Feed your Phals and watch them grow!

[Stone]

First pic was taken in June 2012. If you have a look and compare the schillereiana and speciosa (lower right) then and now, you can see the results of feeding agressively. (Well what I call agressive anyway)



They have been fed constantly with 75/25 Nitrate/ammonium and urea at about 90ppm K at about 60 to 70 ppm (and etc with all the others) 2 or 3 times per day by dunking. pH is always around 6 or a bit less.
They also get sprayed with fermented fish fert whenever I have it in my hand (at least every week) No plain water until this week as I need to wet them 5 times a day (very hot now)

Today... The same schill.

Opinions welcome...




And the speciosa

 

[NYEric]

Not bad.

 

[orchidsimplicit]

Wow, that's some growin'!

 

[naoki]

Nice growths, Mike!

ranwild's owner (wild Phal specialist) says the same things. With mounted Phals, he uses about twice more concentrated liquid fertilizer. In addition, he has to hang organic solid fert in tea bags (during the growth), and it dramatically improved the growth.

When I was doing 100ppmN MSU, the potted Phals (all species) weren't growing many roots (leaves grew well), so I reduced the rate to 30ppmN. I don't feel like mixing higher concentration fert. just for mounted Phals (only tricky ones like Aphyllae, Parishianae, and P. lowii and P. cochlearis), so I'm stuck with lower N. I feel like that their growth (mounted ones) is a bit slower than when I was giving more fert., and potted one seems to grow more roots with lower fert. (so I'm happier with 30ppmN), but this may be just Placebo effect.

What are you covering the roots with? Fern root?

 

[Lmpgs]

Gorgeous!!

 

[eggshells]

Great growing Mike.

 

[The Mutant]

Nice growths, Mike!

ranwild's owner (wild Phal specialist) says the same things. With mounted Phals, he uses about twice more concentrated liquid fertilizer. In addition, he has to hang organic solid fert in tea bags (during the growth), and it dramatically improved the growth.

When I was doing 100ppmN MSU, the potted Phals (all species) weren't growing many roots (leaves grew well), so I reduced the rate to 30ppmN. I don't feel like mixing higher concentration fert. just for mounted Phals (only tricky ones like Aphyllae, Parishianae, and P. lowii and P. cochlearis), so I'm stuck with lower N. I feel like that their growth (mounted ones) is a bit slower than when I was giving more fert., and potted one seems to grow more roots with lower fert. (so I'm happier with 30ppmN), but this may be just Placebo effect.

What are you covering the roots with? Fern root?

That explains why my Phals don't grow anything but roots... I need to up the fertilizer then. Thanks!

 

[Secundino]

... as I need to wet them 5 times a day (very hot now)

Don't panic - he lives where it's hot now. We can still wait a few months! No leaves growing now...

 

[The Mutant]

... as I need to wet them 5 times a day (very hot now)

Don't panic - he lives where it's hot now. We can still wait a few months! No leaves growing now...

My Phals don't grow leaves, only roots no matter which time of year it is.

 

[naoki]

My Phals don't grow leaves, only roots no matter which time of year it is.

Maybe it is something other than fertilizer if that is the case. There are several papers showing the ratio of leaf and root production changes with fertilizer availability and irrigation frequency (in orchids and other plants).

You are not talking about Chinese Phals (Aphyllae), right?

 

[Rick]

There's no doubt that mounted Phals are fast and easy to grow mounted. Here's the oldest pic (2006) I have left of my schilleriana purchased as a little 2 leaf seedling in 2002. Leaves are over a foot long at this time.


In this pic from 2009 the mother plant is burried in the back of the GH, but you can see 4 spikes and the largest schilli plant is a keiki on an old spike with leaves about a foot long.

All this was when I was feeding "weakly weekly" MSU at 100ppm N.

However this plant "collapsed" (presumably from old age) in 2010 and now I'm regrowing what is left of that small keiki in this photo.

 

[Rick]

Here's the first blooming pic of my stuartiana in 2009. Picked up as a 2 leaf seedling, in 2007 I think.



Fast growing and healthy with MSU at 100ppm N.

But hear it is in 2013, 2 years after low K and pushing a year of overall low (but frequent) feeding applications. It's even bigger this year so you don't have to bury your Phalaes in food to get them to grow.

http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28882&highlight=stuartiana

 

[gonewild]

However this plant "collapsed" (presumably from old age) in 2010

Not from old age at 8 years old.

 

[Rick]

Not from old age at 8 years old.

Maybe high feed rates age Phalaes at a faster rate than otherwise.

I heard a talk from a grower in North Carolina that was growing fantastic Phalae violacia and belina in a flow bench setup with high N applications. He had them flowering within a couple years out of flask, and got a bunch of AM's , but it sounds like about 30% of the awarded plants died within a year of getting awarded.

 

[gonewild]

Maybe high feed rates age Phalaes at a faster rate than otherwise.

I heard a talk from a grower in North Carolina that was growing fantastic Phalae violacia and belina in a flow bench setup with high N applications. He had them flowering within a couple years out of flask, and got a bunch of AM's , but it sounds like about 30% of the awarded plants died within a year of getting awarded.

Maybe higher feed rates cause health issues that lead to an early death but the death is not from "old age".

 

[SlipperFan]

I've run out of space for mounted plants, or I'd try mounting more of my Phals.

 

[gonewild]

I've run out of space for mounted plants, or I'd try mounting more of my Phals.

Hang them in mid air! Let them spin.
Plenty of space in space. :wink:

 

[SlipperFan]

Hang them in mid air! Let them spin.
Plenty of space in space. :wink:

Not in my greenhouse. All that above space is filled with multis and Phrags and a few other things.

 

[The Mutant]

Maybe it is something other than fertilizer if that is the case. There are several papers showing the ratio of leaf and root production changes with fertilizer availability and irrigation frequency (in orchids and other plants).

You are not talking about Chinese Phals (Aphyllae), right?

Ordinary Phalaenopsis; hybrids and species. I think the average temperatures might also be a contributing factor as to why they don't really thrive at my place. The only Phal that's thriving is my celebensis. The rest are growing, but they only have between 2-4 leaves each and large root systems to go with them, so something is not to their liking.

 

[Ray]

Mike, I've got to wonder if this is a "chicken or egg" thing that you've chosen to interpret one way.

Phalaenopsis, if kept very warm, are pretty fast growers in the orchid world. Growth requires nutrition. If they are in a fast growth mode, they will take advantage of the nutrition supply. Keep them cooler so they are not growing so fast, and I doubt that applying more fertilizer will accelerate their growth.

I have several phals in my greenhouse, getting the same 25 ppm N that everything else does, and over the summer, they pretty much all doubled in size.


Ray Barkalow
firstrays.com