and as for flushing / leaching it is easier but you have to watch for
ph and fertilizer concentrations in the container - or just flush it
out every month.

Jack

We had 3 days of glorious weather. Sunny, temps in the 60's F. and
above 40 at night. Who would believe it in January and February in
Missouri?

I actually carried the plants outside to flush out their mix and drench
the mounts and baskets. I used 1 tsp epsom salts per gallon and 5
gallons would do 4-6 pots.

It gave me an opportunity to inspect for hitchhikers and spray some
likely suspects. In particular an Epi and a phaius. If there are two
pests in the growing room, those two are the bus they ride. Fortunately
no sigh of the mealies that I was fighting last year on the phals.

Irritating thing is, I checked the formula of the fertilizer. Why it
uses such a high % of nitrogen from urea is beyond me, and it said it
was for orchids! Everything I've read suggests using urea free
fertilizer for orchids for better utilization. That just added insult
to injury. Will be changing that ASAP, actully I haven't fed for a
couple of weeks now, just watering with the filtered water and they've
started looking better. Probably should just stop feeding during the
winter in the future (it's too late now, but next year maybe). Will be
looking for another brand/formula at a real garden center or ordering
some fertilizer on line.

Nancy G.