Fertilizer packets/pouches/sachets/tea bags...

[dtje2000]

I'm not sure how to refer to these things, but I was once advised by a Hawaii grower to make little 'tea bags' with slow release, even-blended fertilizer and either suspend it above the orchids (vandas, for example), or let it lay in the pot with the plant. Has anyone heard of this or done it with good results? It's not that I'm lazy...well, maybe it is, a little...but also, I keep forgetting who needs what and when!

I've made up a bunch of little bundles with tulle (aka nylon fine-mesh net) and stuck about a teaspoon of 14-14-14 in them...but now I'm a bit afraid of burning the plant. Logic tells me 'slow release' means just that...as water flows over the bundle it will release a bit of nutrients and wash over the roots... but dt logic has a habit of failing me...

Opinions or experiences, please

[janet_a]

well, you can *buy* slow release fertilizer (osmocote), and i know a grower who uses it in his catts, but i would think making up little sachets would just result in rock hard lumps of fertilizer after it gets wet the first time then dries. it would also concentrate the fertilizer in one section of the pot.

[Andrew]

I wouldn't trust it on the pot because as Janet said, it may create a loaclised area of concentrated fertiliser. However, I have seen people hanging sections of pantyhose filled with dynamic lifter (composted chicken manure pellets) above their pots and mounts so that whenever they water the plant gets fertilised. I have tried it with mounted orchids and while the plants didn't object, I gave up on the idea because the plant roots used to grow into the bags and the clump of chicken manure also attracted borers. I can't see which slow release pellets wouldn't work as well and probably would give the same problems as organic solid fertilisers. There may be an issue with time release fertilisers will dumping excess fertiliser in hot weather though.

[dtje2000]

Darn, and I thought this was such a fabulous idea...then again, if it was y'all would have been doing it for years, right? Ok, I will continue to research and document by orchid type and try to get it right. Once we have our pool enclosure replaced I will at least try to group the plants by need and create better micro environments for each grouping.

While on the subject of fertilizers, mine are the kind that Janet mentioned, the osmocote stuff, which I believe is the slow-release type. I've also seen in my tropical plants the sort that is more of a shell with liquid in them. Are those the time-release kind?