question about watering/fertilizing
 

This feels like a really dumb, basic question- checking my orchids this past weekend, none of them were ready to be watered yet- they got a mid-week light watering because we had a hot early week so they dried out fairly quickly from last Saturday (lots of minis), then it cooled down a bit. Anyway, I wasn't ready to water them Saturday or Sunday because they were still damp but I'm trying to get into the mindset of feeding weakly weekly. So, if you have plants that are not in need of watering on feed day, do you hold the feed?

I realize they won't all be on the same schedule but my operation is small enough right now (~15 plants) that I don't have too many schedules to keep track of.

I cannot speak for everyone, but the method that I have switched to over the past year is to water weakly with just about every watering and then establish a week that I will only water with plain water to flush out any salts. I normally shoot for around 50ppm of Nitrogen with every watering (I have a 3:1:2 fertilizer ratio that I have been using up because I had it lying around before getting new stuff). And then about once a month I will give everything a shot of Maxicrop liquid seaweed. That way, it also makes it easy for me to not have to worry about various watering schedules. :)

If it's taking more than a week for your orchids to dry sufficiently, then I would just fertilize each time you water. It starts getting a little tricky when you have lots of orchids and they dry at different rates.

Orchids really don't need to be fertilized all that regularly. The "weakly, weekly" is basically a reminder not to feed too much or too often.

During the summer peak growth season, I grow outdoors, and sometimes I fertilize during the week, sometimes not. It is probably close to once a week, but I skip fertilizing if it has rained a lot and the plants are not ready for more water. I have reduced the fertilizer quantity down to 1/16 to 1/8 teaspoon per gallon (1/16 to 1/8 recommended strength) when I fertilize. I might go stronger (1/4 teaspoon per gallon) if we have had tons of rain and it has been a long time since the last fertilizer application.

One of the best Cattleya growers I know says he never fertilizes (but then he sort of qualifies that by saying, "well, maybe once a year").

I think I'll be able to get them all back on the same-ish schedule pretty quickly (at least the big ones)- the minis are easy enough to douse mid-week. If I keep buying then I will run into problems :/. So far it's manageable. I have mostly phals with one paph and three dendros so sort of similar watering needs for the similarly sized ones (but I use a skewer and check them all when I say good morning). I think I'm overthinking a little bit as well, but I tend to do that anyway with everything.

I'm going to work on a spreadsheet, I think...with schedules...and set up alerts on my iPhone for monthly water only and monthly KelpMax...uh-oh, obsessing!

I use to obsess about fertilizing too but It came to a point where they wouldn't need watering at the same time and the schedule gets messed up so what I did was fertilize at every watering but very, very dilute solutions. If the instructions says 1 tsp/gallon, I would do 1/4 tsp and they get watered twice or sometimes three times a week. They experience the same in nature.. they take whatever they receive when rain falls. It wouldn't hurt to miss fertilization in a month either.

I use my 7-7-7 african violet fertilizer diluted to 'every-time-you-water' and fertilize every time i water. I just started doing this for the sake of simplicity. Any thoughts?

I agree with Hanzy, that is what I do with my phals, paphs, oncidiums and dendrobiums, I dilute the fertilizer to one quarter strength, then water the plants as needed.

I have other orchids though, that would not tolerate this treatment.

I grow outside, with most in either lava rock or rough bark, so the drainage is extream. I look at the growth to see when hey want water. Now is the growing season. If I have a small root tips developing, I start to water two or three times a day. I check to see if my new baby growth is getting larger. If not, water. These are CAM plants and in a drought they shut down. If you want them to grow you have to flood them and water every day ( like I said, I water two to three times per day). In the winter, when they stop growing, I go down to once every seven to ten days. Store bought Fertilizer (I want to stop that reliance on chem companies though, as I believe it gives you weak plants.). Once a month. But I am now giving them liquid kelp and they love it. I also love compost tea. Throw grass clippings in a bucket and stew, and use as fertilizer.

I think of it like the binging that needs to go on before the winter rest. These guys need fat bulbs to gve nice flowers, but now at the beginning of summer, the big bulbs are tiny leaf bunches. They need to feed, feed, feed. It is not fertilizer that grows a plant, it is sun and water. They get big because they grow cells and provision them with sugar energy using a chemistry that is mainly sun and water. The nutrients provided with fertilizer are only a small part of what they need. I don't dwell on fertilizer. I dwell on optimum light, good drainage so I can give them optimum water.




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Should I water my dendro every day? It has a lot of new growth, but since i moved it outside the growth has slowed. Some of the small new roots have stopped growing. I thought it was because it is actually getting less light. It was under a CFL in the house, and growing like a weed. But i was told it wasnt enough light, and that I should move it outside. I put it where it can get morning sun until 11 or 11:30, but it has been overcast every day since then.

The root system is very minimal on this dendro. Most of them were old and dead during the repot, so the new roots are practically the only roots. It is in bark now.

Should I water more to encourage root growth? Or will that encourage rot instead?

Here is a picture of immediately after the repot, and what it looks like now. It appears growth has slowed significantly. I want to say there is a week between photos.

Edit- I put sphagnum moss on top to try to keep the roots from drying. I pulled it away for the pic.