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Fertilization & Plant Nutrition
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By POLKA at 2010-02-11 00:55
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Weekly, Weakly May Be Best
I have come to believe that there is a critical point in time in which you should give careful attention to fertilizing your orchids.
I recently read the article Flower Induction in Orchids, by Ms. Marilyn Light (©2002). She reported that orchids, being monocots, have in their new shoot buds everything prepared for growth, foliage, and flowering just like the embryonic plants found in other monocots such as the heart of tulip bulbs.
Therefore, I conclude that the most important time to fertilize would be from bud break until the new shoot is one third to one half mature. It is in this early stage of growth that the new buds are forming. So then, it seems that the most critical time to fertilize any orchid is when the new shoots are beginning until they are at least one-half grown, for by then, the next season’s buds will have been completely formed.
Now, continuing a fertilizer program all year long allows the plant to completely mature all parts present to their fullest potential, especially the flower buds, which is why we grow them. And, if the orchid plant had excellent growth the previous season, then you should have an excellent potential display this season.
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By Tindomul at 2006-05-26 03:44
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  he Wardian Case is obviously the well known precursor of the terrarium, and it is of course the inspiration to today's modern hobby terrariums. In the past year I have attempted to grow tropical plants in these modern Wardian Cases. I have put in amphibians and called them vivariums. One day I realized that orchids might be an excellent vivarium plant. They have beautiful foliage, and equally fascinating flowers. After many months of researching the topic, I have come up with a list of orchids that may do well in vivariums, as long as their conditions are met.
The conditions in a vivarium, or terrarium can be manipulated to suit many plants. A terrarium can be made to house arid plants such as cacti and jade plants, and they can be made to house the most fragile of tropical plants, temperate ferns and moss. Wide spectrums of humidity, temperature, ventilation, lighting, and even rainfall, fog, and most often mists can be reproduced. So obviously, in the hands of an expert, which I am not, a terrarium can be a wonderful place to grow even the rarest of orchids. For the beginner however, the easiest orchids to succeed with using a vivarium for growing them are often miniatures, warm loving, shade loving, and humidity loving plants. Many beginners to vivariums and terrariums either have trouble keeping the humidity up, or keeping it too wet. They may also have trouble with keeping sufficient ventilation which in my opinion is a must for successful orchid culture in a glass enclosure.
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