The wonderful use of dog dung in orchid cultivation, flower lovers may want to give it a try

[Recommended] The wonderful use of dog dung pellets in orchid growing The wonderful use of dog dung pellets in orchid growing

In the art of growing orchids, every school has its own way. The method serves the orchid; success is what matters. Orchids and cymbidiums are the essence of plants, a treasure of China. Methods of orchid growing built on inherited tradition can be traced to their roots and clarified in their true meaning. If one can, based on today's orchid-growing environment and a unique style of orchid craft, make some innovations and improvements, then that is true joy. One of the key essentials of natural orchid growing: in terms of fertiliser, is one keen on chemical fertilisers, even chemical hormones, for a momentary thrill; or does one use organic fertiliser, aiming for strong roots and vigorous growth over the long term? This is where the difference between natural orchid growing and its opposite lies. If the orchids you grow are mainly for your own appreciation, with all efforts put into cultivating stock plants, then use organic fertiliser; if they are for the orchid trader's market, with all efforts put into producing commercial plants, then use chemical fertiliser. I have always liked to use organic fertiliser in orchid growing, roughly divided into two types: first, plain fertiliser, also called jade fertiliser; second, meat fertiliser, also called dog eggs. Today I will discuss with orchid friends the meat fertiliser - dog dung pellets.

Speaking of dog dung pellets, that is something I have used for nearly 20-odd years. In the early days, because I used fine orchid soil for growing orchids, which itself contains various nutrients, I mainly grew them plain, but over time the orchids stayed unusually small, with yellow leaves and thin roots; the flowers they produced were also very unappealing. After consulting a well-known senior, I was told that orchid soil needs no fertiliser in the first year, but fertiliser must be used the next year, otherwise they all become little scallions, no? The senior's remark hit the mark, and truly opened my eyes. Back home I leafed through the ancient orchid manuals, searching for a usable fertiliser. The vast array of orchid manuals rarely touch on how to use fertiliser, and even when mentioned, it is only briefly glossed over. The books describe pit sand, human milk, chicken feathers, hair and so on, which are rather complicated, and some resources are very hard to find; snail, mussel meat, snake skin, small fish and human urine are too rank in smell, and psychologically I was unwilling to accept them. After repeated searching and in-depth comparison, I finally found a satisfactory best answer in the famous orchid and cymbidium work "Lan Hui Tong Xin Lu".

The author of the famous orchid-growing work "Lan Hui Tong Xin Lu", Xu Jilou, compiled it in the 17th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty. This book discusses essentials with unique insights, and had a huge influence on later orchid growers. In the chapter on fertilising, its explanation of dog dung is especially profound: ...or pick white-coloured dried dog dung from open ground, crush it and sieve it fine; around the Spring Equinox, when the pot is slightly dry, dig the soil around the pot rim to a depth of about two cun, take one small spoonful of dog dung, mix it evenly with sand and soil, and scatter it in from all four sides. First cover the areas with roots using clean soil, or leave the root areas exposed, and still use the dung to finish the pot surface; take it for its slow-acting and long-lasting nature, and then both flowers and leaves will flourish.... The practice and theory of the ancients are of great significance in guiding us to grow orchids well. For this reason I looked for places where dogs often activity, picked some whitish dog dung pellets, and experimented with them in orchid growing; after many years of use, I feel the results are decent. But I also had some misgivings: when picking up dung I always felt rather uncomfortable. So I thought it better to keep a dog myself to produce the dung pellets.

First I chose a large Shar-Pei, which eats a lot and is rather fierce. I usually fed it meat and bones, so its dung was mainly phosphorus fertiliser; then I chose a small Pekingese, which is very clever and alert, eats less, and was fed dried steamed buns from a young age, so its dung was mainly nitrogen fertiliser. The water given to both dogs was added with Eupatorium fortunei leaves or mint leaves, to eliminate the stench of the dung. Every year the bagged dung was placed on the rooftop to be sun-dried and rained on, to remove its fiery nature. Three-year-old dung is the best to use. When repotting in spring, whole dung pellets are placed at the bottom of the pot as base fertiliser, and smaller dung pellets are placed around the pot rim as top fertiliser. After that, just water as usual. When repotting after three to five years, you can see that most of the dung pellets are still intact, but many orchid roots have already grown through the dung pellets, absorbing their long-lasting, slow-release organic nutrients; the orchids and cymbidiums grown this way are exceptionally vigorous, with emerald leaves and thick texture, easy to form flower buds, long-lasting blooms and lingering fragrance. They also rarely fall ill and have strong resistance.

In fact, in the process of growing orchids and cymbidiums, there are many good fertilisers right beside us, often within reach yet unseen, while we single-mindedly seek ready-made miracle cures produced in factories. Just think: when we buy vegetables now, if we are not careful we buy back vegetables grown with chemical fertiliser, which even after slow simmering will not soften, and crunch when chewed, tasting like vinegar. Yet with a little care we can get vegetables grown with farmyard manure, which cook tender with brief simmering and taste very good. Is orchid growing any different? Autumn 2006: several orchid growers from Nantong came to view orchids, and faced with a Daguan Ding 1.8 cm wide with buds, they all insisted it did not look like Daguan Ding, and said how could there be such a large Daguan Ding? Some said it must be Zheding. I said I had been cheated over Zheding, and to this day have never seen a true Zheding; this Daguan Ding is the real thing, so wait until it flowers and see. The next spring it took first prize at the first Cymbidium Exhibition in Jintan. Also, Dangzi 1.2 cm wide, with several front-row shoots each having 10-11 leaves, and one pot with several flower spikes each bearing more than 14 flowers. This probably cannot rule out the effect of dog dung pellets in orchid growing!

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