Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
FERTILIZER Q?
I am sure this is a boring subject for most by now but I am interested to
know what you think of this fertilizer ratio & what feeding you guys give to your orchids?The fertilizer is Q is called tomerite,its ratio is N 4.0/ P 4.5 /K8.0 & Magnesium 0.03 as you can tell from the name it is a tomato feed.When I first started growing orchids I used a orchid feed (35/10/10).When I joined a orchid society a guy I know uses this tomato feed all year round ,so I have been using it for a while now too.Know I am more involved with orchids I am wondering whether this is good for the plants.I am thinking of using the 35/10/10 feed then switching to the other to ripen the new growths.I would prefer to use one feed all year round for ease of use,any advise is appreciated. Thanks Keith,England,UK. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Keith,
My advice is to forget about the 35-10-10 so-called "orchid food." The high nitrogen content is there based upon some old work (back when fir bark was the standard medium, and repotting was infrequent) that indicated that the microorganisms that decompose bark consume a lot of nitrogen as they do, so the content was increased to compensate. In other media ingredients, and because modern cultural methods result in us repotting before the medium gets in THAT bad of a condition, the rate of nitrogen consumption by those critters is a minor concern at most. Frequent use of the high-nitrogen fertilizer may give you really lush vegetative growth, but it can actually reduce- or stop flowering altogether. The Tomerite is probably OK, but I would be wary of that small amount of Mg unless there's a fair amount already in your water supply. If there's not, it's easy to supplement with Epsom Salts. In reality, if we wanted to be technically correct, each of us would use a slightly different fertilizer solution, as the base water chemistries that we have to work with differs. For those of us using pure water to start, it gets more standardized of course, but I'd bet that there are likely different needs between individual plants, too. (Let's not go there...) A few months before the AOS article on the MSU fertilizer was published, I started having conversations with Bill Argo, the PhD who worked with the MSU folks, and learned a great deal. I do not consider my knowledge to be sufficient to become a lecturer on the subject, but if you read the MSU article (I retyped it and put it on my website), and the five-article series on general plant nutrition that Bill published in the International Phalaenopsis Alliance magazine (also on my website - Bill sent me the PDF files for that purpose), you will come away with a much better understanding. http://www.firstrays.com/msu_fertilizer.htm http://www.firstrays.com/nutrition.htm -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! .. "kenty ;-)" wrote in message ... I am sure this is a boring subject for most by now but I am interested to know what you think of this fertilizer ratio & what feeding you guys give to your orchids?The fertilizer is Q is called tomerite,its ratio is N 4.0/ P 4.5 /K8.0 & Magnesium 0.03 as you can tell from the name it is a tomato feed.When I first started growing orchids I used a orchid feed (35/10/10).When I joined a orchid society a guy I know uses this tomato feed all year round ,so I have been using it for a while now too.Know I am more involved with orchids I am wondering whether this is good for the plants.I am thinking of using the 35/10/10 feed then switching to the other to ripen the new growths.I would prefer to use one feed all year round for ease of use,any advise is appreciated. Thanks Keith,England,UK. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Keith,
My advice is to forget about the 35-10-10 so-called "orchid food." The high nitrogen content is there based upon some old work (back when fir bark was the standard medium, and repotting was infrequent) that indicated that the microorganisms that decompose bark consume a lot of nitrogen as they do, so the content was increased to compensate. In other media ingredients, and because modern cultural methods result in us repotting before the medium gets in THAT bad of a condition, the rate of nitrogen consumption by those critters is a minor concern at most. Frequent use of the high-nitrogen fertilizer may give you really lush vegetative growth, but it can actually reduce- or stop flowering altogether. The Tomerite is probably OK, but I would be wary of that small amount of Mg unless there's a fair amount already in your water supply. If there's not, it's easy to supplement with Epsom Salts. In reality, if we wanted to be technically correct, each of us would use a slightly different fertilizer solution, as the base water chemistries that we have to work with differs. For those of us using pure water to start, it gets more standardized of course, but I'd bet that there are likely different needs between individual plants, too. (Let's not go there...) A few months before the AOS article on the MSU fertilizer was published, I started having conversations with Bill Argo, the PhD who worked with the MSU folks, and learned a great deal. I do not consider my knowledge to be sufficient to become a lecturer on the subject, but if you read the MSU article (I retyped it and put it on my website), and the five-article series on general plant nutrition that Bill published in the International Phalaenopsis Alliance magazine (also on my website - Bill sent me the PDF files for that purpose), you will come away with a much better understanding. http://www.firstrays.com/msu_fertilizer.htm http://www.firstrays.com/nutrition.htm -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! .. "kenty ;-)" wrote in message ... I am sure this is a boring subject for most by now but I am interested to know what you think of this fertilizer ratio & what feeding you guys give to your orchids?The fertilizer is Q is called tomerite,its ratio is N 4.0/ P 4.5 /K8.0 & Magnesium 0.03 as you can tell from the name it is a tomato feed.When I first started growing orchids I used a orchid feed (35/10/10).When I joined a orchid society a guy I know uses this tomato feed all year round ,so I have been using it for a while now too.Know I am more involved with orchids I am wondering whether this is good for the plants.I am thinking of using the 35/10/10 feed then switching to the other to ripen the new growths.I would prefer to use one feed all year round for ease of use,any advise is appreciated. Thanks Keith,England,UK. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Thanks for that ray,I will check your links out!
