Info on S/H fertilization

[hypostatic]

Hey so I'm fairly new to the whole scene, and I was wondering what fertilizers everyone uses for S/H culture. I was also wondering if someone cold explain what the different proportions of nutrients for fertilizers means? Thanks!

[billc]

Fertilizers & Plant Nutrition

Bill

[Tim C.]

Bill's link is a excellent and thorough write-up to read. Heck, everything on First Ray's is excellent reading.

As to what fertilizer I use for S/H: I use Dyna Gro "Grow" brand liquid ferts. It is a lower concentration of nutrients (but it still has all the micronutrients needed) than some of the other solid or liquid ferts out there, so I feed it more often. I just use the standard 1/2 to 1/4 teaspoon per gallon at each watering, and flush the pot with distilled/RO water a couple of times a month.

-Tim

[DelawareJim]

I use MSU type from Ray or Dyna-Gro Grow occasionally. It's important to use something "urea free" as urea really affects the pH and orchids can't use it.

Cheers.
Jim

[Ray]

The fact that you're growing in S/H is actually irrelevant. Orchids need certain nutrients, and no orchid media provides enough (some say "any") nutrition to make any difference.

About the only difference S/H makes is the concentration you may use, based upon the frequency of wearing.

[DavidCampen]

Originally Posted by Ray

The fact that you're growing in S/H is actually irrelevant. Orchids need certain nutrients, and no orchid media provides enough (some say "any") nutrition to make any difference.

Emphasis added is mine.

Does this include sulfur and can I quote you on this over at SlipperTalk?

[Ray]

Maybe it should be considered a relative thing, David.

The sheer mass of nutrients available in applied fertilizer solutions is, for the most part, far greater than that extracted from decomposing media components.

Thanks for sniping.

[hypostatic]

Thanks for the link on fertilizer info!

So just for some general understanding; when re-potting orchids into S/H culture, you should soak the media overnight in a rooting stimulant like Dyna-Gro K-L-N, or KelpMax? Should these rooting stimulants only be used for this scenario, or should you add it again at some frequency?

Also, I've read/heard in the past that orchids should be fed with a "balanced" fertilizer, such as a 20-20-20 fertilizer. Is this outdated information, or not as good for S/H culture? I was looking at the fertilizers on First Rays, and noticed that most of them did not have nutrients in this proportion:

K-Lite Orchid 12-1-1 -(10Ca-3Mg)
MSU 13-3-15 -(8Ca-2Mg)
SOLO-E ?-?-?
Dyna-Gro Grow 7-9-5
Dyna-Gro Bloom 3-12-6
Dyna-Gro Pro-teKt ?-?-?

I guess Dyna-Gro Grow is more-or-less balanced, but the rest don't seem to be.

[Ray]

I would agree that a "balanced" fertilizer is somewhat out-of-date.

[DavidCampen]

Originally Posted by hypostatic

Thanks for the link on fertilizer info!

So just for some general understanding; when re-potting orchids into S/H culture, you should soak the media overnight in a rooting stimulant like Dyna-Gro K-L-N, or KelpMax? Should these rooting stimulants only be used for this scenario, or should you add it again at some frequency?

Also, I've read/heard in the past that orchids should be fed with a "balanced" fertilizer, such as a 20-20-20 fertilizer. Is this outdated information, or not as good for S/H culture? I was looking at the fertilizers on First Rays, and noticed that most of them did not have nutrients in this proportion:

K-Lite Orchid 12-1-1 -(10Ca-3Mg)
MSU 13-3-15 -(8Ca-2Mg)
SOLO-E ?-?-?
Dyna-Gro Grow 7-9-5
Dyna-Gro Bloom 3-12-6
Dyna-Gro Pro-teKt ?-?-?

I guess Dyna-Gro Grow is more-or-less balanced, but the rest don't seem to be.

And it depends if you are using RO water or not. If you are using RO water then you definitely need a fertilizer with significant amounts of calcium and magnesium. The Dyna-Gro formulations as well as the MSU-RO have these significant amounts of calcium and magnesium. I never used the MSU formulation products because they come as powders that were not prepared by spray drying so that I would expect a lot of physical segregation of the individual components in the package. Before I started formulating my own fertilizers I used the Dyna-Gro Orchid-Pro formulation since the Dyna-Gro products are liquids.