"What do Orchids Eat?" Experiment

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shadytrake

AOS, MOS member
Joined
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Location
Memphis, TN
Recently at our MOS show, (May 17-19), I had a chance to sit down with Rick to discuss his article "What do Orchids Eat?" from the March issue of ORCHIDS. I had been experiencing the same declines he mentioned in the article and I was really struggling with my collection.

He was patient enough to walk me through the local water quality report and my fertilizing regimen. Based on our discussions, I decided to discontinue the fertilizer and supplement my watering with Epson Salt initially and to add Kelp and some Calcium later on.

I am specifically monitoring 5 orchids that have been frustrating me:

Cattleya luteola - has done nothing for 4 years.
Neofinetia falcata - has grown but never bloomed (and we have tried everything).
Dendrobium lindleyi - blooms erratically (last year 11 spikes, this year 2 and not much new growth)
Phragmipedium Wossen - every time it is fertilized, leaf tip burn. Have had it for 4 years and it still looks like a BS seedling.
Sophronitis cernua - have had for 4 years and it has bloomed once.

So far I have taken before pictures of C. luteola last weekend and I have new pictures as of tonight showing aggressive new growth. I haven't seen this type of growth ever. I am pleased with the results so far. :clap:

I would really like to thank Rick for taking the time to speak with me.
 

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Good luck! I'm notorious for under-feeding, among other things! :eek: post a photo of all the culprits so we can see if there is any progress, thanks. :)
 
Hi Shady

It was a good show, and great time to spend with you and the rest of the Memphis Society.

It will be interesting to see how your plants progress out there on Memphis water.

It's pretty unique with low hardness and plenty of silicates.
 
Here is my C. luteola. I bought it a year ago. It sat there like a rock for 6 months but then in March and April it put out two stems with 2 flowers each.
It has 6 new pseudobulbs forming on it now.
 

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I was going to give the low K a rest but here is further evidence that for every klite success there are non-klite examples which show the same thing. All the more reason to have a side by side comparison.
 
I was going to give the low K a rest but here is further evidence that for every klite success there are non-klite examples which show the same thing. All the more reason to have a side by side comparison.

Are you serious? Shady eliminated K from her fertilizer and in only a few weeks look at the improved growth! :poke:

Before you use this as evidence against K-lite you should know what fertilizer was being used.
But since you brought it up...... Shady says her plants have not been doing well for 4 years and now they are finally growing. A growth spurt every 4 years is not showing equal results to K-lite.

Shady whatever change you made was a good decision, Show us some pictures when all the stems flower!
 
Hi All,

Sorry I missed the replies until now. I was using my regular water plus MSU fertilizer before so I know I was using quality stuff. I even made the liquid dilution I think the 25% solution as recommended on Ray's website (forgive my layman's version as I am not a chemist or a math expert). To the best of my ability, I was using the recommended ppm with regular MSU.

All my plants looked fabulous when I bought them or received divisions, but they gradually went into decline and then became susceptible to pests. On a side note, it seemed like the more systemic and/or safer's soap that I applied, the less it worked. I think not only did the K inhibit the uptake of the right nutrient levels, but that it also inhibited the uptake of systemics (like Bayer).

I'm just setting up my second Orbit 4-way Arizona Mist system today so I haven't had a chance to look at the "test subjects" today. However, I will check them tonight and snap a few photos.

I would like to comment that I just ordered the K Lite today to supplement and I have found a local supplier of Liquid Seaweed from maxicrop that has an analysis of 0-0-1 so it does have 1%K. I don't think that % is going to really cause a problem as long as I dilute.

I was wondering about Chlorine (Cl) not more than 1%. I don't know what that does and if it is good or bad for my orchids so if the experts can chime in, that would be great.

Thanks - Melissa
 
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Here is my C. luteola. I bought it a year ago. It sat there like a rock for 6 months but then in March and April it put out two stems with 2 flowers each.
It has 6 new pseudobulbs forming on it now.

David,

I hope mine will look that good at some point!
 
By the way, I have kept a diary of the orchids that I have killed and the straw that broke my back was my $$$ kovachi hybrid that I bought for myself as a present 3 years ago that I tried and tried to keep from dying. It came from Orchids Ltd and was huge and beautifully grown...so it died from my culture. It even had its own swamp cooler.
 
Hi Melisa

Chlorine must be 1ppm not 1% (that would be 10,000 ppm). 1 ppm should be ok. If you start using a lot of water, you may consider running it through a carbon filter to take out the chlorine.

If you dilute the kelp to about 1/4 tsp per gal then it will only add a few ppm of K, and that would be fine. It will probably also eat up the chlorine.
 
Okay, here are some reference pictures.

The Neofinetia, the Phrag Wossen, & the Soph cernua have no historical photos because they haven't done squat. You can see the burn on the Phrag from the last fertilizing of MSU (5/10/2013) and the recovery new leaves starting.