About the water,I use rain water is there a way of testing its properties or will rain water differ to much. Or is it getting to technical !? -- Thanks Keith,England,UK. "Ray" wrote in message ... Keith, My advice is to forget about the 35-10-10 so-called "orchid food." The high nitrogen content is there based upon some old work (back when fir bark was the standard medium, and repotting was infrequent) that indicated that the microorganisms that decompose bark consume a lot of nitrogen as they do, so the content was increased to compensate. In other media ingredients, and because modern cultural methods result in us repotting before the medium gets in THAT bad of a condition, the rate of nitrogen consumption by those critters is a minor concern at most. Frequent use of the high-nitrogen fertilizer may give you really lush vegetative growth, but it can actually reduce- or stop flowering altogether. The Tomerite is probably OK, but I would be wary of that small amount of Mg unless there's a fair amount already in your water supply. If there's not, it's easy to supplement with Epsom Salts. In reality, if we wanted to be technically correct, each of us would use a slightly different fertilizer solution, as the base water chemistries that we have to work with differs. For those of us using pure water to start, it gets more standardized of course, but I'd bet that there are likely different needs between individual plants, too. (Let's not go there...) A few months before the AOS article on the MSU fertilizer was published, I started having conversations with Bill Argo, the PhD who worked with the MSU folks, and learned a great deal. I do not consider my knowledge to be sufficient to become a lecturer on the subject, but if you read the MSU article (I retyped it and put it on my website), and the five-article series on general plant nutrition that Bill published in the International Phalaenopsis Alliance magazine (also on my website - Bill sent me the PDF files for that purpose), you will come away with a much better understanding. http://www.firstrays.com/msu_fertilizer.htm http://www.firstrays.com/nutrition.htm -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! . "kenty ;-)" wrote in message ... I am sure this is a boring subject for most by now but I am interested to know what you think of this fertilizer ratio & what feeding you guys give to your orchids?The fertilizer is Q is called tomerite,its ratio is N 4.0/ P 4.5 /K8.0 & Magnesium 0.03 as you can tell from the name it is a tomato feed.When I first started growing orchids I used a orchid feed (35/10/10).When I joined a orchid society a guy I know uses this tomato feed all year round ,so I have been using it for a while now too.Know I am more involved with orchids I am wondering whether this is good for the plants.I am thinking of using the 35/10/10 feed then switching to the other to ripen the new growths.I would prefer to use one feed all year round for ease of use,any advise is appreciated. Thanks Keith,England,UK. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Thanks for that ray,I will check your links out!
