Hi, Diana: Well, we all change our minds as we try new things through the
years G. Or maybe the newsletter advice is targeted to the bigger
market -- there aren't all that many hobbyists with more than a couple
hundred orchids, and with less, as I mentioned before, it's really a
non-issue -- unless it's misapplied, such as doing a full watering and then
feeding immediately, while the roots are still too saturated to soak up
anymore ... It's very easy for advice to "mutate" or be misunderstood or
misapplied -- e.g., I have abandoned the phrase "evenly moist" for Phals,
because too many people seem to interpret it as "sopping wet all the time."
Most of my customers do better when I tell them to water "just before it
gets bone-dry."

Ideally, I like to run our water in two short cycles, rather than one long
one. We have 6 watering zones, so the plants in Zone 1 are just about done
dripping from the first round and ready for more when the second round
starts. On feeding day, the fert. goes in the second round. But time
doesn't always permit, and it doesn't seem to make a big difference either
way.

Kenni

"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...
Interesting thoughts. Kenni, Motes, that does seem sound. But in their
monthly newsletter they repeatedly point to the "water first, fert second"
as being incorrect. Having said that, some of our larger Vandas have such
thick roots that feeding with a wand would take forever if they were not
watered first. So we let the watering system go on in the AM as usual and
fertilize a little later in the morning. They seem to like it.

Diana