Fertilizing in Semi-Hydro Help!
 

Hello to all,

I just transfered a couple of my orchids to Semi-Hydro. I was just hoping to get some clarifications how to fertilize this setup. I was previously using an Orchid Fertilizer 25-10-10 by PLANT PROD. Can this be used in Semi Hydro as well?

If not, I was thinking of purchasing Dyna-Gro (5-9-7). But before I do this...do we need to strictly use RO water to distribute this fertilizer or can this be mixed with regular city water?

At what interval should I fertilize? I used to fertilize every 2 weeks with 25-10-10 by PLANT PROD.


Any help and informations is always appreciated.

Thanks all!

I use better grow orchid food and simply use at the rate it says to on the pkg and it works just fine

I've recently switched to S/H as well, I bought Dyna-Gro and KLN and put about 2-3 drops into each gallon of water. I don't use R/O. Just plain ole' city water. Very good question though, because I could be doing this wrong as well. Hopefully someone will chime in with a better answer on the R/O part of it. I'm not experienced enough to answer any of those questions for you but I can tell you that one of my phals that barely had any roots left due to root rot/fungus has put out 5 new roots, 1 of them being aerial and it just started to put out a new leaf 2 days ago. The other phal is just beginning a new root. My catt is still quite young and is growing some new p-bulbs. I switched to s/h about 2 months ago, and so far, I couldn't be happier!

Wynter010Beauty : I just switched to S/H 1 month ago...I'm quiet pleased with the results that I'm getting...specially with one of my late mom's cattleya. (To keep the story short, the Catt was sort of neglected so I took it and now...trying to revive it). I'm hoping I succeed...if the catt survives this orchid will be with the family now for at least over 15 years. So far, I'm seeing root growth which to me looks quiet promising.

As for the use of RO for the fertilizer, I actually read the use of RO through Ray's website. Perhaps he might be able to shed some light on this matter.

I see.. I'll look into this...Thanks Jonhblagg!

RO and the use of distilled water is not something I have bothered with myself but I have not had a need fgor that since so far I do not have any of the orchids that are sensitive to my tap water....

I have had good results so far just using better grow orchids plus and flushing my s/h pots very well once a week

The question of R/O water is not quite so simple, but not that difficult either. Much depends on the water source you have. Here I have very soft water (50 ppm +/-) and very low chlorine in the city water so I use tap water. For those with hard water, which has a high mineral content, normally in the form of calcium and magnesium, r/o may be the way to go. On the other hand soft water and r/o water don't contain carbonates that will buffer the pH and thus and dead materials decomposing in the nutrient solution can cause a drift to acidic. In addition almost all commonly acailable fertilizers contain no calcium or magnesium, predominately because in concentration salts of these react with other fertilizer compounds and form insoluble salts. Because of this I use a hydroponic fertilizer in 2 part form and add epsom salts as a source of magnesium for all orchids and potted plants since potting mixes are entirely soiless for the last 30 years and contain no cal/mag unless they contain dolomitic lime. The 2 part has a base formula with a small nitrogen content and the phosphorus and pottasium together with trace minerals, the second part is cacium nitrate which supplies most of the nitrogen and all of the calcium. To this I add 1/4 tsp/gallon of epsom salts to provide magnesium together with some sulphur in the form of sulphate. I also frequently add seaweed extract, a humic acid concentrate and pottasium silicate. I mix up 5 gallons at a time and test ppm with a cheap tds/ppm meter I picked up for for under 20 bucks. Although once you have a system down the testing for me anyway is just a double check that I mixed things up right. I have been doing this for over 10 years now with all kinds of plants and they respond well to the instantly avilable nutrients, and it gives me the flexibility modify the percentages as I wish. I sometimes modify things with more or less calcium nitrate and will add monoammonium phosphate to boost phosphorus for plants in bloom as I do with my african violets which are almost always in bloom. Hope this helps.

Hi bodnsoul, in my case I have hard water in my area. Since I just started in S/H. Do you think that I can get by by simply boiling the water I use for the chids that are in S/H. Or will I really need to get an RO setup to make this setup of mine work?

depending on your particular water it may help or not. I am not a whiz at water chemistry but there is permanent and temporary hardness and if memory serves boiling will not remove permanent harness. R?O units are pretty expensive depending on size so for starters you may want to just buy water. The Walmart near me has a R?O UV unit in the produce dept where you can refill containers pretty cheaply.

True...Hoppefully walmart in Canada has the same thing. I'll go check it tonight. Thanks for the info bodnsoul!