About the water,I use rain water is there a way of testing its properties or will rain water differ to much. Or is it getting to technical !? -- Thanks Keith,England,UK. "Ray" wrote in message ... Keith, My advice is to forget about the 35-10-10 so-called "orchid food." The high nitrogen content is there based upon some old work (back when fir bark was the standard medium, and repotting was infrequent) that indicated that the microorganisms that decompose bark consume a lot of nitrogen as they do, so the content was increased to compensate. In other media ingredients, and because modern cultural methods result in us repotting before the medium gets in THAT bad of a condition, the rate of nitrogen consumption by those critters is a minor concern at most. Frequent use of the high-nitrogen fertilizer may give you really lush vegetative growth, but it can actually reduce- or stop flowering altogether. The Tomerite is probably OK, but I would be wary of that small amount of Mg unless there's a fair amount already in your water supply. If there's not, it's easy to supplement with Epsom Salts. In reality, if we wanted to be technically correct, each of us would use a slightly different fertilizer solution, as the base water chemistries that we have to work with differs. For those of us using pure water to start, it gets more standardized of course, but I'd bet that there are likely different needs between individual plants, too. (Let's not go there...) A few months before the AOS article on the MSU fertilizer was published, I started having conversations with Bill Argo, the PhD who worked with the MSU folks, and learned a great deal. I do not consider my knowledge to be sufficient to become a lecturer on the subject, but if you read the MSU article (I retyped it and put it on my website), and the five-article series on general plant nutrition that Bill published in the International Phalaenopsis Alliance magazine (also on my website - Bill sent me the PDF files for that purpose), you will come away with a much better understanding. http://www.firstrays.com/msu_fertilizer.htm http://www.firstrays.com/nutrition.htm -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! . "kenty ;-)" wrote in message ... I am sure this is a boring subject for most by now but I am interested to know what you think of this fertilizer ratio & what feeding you guys give to your orchids?The fertilizer is Q is called tomerite,its ratio is N 4.0/ P 4.5 /K8.0 & Magnesium 0.03 as you can tell from the name it is a tomato feed.When I first started growing orchids I used a orchid feed (35/10/10).When I joined a orchid society a guy I know uses this tomato feed all year round ,so I have been using it for a while now too.Know I am more involved with orchids I am wondering whether this is good for the plants.I am thinking of using the 35/10/10 feed then switching to the other to ripen the new growths.I would prefer to use one feed all year round for ease of use,any advise is appreciated. Thanks Keith,England,UK. |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
You can send your water out for testing, or if you have a decent nursery in
the area, maybe someone will test the electrical conductivity/total dissolved solids (likely to be very low, as it's pretty pure), and pH (who knows? It's absorbing pollutants from the air, so can be quite acidic as-is.) Based upon your use of rain water, I'd guess that you will have to add some Epsom salts, but I'd also suggest checking the pH, as relatively unbufferred water like that can become VERY acidic with the addition of ordinary fertilizers. -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! .. "kenty ;-)" wrote in message ... Thanks for that ray,I will check your links out! About the water,I use rain water is there a way of testing its properties or will rain water differ to much. Or is it getting to technical !? -- Thanks Keith,England,UK. "Ray" wrote in message ... Keith, My advice is to forget about the 35-10-10 so-called "orchid food." The high nitrogen content is there based upon some old work (back when fir bark was the standard medium, and repotting was infrequent) that indicated that the microorganisms that decompose bark consume a lot of nitrogen as they do, so the content was increased to compensate. In other media ingredients, and because modern cultural methods result in us repotting before the medium gets in THAT bad of a condition, the rate of nitrogen consumption by those critters is a minor concern at most. Frequent use of the high-nitrogen fertilizer may give you really lush vegetative growth, but it can actually reduce- or stop flowering altogether. The Tomerite is probably OK, but I would be wary of that small amount of Mg unless there's a fair amount already in your water supply. If there's not, it's easy to supplement with Epsom Salts. In reality, if we wanted to be technically correct, each of us would use a slightly different fertilizer solution, as the base water chemistries that we have to work with differs. For those of us using pure water to start, it gets more standardized of course, but I'd bet that there are likely different needs between individual plants, too. (Let's not go there...) A few months before the AOS article on the MSU fertilizer was published, I started having conversations with Bill Argo, the PhD who worked with the MSU folks, and learned a great deal. I do not consider my knowledge to be