Quote:
Originally Posted by Bloomer001
Does anyone have experience microdosing Phals? Should I add more calcium to feedings? Does anyone have experience with using a higher concentration of Phosphorous during spikes and budding? Comments re Orchid Focus Bloom Gt, other ferts, and any thoughts concerning fert routines would be appreciated.
|
Hi, I am new here so I don't really follow what others do growing their orchids. I like your thought process anyway, if you never experiment or try something new you will never be able to discover something new and the only way to become better at something is to discover something new to help. The other side would argue why fix something that isn't broken, ie listen to how it has been done in the past and copy that for best results. I think we have plenty of time to grow orchids, some like to improve, others are happy with their results. It's all a personal choice and if someone wants to try a different flavored ice cream then let them try the different flavored ice cream. That is what they are sold for. Now I know when it comes to plants there are lots of so called "snake juices" that cost a lot and do very little. To try out each product and make a conclusion on whether they work or not would take decades. At least with a small collection. Scientists have made a few experiments on orchids but the research is ridiculously limited compared to what we would know about them if they were an edible crop for example, no big corporation is really interested to find out more about orchids, that's just us collectors growing them.
So anyway it would take decades to try out the differences between different fertilizers and all the additives and bloom boosters one can try.
From my research I believe calcium and magnesium are important. Seaweed extract is beneficial so I use that.
All I can tell you is how mine is grown based on the research I have done. So that includes adding seaweed extract, adjusting the PH, using rain water, I add calcium and magnesium in a certain ratio. My ratio is N = Ca and Mg = Ca/2. So for example the miracle grow is 24-8-16. I would add 0-0-0-24-12 to that. Just as an example. In real life you will find that cal-mag usually comes in a solution of 5% calcium and 2.5% magnesium so you would have to work out how much of it to add to be equivalent to 0-0-0-25. It all starts to get confusing the more you look in to it. For many the effort is not worth the minimal benefit.
Especially since there is little evidence to back up anything we read about really works or which works better.
So I can't help much but there is one thing I can offer. I can confirm the GT Focus bloom is great stuff. MissOrchidgirl started her growing and youtube career on it. She now has half a million subscribers. Ok she doesn;t use it anymore, she has switched to using MSU but she was able to do really well with no experience as a beginner starting with GT Focus so you won't go wrong with it.
In fact knowing this I have copied the NPK ratio of the GT Focus although I copied the Focus grow formula which is 11-7-19 to grow my phals this year. The formula changes occasionally year to year and country to country so it might be different on yours and the Focus Bloom contains even more potassium.
It will take me years and years to make a definite conclusion if I ever do so all I can say is that I am very happy using a bloom booster on top of seaweed extract this year but I have yet to se how it will flower this year...
So here is an example of one using 11-7-19 but like said it is just spiking so will take a few more months to bloom, it doesn't really tell you anything apart from that it looks to be growing well. I can't show how much it has improved over the past year but there is absolutely no harm using it in my opinon as you can see:
Threaded Mode
