Feed adjustments.

[Carper]

Hi All.

I'm always experimenting on my mainly multifloral paph collection. I mainly keep to feeding my Akerne feed, 13-3-15-7-2 normally around once a week at around 400 u/S strength. My seedlings get watered every other day at around 100 u/S. I use RO water and grow in orchiata with added perlite only. The last couple of weeks I have added calcium nitrate solution to my akerne and increased the strength of the final feed by approx. 25%. To be brief, I have noticed a real improvement in growth in most of my plants, that goes for the large ones and all the seedlings. They seem to be growing significantly faster and look healthier than they were before I started this. As I'm not good with calculations, does this final solution sound OK to continue with or are there any disadvantages.

Thanks

Gary
UK

 

[gego]

Thats about 100uS more which is about 50 ppm inceease of nitrate and calcium. You just added about 20- 30 ppm of calcium. For multi, i use this strength. And your obsetvation is the same as mine.

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[Ray]

Personally, I'd chalk that up to "wishful seeing." Hard for me to imagine you'd see a significant change in a couple of weeks.

 

[Carper]

Personally, I'd chalk that up to "wishful seeing." Hard for me to imagine you'd see a significant change in a couple of weeks.

Ray,

It's the only real change that I've made from my normal regime for months. That goes for everything. Our days are getting are getting shorter so less light and my temps are cooling to around 70f as the daily norm. I'm not complaining so I'll stick with change and keep fingers crossed that it continues. Was just making sure that the balance of the feed was still ok. Sounds like it is.

Gary

 

[Redtwist]

In my admittedly short experience with my multis they do seem to have little observable 'growth spurts' now and again, but if I could work out exactly what caused it I'd be repeating it daily!
As regards the calcium, I do lean heavily on it with regular crushed dolomite lime as a top dressing and sometimes stirred in to the feed water too. My thinking is that as a lot of the multi species are found on limestone-heavy rock faces they must surely get quite a hit of calcium when torrential rains run down the rock faces.
Good luck with the new regime Gary.
(BTW would be interested to know what multis DONT like calcium. Just got a lowii, and as I understand they are found mainly as epiphytes, do they like less?)



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[gego]

Gary and Redtwist,

I learned this the hard way, the evidence was just right in front of me and just like any problem we always look for a solution that is not obvious.

When I was only raising Vandas and Catts, I just use our tap water to water and for fertilizer. My plants were growing well and my vandas will regularly flower with two to three spikes. All buds will open up to 12 flowers per spike.

Then I got a lil serious with Paph and more towards species. Our tap is hard and has 175 ppm of calcium carbonate in it. About 43 ppm of Ca, everytime I water. So I bought an RO system. And use this for all my plants. The first thing lost is the supply of calcium. My vandas slowly showed some sign of distress, leaves were shortening. I was puzzled because I was using fertilizers for RO. Root tips were getting shorter, oh no!!!!! Disaster. What did I do??? Well, I was looking for something else, RO should be better, right???
I finally knew what was going on when my vandas flowered and instead of having 12 flowers in a spike, 3 to 4 buds at the end of the spike just turned brown and dry. Light bulb turned on. Calcium! My fertilizer didn't have enough Ca. And my water didn't have any. I added Ca same ppm as my N and the change was dramatic. If you don't see this kind of change in two to three weeks, you are not looking enough. And it solve my problem with my paphs too. Big time. I have done many adjustments already to the point that I noticed some positive results if your source of Ca is 50/50 calcium nitrate and calcium carbonate. One thing I also learned, do not underestimate the importance of P. Also when I just water (no fert) I add calmag back to the water in small amount. Just sharing.

 

[Paul]

Hello Carper,

I use the same fertilizer about the same strength, but instead of calcium nitrate (there is already plenty of it in Akerne fertilizer), I add "liquid Ocean", a fertilizer which main component is kelp extract.
I have my very best growth this year by now for all the multis, especially roths and stonei which have bigger and darker leaves than before. Seedlings also grow well.

 

[Carper]

Chris,

I have never really supplemented calcium with any intent, until now as I have been experimenting on other feeds. I often add magnesium sulphate but thought this addition may benefit them. I have read a good deal about it's benefits and will now definitely keep it going for a good few months. My multis have grown very well with my regular approach including a haynaldianum and a few lowii hybrids so not sure if additional calcium would have helped. To be brief, all the plants are going to get the additional calcium unless I see any adverse reaction. With the amounts I use, I probably doubt it so here goes.