sufficient to become a lecturer on the subject, but if you read the MSU article (I retyped it and put it on my website), and the five-article series on general plant nutrition that Bill published in the International Phalaenopsis Alliance magazine (also on my website - Bill sent me the PDF files for that purpose), you will come away with a much better understanding. http://www.firstrays.com/msu_fertilizer.htm http://www.firstrays.com/nutrition.htm -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! . "kenty ;-)" wrote in message ... I am sure this is a boring subject for most by now but I am interested to know what you think of this fertilizer ratio & what feeding you guys give to your orchids?The fertilizer is Q is called tomerite,its ratio is N 4.0/ P 4.5 /K8.0 & Magnesium 0.03 as you can tell from the name it is a tomato feed.When I first started growing orchids I used a orchid feed (35/10/10).When I joined a orchid society a guy I know uses this tomato feed all year round ,so I have been using it for a while now too.Know I am more involved with orchids I am wondering whether this is good for the plants.I am thinking of using the 35/10/10 feed then switching to the other to ripen the new growths.I would prefer to use one feed all year round for ease of use,any advise is appreciated. Thanks Keith,England,UK. |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
You can send your water out for testing, or if you have a decent nursery in
the area, maybe someone will test the electrical conductivity/total dissolved solids (likely to be very low, as it's pretty pure), and pH (who knows? It's absorbing pollutants from the air, so can be quite acidic as-is.) Based upon your use of rain water, I'd guess that you will have to add some Epsom salts, but I'd also suggest checking the pH, as relatively unbufferred water like that can become VERY acidic with the addition of ordinary fertilizers. -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! .. "kenty ;-)" wrote in message ... Thanks for that ray,I will check your links out! About the water,I use rain water is there a way of testing its properties or will rain water differ to much. Or is it getting to technical !? -- Thanks Keith,England,UK. "Ray" wrote in message ... Keith, My advice is to forget about the 35-10-10 so-called "orchid food." The high nitrogen content is there based upon some old work (back when fir bark was the standard medium, and repotting was infrequent) that indicated that the microorganisms that decompose bark consume a lot of nitrogen as they do, so the content was increased to compensate. In other media ingredients, and because modern cultural methods result in us repotting before the medium gets in THAT bad of a condition, the rate of nitrogen consumption by those critters is a minor concern at most. Frequent use of the high-nitrogen fertilizer may give you really lush vegetative growth, but it can actually reduce- or stop flowering altogether. The Tomerite is probably OK, but I would be wary of that small amount of Mg unless there's a fair amount already in your water supply. If there's not, it's easy to supplement with Epsom Salts. In reality, if we wanted to be technically correct, each of us would use a slightly different fertilizer solution, as the base water chemistries that we have to work with differs. For those of us using pure water to start, it gets more standardized of course, but I'd bet that there are likely different needs between individual plants, too. (Let's not go there...) A few months before the AOS article on the MSU fertilizer was published, I started having conversations with Bill Argo, the PhD who worked with the MSU folks, and learned a great deal. I do not consider my knowledge to be sufficient to become a lecturer on the subject, but if you read the MSU article (I retyped it and put it on my website), and the five-article series on general plant nutrition that Bill published in the International Phalaenopsis Alliance magazine (also on my website - Bill sent me the PDF files for that purpose), you will come away with a much better understanding. http://www.firstrays.com/msu_fertilizer.htm http://www.firstrays.com/nutrition.htm -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! . "kenty ;-)" wrote in message ... I am sure this is a boring subject for most by now but I am interested to know what you think of this fertilizer ratio & what feeding you guys give to your orchids?The fertilizer is Q is called tomerite,its ratio is N 4.0/ P 4.5 /K8.0 & Magnesium 0.03 as you can tell from the name it is a tomato feed.When I first started growing orchids I used a orchid feed (35/10/10).When I joined a orchid society a guy I know uses this tomato feed all year round ,so I have been using it for a while now too.Know I am more involved with orchids I am wondering whether this is good for the plants.I am thinking of using the 35/10/10 feed then switching to the other to ripen the new growths.I would prefer to use one feed all year round for ease of use,any advise is appreciated. Thanks Keith,England,UK. |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Greencare Fertilizer | Orchids | |||
Fertilizer Preferences | Orchids | |||
eliminate fertilizer and herbicide steps in farming Concreteblock farming; Agriculture of t | Plant Science | |||
Can I Use Leftover Lawn Fertilizer from Last Year? | Gardening | |||
Question: Need Queen Palm Fertilizer | Gardening |