Fish emulsion and coconut water as orchid fertilizer.

[Rishad Kalarikkal]

I have heard that fish emulsion is a good orchid fertilizer. It is easy to make. But can anyone tell me how to use it. Right now almost all my orchid are busy with new growth. Will the fertilizer affect the new growth if it is sprayed on to the new ones? How much should I dilute the emulsion before spraying it on my chids. I was told that over dose could burn the leaves of a garden plant. Is that the same affect on orchids.
Can I use water from coconut as a liquid fertilizer. It was suggested by a grower whom I met when I went to visited a flower show.
Any sort of information will be very helpful.
Thank you.

[Stelios]

sounds interesting. I do not know about fish emulsion but fish and turtle waste inclusive pond water worked great for me! I haven't used any fertilizer other than the pond water. Also milk mixed with very mild comercial urin solution worked wonders as a leaf care once a month (but urin based fertilizers should be used with extra caution or avoided all together according to many experienced growers).

[digitalgate]

you can use it. Just bear with the smell of it(if you made it yourself). This is the right time for you to fertilize - during active growing time. You can spray root. you might want to use something else for the leave. Since this is an organic way of doing thing i dont think you can over dose. I would not recommend coconut on adult plant. Adult plant will throw out new keiki unless you want new keiki. just use normal fertilizer 63.

[Rishad Kalarikkal]

Thanks digitalgate.It sounds like coconut water could initiate new growth and keiki. It is really interesting.

[digitalgate]

we use coconut water to meristem orchid.

[willowbanks]

Hello Rishad, fish emulsion is a good mild fertilizer and will not burn your plants, well at least the commercial products won't. I have never heard of anyone making their own, sounds a little scary to me.

Have you tried to buy purchase a packaged FE in India, is it available???

Your other question about coconut water, you've been told it is good but not why it is good.

Coconut water is not a fertilizer, it is a supplement to add to your fertilizer as a nutritional boost of glucose that is produced by your plant during photosynthesis. Typical breakdown of coconut water is, water 95.5%, nitrogen .05%, phosphoric acid .56%, potassium .25%, calcium .69% and magnesium oxide .59%.

As you can see by those percentages there isn't anything to get excited about, it would be more benificial for you to drink the coconut water yourself and then disolve glucose or raw sugar in warm water, add it to your fertilizer mixture and spray your plants.

I use the raw sugar (easier to disolve) at 2 grams per litre added to my fertilizer once per month. This solution I only use on bare rooted plants and Vandas in open baskets because you need to flush the excess sugars the next day.

I would not recommend use for potted plants in media, you just can't flush out the sugars well enough and they may be a tonic for some fungal spores and ants may also become a problem.

The bottom line is, it does work, plumps up the leaves (Vanda type plants) and is excellent for stressed plants.

Bill

[11Orchid126]

Whatever you do, don't treat all your plants with the fish emulsion or coconut water. Experiment with only a few plants to see how they respond. I find that fish emulsion, an animal product, is very caustic to the orchids' roots. I prefer liquid seaweed, which is a vegetable product.

[willowbanks]

11Orchid126, I'm not sure where liquid seaweed, a hormonal tonic fits into what we are talking about here, fish emulsion and coconut water as fertilizer????

Bill

[maninair]

I got some fishmeal which I used on my VJM and after three days all the leaves turned brown. I believe you should not put the emulsion near the roots, there are chances of root burning. In my opinion bonemeal is good for the orchids. As for coconut water I tried it on my VJM and I did not notice any positive results . Waiting for more answers.

[willowbanks]

Maninair, my comment only relates to commercial packaged fish emulsion with an NPK of around 3.1 - .34 - .34 and is not the same as you mixing water at home disolving fish meal.

Yes, bone meal is good for plants as is fish meal but you can get yourself in trouble using these as you have found out by killing the leaves on your VJM if you are inexperienced in their use.

Your use of coconut water is a little vague, I do not know if it was before or after you used the fish meal.

Bill

[digitalgate]

i think the burning might be due to fungus. I presume you make you own fish emulsion.

[Rishad Kalarikkal]

Thanks a lot friends. My fish emulsion will be ready in two or three days. But it stinks a lot. I have kept it some 6 meters away from my house and use to stear it well twice a day. Now the remaining have started to mix with the water. Later I will take only the water from it to spray it on a single plant and will wait to see the results.

[dtje2000]

I am continually amazed and amused at what we will try (and suffer through ) to make our 'chids happy.

[Andrew]

Given that coconut water can be toxic to orchids in flask, has anyone who has used it on their orchids noticed any ill effects, particularly with small plants?

[willowbanks]

Andrew, are you sure about that info "coconut water can be toxic to orchids in flask", never heard this before.

Coconut water is a standard source of potassium for media when flasking, the same as banana or unsweetened pineapple juice that I use here in Australia.

Digitalgate above has already commented on it's use for meristem flasks above, I'm sure he wouldn't use it if it were toxic to his plants.

Bill

[Andrew]

Coconut water is often used in sowing media as it stimulates germination in many species. While media formulations and the species being flasked probably have a big part to play, I've run into problems as the seedlings progress beyond the protocorm stage after replating on to media containing coconut water. I have lost several replate flasks due to picking up the wrong jar.

[digitalgate]

andrew might be right too.
It has been mention before that coconut water seem to inhibit certain plant growth. High concentration of coconut will stunt plant growth.
Banana is also good. The lab i sent my seed to use lots of banana.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by digitalgate

andrew might be right too.
It has been mention before that coconut water seem to inhibit certain plant growth. High concentration of coconut will stunt plant growth.

There must be more to what these extracts provide than potassium and sugar (why not simply add more potassium and sugar to the media). Given germination enhancers like coconut, pineapple, zucchini extracts are fruit based, they're presumably loaded with hormones meant to promote germination of the fruit's seed. Maybe these hormones send mixed signals to seedlings already in growth.

Originally Posted by digitalgate

Banana is also good. The lab i sent my seed to use lots of banana.

I use banana in replate flasks and it works well. I have no idea why some orchid seedlings will react badly to coconut in the media but grow well with banana (after all, both are high potassium fruit extracts).

I should pioint out that after my original post, I Googled aound and found references to people using coconut in replate media so the media that is used may have a big impact on whether coconut will give you problems in the replated flask. I've experienced coconut toxicity in W2.5 and W3.0 upon replate. These are excellent media, by the way. The problem being discussed is simply due to idiots like me carelessly using coconut water at inappropriate times in the flasking process and is in no way due to the quality of Western media itself. Kevin Western's website even states that if you use coconut in W3.0 to sow, replate the protocorms ASAP.

[digitalgate]

we all learn our mistake. It comes from bad experience and we become wiser.

Sometime i make the same mistake twice, just to be sure it is wrong.- yap , that wrong.

[willowbanks]

Well said Digitalgate, I too have learnt from my mistakes.

Andrew, I use Kev's media but only with banana or unsweetened pineapple juice, it's great stuff (the media)

I think we have gotten away from Rishad's original question but thanks to you Andrew I have learnt something about coconut water I never knew before.

Bill

[digitalgate]

Originally Posted by willowbanks

I think we have gotten away from Rishad's original question but thanks to you Andrew I have learnt something about coconut water I never knew before.

Bill

dont forget it taste great too.