How should orchid compound fertilizer be used correctly?
Orchid compound fertilizer usage
Orchid compound fertilizer usage
I fertilize my orchids the least.
Maybe I just do not understand how fertilizer works on orchids, or maybe I have been burned too many times. When I first started growing orchids, I hoped the orchid plants would grow three chi a day. I bought and used every kind of imported fertilizer and high-end fertilizer, and I used them according to the instructions, but aside from a few pots of newly collected wild plants dying, the old plants showed no effect. From then on, I lost faith in all the fertilizers introduced in the market and in books, and that remains true to this day.
Since 2004, I have been both envious and itching to try the method of others whose orchids send up three generations a year, with strong seedlings in every generation. Orchids still need fertilizer, right? With a give-it-a-try mindset, I applied ordinary farm compound fertilizer to Cymbidium orchids. Method of use: dissolve 1 jin of compound fertilizer in 1400 jin of water and spray it on the leaves, 3 times a year in July, August and September, with very good results.
Since 2005, I have persisted every year in starting the first spraying of 1 jin of compound fertilizer in July, with one additional application each in August and September. The plants produce many strong shoots, the leaf color is bright and glossy, the root system is well developed, and there are no pests or diseases. The cost is about 2 yuan per jin, 6 yuan a year, which comes to less than 1 fen per pot for 700 pots of orchids.
I want this post to serve only as a summary of my experience reported to fellow orchid growers. Because of differences in time, location and other environmental conditions, it cannot be promoted as a proven practice, and is only for reference by fellow orchid growers.