Gary

 

[Carper]

Gary and Redtwist,

I learned this the hard way, the evidence was just right in front of me and just like any problem we always look for a solution that is not obvious.

When I was only raising Vandas and Catts, I just use our tap water to water and for fertilizer. My plants were growing well and my vandas will regularly flower with two to three spikes. All buds will open up to 12 flowers per spike.

Then I got a lil serious with Paph and more towards species. Our tap is hard and has 175 ppm of calcium carbonate in it. About 43 ppm of Ca, everytime I water. So I bought an RO system. And use this for all my plants. The first thing lost is the supply of calcium. My vandas slowly showed some sign of distress, leaves were shortening. I was puzzled because I was using fertilizers for RO. Root tips were getting shorter, oh no!!!!! Disaster. What did I do??? Well, I was looking for something else, RO should be better, right???
I finally knew what was going on when my vandas flowered and instead of having 12 flowers in a spike, 3 to 4 buds at the end of the spike just turned brown and dry. Light bulb turned on. Calcium! My fertilizer didn't have enough Ca. And my water didn't have any. I added Ca same ppm as my N and the change was dramatic. If you don't see this kind of change in two to three weeks, you are not looking enough. And it solve my problem with my paphs too. Big time. I have done many adjustments already to the point that I noticed some positive results if your source of Ca is 50/50 calcium nitrate and calcium carbonate. One thing I also learned, do not underestimate the importance of P. Also when I just water (no fert) I add calmag back to the water in small amount. Just sharing.

Thanks for your comments which are very interesting and I intend to monitor very closely to gauge any reactions. I have been using both Kelpak and Maxicrop which are seaweed based and they have definitely helped. This is just another avenue I intend to go down for the next few months.

Gary

 

[Carper]

Hello Carper,

I use the same fertilizer about the same strength, but instead of calcium nitrate (there is already plenty of it in Akerne fertilizer), I add "liquid Ocean", a fertilizer which main component is kelp extract.
I have my very best growth this year by now for all the multis, especially roths and stonei which have bigger and darker leaves than before. Seedlings also grow well.

Thanks Paul,

Good to know what additions growers make to their basic feeding regime and what benefits they have n made.

Gary

 

[phraggy]

Gary. I have been using calcium nitrate for a few years now and I use it once per week. This type of calcium is the easiest for plants to take in. So pleased every thing seems to be going OK and hopefully you will have an abundance of blooms in the spring. I think it;s about time I increased my lighting it'll soon be dark in these parts by 15.30pm.
Ed

 

[Redtwist]

Gary and gego,
Thats interesting and helpful info. I should have mentioned in my first post that I use about 20% tap water (and its hard here) mixed with rain/distilled anyway and also the epsom salts for extra mg now and again too. I have been a little worried I might be over-doing the cal/mg supplement, but I havent seen any adverse effects - but what are the likely symptoms? Brown leaf tips as per over fertilising?
Never tried any seaweed based products. What is it they add that might be lacking elsewhere please?

 

[gego]

Kelp has a lot of natural (organic form) calcium, known to have 10 times you get from milk. But it also provides K, Mg and micronutrients. Assuming this Ca source is easily broken down and available to the plants, the presence of K may not tip the Ca/K ratio. Once K,Ca and Mg are all there in your feed, the next important thing is the ratio. I think Ca has to be at least equal or more than K. So one will need a Ca source that will not add K to bring the ratio up. Calcium Nitrate is one good source and calcium carbonate from tap is another. I prefer to mix in carbonate because it buffers the pH of the media.

 

[Redtwist]

Thanks gego. I use Orchidfocus fert which is generally weak and low K, with micronutrients but has almost no Ca/Mg, hence my adding the salts and tap water etc. Sounds like we are all arriving at the same sort of blend by slightly different roads. I think I'll stick with my regime for now, but take a look at some seaweed addition down the line if it looks like growth is dragging.

 

[Carper]

Gary. I have been using calcium nitrate for a few years now and I use it once per week. This type of calcium is the easiest for plants to take in. So pleased every thing seems to be going OK and hopefully you will have an abundance of blooms in the spring. I think it;s about time I increased my lighting it'll soon be dark in these parts by 15.30pm.
Ed

Hi Ed,

Just from my observations, it looks like the calcium nitrate has definitely made a difference to your plants. Healthy looking and good blooms. Hopefully, as I've stated, it will make a difference.

Gary