On Wed, 18 May 2005 12:38:42 GMT, boothbay wrote:

I bought thid beautiful orchid ( Phalaenopsis ) with about six buds and
3 already opened. The culture that came with it said to fertilize once a
month. A knowledgeable friend said he does his at every watering and had
no problems. Of course I forgot to ask what strength. I have 15-30-15
and 20-20-20. would too much fertilizer kill it? BTW, i read in this
group some people mentioning "sheath". What is a sheath?


Definitely more frequently than monthly, following the advice of
previous posters. Regarding NPK ratio:

One of our most successful growers (mainly dens, but also a number of
other popular genera) uses the following:
While actively growing: 14:5:22
Then, in preparation for blooming: 7:11:27

This is fairly easy for spring flowering plants. Use high N to
midsummer, then high K until tapering off the watering for winter.
Our society has quite vigorous discussions on whether you should
continue fertilising with the occasional waterings during the resting
period.

For orchids that flower in autumn it's harder to decide when to stop
the growth fertiliser & start fertilising for blooms. It's too late
when the racemes start budding. So the wisdom for these plants seems
to be to use high N from start of growth in probably mid spring,
through
to early summer, & then change to high K.
Dave Gillingham
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