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Show your orchids!

So maybe you could answer Darrel, is orchid feed just very weak generic feed?
Ie... can I dilute tropica specialised ferts to feed orchids?
Baby bio orchid feed is NPK 5.3 -2.2-0.85

Will micros cause any issue with orchids?

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Very good question Iain,

I’ve looked everywhere for the answer, thinking I make my own ferts for the tanks but is there a receipe for diy orchid food. Partner currently uses a propriety brand of orchard food to mix in rain water plus ‘Orchid Myst’ spray (steroids for orchids I think).

Haven’t found any on the internet. Met an expert who advised that the orchid food is much stronger than our aquarium plant food. That’s all I know. Would appreciate any advice as to if it is worthwhile to make our own.
 
Hi all,
Met an expert who advised that the orchid food is much stronger than our aquarium plant food. That’s all I know.
Last orchid ferts i bought (at Wisley)
The fertilizer Ed bought is a concentrated complete high nitrogen food, just used fairly dilute. It has low levels of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), if you did it as N: P: K, it is 35:4.4:8. I think that was probably @Siege's expert meant. The RHS is a prettty good source of information, so I would be tempted to replicate something near their recipe.

The nitrogen content is mainly as urea, which is much safer as a foliar feed (epiphytic orchids take in their nutrients via their leaves and aerial roots, they don't have conventional roots), than ammonia or nitrate, both of which can cause <"fertiliser burn">.
Baby bio orchid feed is NPK 5.3 -2.2-0.85
So in that case the N: P: K are quoted as P2O5 and K2O, so you have ~5.3:1:0.7
is orchid feed just very weak generic feed?
Yes it is, but with more nitrogen and less potassium, or phosphorus, than we would use for aquatic plants. All nutrients are ions when the plant takes them up, so that all that changes with different fertilisers is amounts, source is irrelevant when they are in solution. Urea isn't an ion, it has to be converted to ammonia via the urease enzyme (in plants and some micro-organisms). Becausse it isn't an ion it doesn't have an osmotic potential and doesn't casue fertiliser burn (the rapid loss of water via osmosis)
Would appreciate any advice as to if it is worthwhile to make our own
Raising the nitrogen level on its own would mean that you would need to use ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) or urea (CO(NH2)2). Ammonium nitrate is very likely to cause burn, and urea isn't easy to obtain in small amounts, ("Diesel Exhaust Fluid") is probably your best bet.

Urea is really cheap to buy in industrial amounts, so it is often the nitrogen source in <"cheaper foliar feeds">. You could use that as a base.

cheers Darrel
 
I have plenty of orchids either in bloom or ready to bloom, i'll grab some photos later :)

I'm almost as addicted to the orchids as I am to the inhabitants, will be placing another large order with tropiscape and bens jungle, have my eye on a Lepanthes telipogoniflora ;)
 
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20181215_190600 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

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20181215_190453 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

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20181215_190439 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

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20181215_190421 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

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20181215_190302 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

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20181215_190229 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

(Begonia Schulzei)

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20181215_190326 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr
 
Hi, I’m not green fingered at all, my wife got this ‘supermarket’ orchid as a gift and it nearly died from over watering I think. Anyway, all the flowers fell off and the stems went brown. We have resurrected it and it has several new flower buds and some flowers beginning to open thankfully.
The question I have is can I just cut the dead stalks off above where the new flower stalks are or is there a special technique. I don’t want to kill it :D
Thanks
Ady.

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Looks like it's recovering well.
I think if they are still green they will likely carry more flowers sometime in the future.
If the flower stalks are brown and wrinkly, like the top half of the one on the right, I think it's okay to cut the dead bit off.
I always cut mine back to just above where the dead part begins and leave the green stalk intact.
 
I understand from my wife that you can either cut the stalks off after flowering or just leave them. Either is ok, but the ‘correct’ way is to leave the stalks and it’ll flower more from them.

Of course cut off any brown dead bits.
 
Thanks for the replies, I’ll just snip the brown bits, and leave the green stems.
Cheers
Ady
 
Ady

I have 13 growing on our kitchen window ledge facing north that means in the winter it actually gets natural light for several hrs per day.

I only remove any of the dead growth. All are growing in damp (NOT WET) Sphagnum Moss.
Watering about 1tsp per week. Once they establish themselves they grow like weeds.

Keith:wave::wave:
 
The question I have is can I just cut the dead stalks off above where the new flower stalks are or is there a special technique. I don’t want to kill it :D
Thanks
Just cut the stems as low as possible
The phalaenopsis makes new shoots in time. Just keep it in a light spot en no direct sunlight.
 
Yes they will,
but the overall quality will be a lot better when the stems are cut. If you don't like cutting the stem you can use 'keiki paste' so it will create new side shoots on the stem.:thumbup:
 
Thanks for the tips and links.
Just cut the stems as low as possible
The phalaenopsis makes new shoots in time. Just keep it in a light spot en no direct sunlight.
I cut them.
The plant has recovered well and now has several new flowers, even more than this picture which was taken several weeks ago.
It sits on a window ledge in the kitchen which is bright but doesn’t get any direct sunlight. I spray leaves and substrate with an orchid mist fertiliser occasionally.

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Reading the link I may have to look at repotting soon also.

Lovely plants, I quite fancy more in something like the hanging glass planters that ‘scaped nature’ have in their new store (picture taken from their Facebook page)


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Cheerio
Ady
 
is orchid feed just very weak generic feed?
I noticed that the composition of Baby Bio Orchid food is exactly half of that of Baby Bio, respectively...
  • NPK 5.3-2.2-0.85
  • NPK 10.6-4.4-1.7
And that Baby Bio is £0.50 cheaper. Just add half the recommended dose for orchids...
 
I noticed that the composition of Baby Bio Orchid food is exactly half of that of Baby Bio, respectively...
  • NPK 5.3-2.2-0.85
  • NPK 10.6-4.4-1.7
And that Baby Bio is £0.50 cheaper. Just add half the recommended dose for orchids...
Less for more....good business sense :lol:
I like the little orchid food spray bottle, it’s pink :cigar:
Now I have it though I will just dilute the baby bio i also have and decant it into my nice pink baby bio orchid spray bottle.......sometime in the next decade when I’ve used it up :lol:

Keeping aquatic plants again seems to have inspired a more prevelant desire to keep all plants, I just bought a Kentia palm to go beside my fish tank.....hopefully it will make good use of the water that evaporates from my tank every week, and a bit of the water that would go down the drain during water changes.....it’ll already be fertilised too so the baby bio will never get used up.
 
Less for more....good business sense :lol:
I like the little orchid food spray bottle, it’s pink :cigar:
Now I have it though I will just dilute the baby bio i also have and decant it into my nice pink baby bio orchid spray bottle.......sometime in the next decade when I’ve used it up :lol:

Keeping aquatic plants again seems to have inspired a more prevelant desire to keep all plants, I just bought a Kentia palm to go beside my fish tank.....hopefully it will make good use of the water that evaporates from my tank every week, and a bit of the water that would go down the drain during water changes.....it’ll already be fertilised too so the baby bio will never get used up.
I have found this too... Now have a 40l with my emersed plants, an orchid posted higher up and an attempted wabi-kusa type thing with garden moss. Time will tell if that works. Now I want a drosera and more orchids. Weird huh :p
 
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