I'm just a visitor here, but I'm pretty interested in paphs and they are
rapidly taking over my collection.

The short answer to one of your questions is that you should never withhold
fertilizer from a spiking/budding plant. It's doing a lot of work and needs
the support, regardless of what time of the year it is.

The reason books say to withhold fertilizer during the cooler months is
because many paphs, especially species, naturally rest during these months.
They naturally slow down in nature because the habitat becomes dryer (and
brighter), hence less need for fertilizer. Having said this, many hybrids
are not particularly dependent on a rest, and they grow and bloom all year
'round provided the light, warmth and moisture is supportive of this. And
even among the species, some are more demanding of a cool, dry rest than
others. Since plants vary in their requirements according to species, a
generalized table for genera wouldn't be very accurate or helpful.

In general, and if you are dealing with paph hybrids, I would venture to say
that it is safe to continue with feeding year round. However, if, as
another respondant suggested, your plants go into semi-dormancy because of
reduced seasonal light, then, naturally, feeding should be suspended and
watering reduced. HTH.

John :)

"salgud" wrote in message
oups.com...
Now that my paph is blooming, I need some advice. One of my orchid
books says they should be fed from Feb through Oct. This makes some
sense to me because up until this past fall, I fed and watered them
year round. I had read that one way to get orchids to bloom was to stop
feeding them, so I stopped feeding the 3 healthiest looking ones,
including the paph, a few months ago.
But what should I do with the spiking paph? Should I start to feed it
now, since it's spiking, or wait until Feb? Or until it's done
flowering? The book says to feed it while it's flowering, but not
between the end of Oct and the beginning of Feb? So what am I supposed
to do?
In this general vein, does anyone know of a table, or at least some
good reference, listing when to feed and water the different major
categories of orchids, and when not to? Now that stopping watering and
feeding has worked with one, I want to try it with the others to see if
I can get more to flower. Geez, at this rate, I'm quickly moving toward
being one of those old orchid people, like the cat people who own 43
cats. At least the orchids will smell better! But it seems my life is
becoming more and more centered around my orchids!