the past and copy that for best results. I think we have plenty of time to grow orchids, some like to improve, others are happy with their results. It's all a personal choice and if someone wants to try a different flavored ice cream then let them try the different flavored ice cream. That is what they are sold for. Now I know when it comes to plants there are lots of so called "snake juices" that cost a lot and do very little. To try out each product and make a conclusion on whether they work or not would take decades. At least with a small collection. Scientists have made a few experiments on orchids but the research is ridiculously limited compared to what we would know about them if they were an edible crop for example, no big corporation is really interested to find out more about orchids, that's just us collectors growing them.

So anyway it would take decades to try out the differences between different fertilizers and all the additives and bloom boosters one can try.

From my research I believe calcium and magnesium are important. Seaweed extract is beneficial so I use that.

All I can tell you is how mine is grown based on the research I have done. So that includes adding seaweed extract, adjusting the PH, using rain water, I add calcium and magnesium in a certain ratio. My ratio is N = Ca and Mg = Ca/2. So for example the miracle grow is 24-8-16. I would add 0-0-0-24-12 to that. Just as an example. In real life you will find that cal-mag usually comes in a solution of 5% calcium and 2.5% magnesium so you would have to work out how much of it to add to be equivalent to 0-0-0-25. It all starts to get confusing the more you look in to it. For many the effort is not worth the minimal benefit.
Especially since there is little evidence to back up anything we read about really works or which works better.

So I can't help much but there is one thing I can offer. I can confirm the GT Focus bloom is great stuff. MissOrchidgirl started her growing and youtube career on it. She now has half a million subscribers. Ok she doesn;t use it anymore, she has switched to using MSU but she was able to do really well with no experience as a beginner starting with GT Focus so you won't go wrong with it.

In fact knowing this I have copied the NPK ratio of the GT Focus although I copied the Focus grow formula which is 11-7-19 to grow my phals this year. The formula changes occasionally year to year and country to country so it might be different on yours and the Focus Bloom contains even more potassium.

It will take me years and years to make a definite conclusion if I ever do so all I can say is that I am very happy using a bloom booster on top of seaweed extract this year but I have yet to se how it will flower this year...

So here is an example of one using 11-7-19 but like said it is just spiking so will take a few more months to bloom, it doesn't really tell you anything apart from that it looks to be growing well. I can't show how much it has improved over the past year but there is absolutely no harm using it in my opinon as you can see:

[estación seca]

Phals. are major economic products in Taiwan. Lots of research has been done to figure out how to grow them best and fastest, concerning light, fertilizer and temperatures. For a summary of this read some notes I took while speaking with a Phal. hybridizer in my local society. He has won many awards for his plants.

From the left yellow menu choose Forums then Phalaenopsis - Hybrids. Near the top is a sticky thread on growing Phals, as told by Eric Goo.

[Bloomer001]

Thank you for your magnificent replies!

I'm going to try a seaweed extract next Spring through Fall when root development starts again (KelpMax, Clean Kelp, etc.) I want the plant to focus on spiking and budding now, so going to forgo hormones that trigger root production for the moment. I like your Ca and Mg formulas - I will experiment with these. And I will get a pH tester to take a closer look at that, and treat water to get an optimum pH level (likely pH down). I only use Berkey filtered water with flouride filters (NYC water isn't as clean as most think, they add a lot of chlorine and other chemicals to it. And the plants hate flouride.) Going to get a light meter as well - I hear 1k foot candles is optimum for flower development (too much light can diminish flower growth.)

Based on my limited experiments, I think higher nitrogen is key for leaf, root & spike growth. Everytime I dosed the Miracle Grow with 24 nitrogen the leaves, roots & spikes took off (it is very noticeable.) The MSU pellet formula that I use has less nitrogen at 13 N. So that tells me the higher N in the Miracle Grow is making things happen (at least for leaves, roots and spikes.) I don't know if high N is as critical for budding and flowers. (Ray's website says it is.)

Now that I have spikes, I'm focusing on buds & flower production. Initially I thought higher Phosphorous levels in ferts would increase buds and flower production, but the research I have read says the plant can only absorb very small quantities of Phosphorous. So a high P dose may be wasted. I'm going to experiment on this to see real world observations by dosing 52 P mid week on 1/2 my collection.

I'm interested in the Orchid Focus Bloom primarily for the humic acid and fulvic acid -which aid in fert absorption (I think this is the product's biggest benefit.) I hear the formula also dissolves salt residue which is important for me bc I rarely flush. However, I think Orchid Focus Bloom's N level is too low at 11 nitrogen. I prefer 24 N.
Finally, I think it's better to feed Phals twice a week with very low doses of ferts, than once a week. They are not heavy feeders, but they require constant nutrients for maximum growth (I have observed this with my experiments.)
Will update as buds and flowers develop.

[thefish1337]

There are a million companies selling humic and fulvic acid products, but in reality there is little consensus on what they actually are scientifically because they are just alkaline extractions of "organic matter" which in a lot of cases is a coal like material. However, humic substances do seem to have benefits if you can obtain a good quality product. Humic an fulvic acid are carbon based bio-stimulants and their chemical structures have a propensity to act as chelators which may increase the retention of certain minerals in your medium and they may lessen the negative impacts of salt build up. These substances also are known to stimulate biology.

Ultimately there are a lot of biostimulants available and a near infinite space to experiment with different combinations.

Do not buy combo products- do a little research and investigate humic and fulvic acids with a standalone product. To be honest, there may be benefit but the research on them is done on agronomic soils and systems. Whether that applies to orchids is up for debate. If the product is just derived from 'leanoardite' its basically just coal..... long story short invest your money elsewhere for a biostimulant/boost.

If you want to tinker around and waste money....

I would put these biostimulants ahead of fulvic/humic:

Kelpak
Aloe Vera Extract
Fresh Coconut Water
Soy Amino Acids
Fish Amino Acids
Corn Steep Liquor
Impello Tribus/Continuum
EM-1
Inocucor Garden Solution
various Azospirillum brasilense products
Beuveria bassiana