I don't see any progress on the Neo or the Soph yet...maybe too soon to tell.

The Den lindleyi I have quite a few historical photos since the first decline.

The first photo showing the full mount was one year after re-mount (2009). The year prior when we purchased it, it had 15 spikes and was in full bloom for the vendor's show display. I was told that it sometimes sulks after a re-pot so we put it on a large mount good for years to come.

It did not bloom in 2010 or 2011 despite our best efforts with full winter rest. In 2012, we starved it over winter and then hit it with a lot of water and fertilizer as soon as we saw new growth. We were rewarded with a full blooming plant, however, no vegetative growth throughout the summer.

The last photo shows 2013 with 3 spikes. You can see the vegetative growth in decline. I really hope that I see new green growth otherwise we won't see blooms next year.

The very last photo is Laelia milleri showing greening up after flushing the old fertilizer away for 3 weeks. Believe it or not, it was almost cherry red and has refused to bloom. I'm really hoping that this one will turn around too. It is in a rock/orchiata mixture and gets almost full sun.
 

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What is the significance of the red coloration of the Laellia? I have a catt that is quite burgundy, even the root tips are red. It produces red flowers, so I thought it was normal. Other catts around it, treated the same way, are green.
 
What is the significance of the red coloration of the Laellia? I have a catt that is quite burgundy, even the root tips are red. It produces red flowers, so I thought it was normal. Other catts around it, treated the same way, are green.

One of the "case histories" in my article was a Doritus pulcherima that under the old MSU regime was a very small purple plant that refused to bloom. For at least 3 years. Going to low K (at the time I was not using kelp, and a calcium nitrate dilution of MSU), it dramatically went green. Within one growing season leaf size increased by 2X the largest leaves when it was purple). The following season it bloomed like crazy and got an AM.
 
I was going to give the low K a rest but here is further evidence that for every klite success there are non-klite examples which show the same thing. All the more reason to have a side by side comparison.

Keep in mind Melisa hasn't even started K lite yet. She's getting all this with NOTHING BUT WATER!

Her tap water has a few ppm of K in it, but obviously a lot less than if she was using MSU fert.

For another perspective of the argument, K lite is nothing more than MSU but with a 25% DECREASE in TDS. If you continue on to our present favorite use rate of 50ppm N then we've cut down our total consumption rate by 62.5%.

Yes this is disproportionately by reducing K.

So if the anecdotal side by side result says "no difference" then it basically tells you at a minimum that you are wasting 62% of the fertilizer you are applying to get the same results.

So in comparison to David's results, consider that Melisa is seeing equally good results by doing NOTHING other than watering. So at least in the short term, a 100% reduction in fertilizer results in equal results as David's standard regime. (Which dredges up my comment in another thread to include a "negative control" of no supplementation at all in the proposed side by side study.

This brings up the old adage of "killing with kindness".:evil:
 
Hi Melisa

Chlorine must be 1ppm not 1% (that would be 10,000 ppm). 1 ppm should be ok. If you start using a lot of water, you may consider running it through a carbon filter to take out the chlorine.

If you dilute the kelp to about 1/4 tsp per gal then it will only add a few ppm of K, and that would be fine. It will probably also eat up the chlorine.

Thanks, Rick. I didn't use it yet because I wanted to make sure I wouldn't burn up the orchids with chlorine. I'll use this diluted. Can I filter it through a Brita filter for the carbon? Would that work? I don't mind just to use this that I bought already then I can switch to the Seaplex.
 
Thanks, Rick. I didn't use it yet because I wanted to make sure I wouldn't burn up the orchids with chlorine. I'll use this diluted. Can I filter it through a Brita filter for the carbon? Would that work? I don't mind just to use this that I bought already then I can switch to the Seaplex.

Yup the carbon in the Brita filter will get the chlorine Melisa. If you start using larger volumes of water, then you should get a bigger canister to hook up to a hose or plumbing. Or get a little sodium thiosulfate from an aquarium store.
 
Keep in mind Melisa hasn't even started K lite yet. She's getting all this with NOTHING BUT WATER!

Her tap water has a few ppm of K in it, but obviously a lot less than if she was using MSU fert.

This brings up the old adage of "killing with kindness".:evil:

Well I did add 1 TBSP/gallon of Epson Salts. :D

I would like to report today that at least 6 Phrags have new growths - as a side note, it is tough to grow Phrags in a shade house here. Our outside temps regularly hit the upper 80s in June and the 90s in July. I don't expect miracles with my Phrags, but I am excited to see strong new growth.

I would also like to report my other Laelia longipes has almost lost its red tinge and has 3 very strong new growths that were not on the plant 3 weeks ago.

Also, on the subject of the red leaves, I am also watching a Phal pulcherrima cross that has been cherry red for over 2 years and hasn't bloomed. There is no reason for it not to bloom. It is slowly turning green again. I'm hoping that it will throw out a spike at some point.
 

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