Best kind of Fertilizer or plant food?

[Camocustom]

Which to use, so many choices, so little time......

[Camocustom]

Im being serious, not very helpful so far...............

[joan gero]

Lots of folks on this forum are great fans of "worm tea" (made with worm castings) which you can get at Home Depot, called "worm poop" or terracycle. Some use it alone, many of us alternate it with some other orchid fertilizer. Try some!

[arleneg]

A lot of the members use worm tea. You can buy it from ourvitalearth.com. Jerry Meola sells it, too.

[Tobi]

Daniel,
There are so many fertilizers out there, that it would be very difficult to say that this
one is better than that one. Some people don't fertilize at all. Alot depends on the plants
you have, the growing media they are in, and your growing location in the world.
Some people here use Schultz orchid fertilizer, some use just worm tea (Worm dropings)
as a substitute for fertilizing. I myself use MSU (Michigan State University) which is a
nice balanced type fertilizer I can use year round. I also use worm tea and my 'chids
seem to love this. Other members will add their favorites, but it's what works best
for you.

[Camocustom]

thanks, thats what i was looking for, a good all around SUGGESTION....im on my way to lowes/home depot tonight. i will pick up some worm tea....

[E-Jag]

Camocustom, don't think you'll find worm tea at HD/Lowes. They likely will have never heard of it. You'll either have to order it (shipping is expensive) or find it at a specialty store or make it yourself. I usually get it at orchid shows from Jerry Meola, a commercial grower in Ft Myers who attends a lot of shows in south Florida. It's about $9/pint. There is something called the kumquat festival in Dade City this Saturday and he tells me he's going to be there. I'm planning to attend mainly to restock my worm tea. It probably is as good as it gets in terms of fertilizer. In the meanwhile, though, since orchids don't need any special orchid fertilizer, just pick up a good (Peters) balanced fertilizer like 20-20-20. And welcome to the forum. You stumbled into the best.

E-Jag

[jay]

I have loved the worm tea and have been using for some time with great results. I continue to spray with the worm tea, but now use a different ferilizer. I grow all of my orchids in hydroponics and feed MSU fertilizer at 125ppm for Nitrogen. I have just recently started with this fertilizer so have not see the results yet.

Jay

[exasperatus2002]

i use schultz's orchid food but Im considering trying worm tea when I run out.

[jerrymeola]

I want to point out the worm castings and worm tea are not the same thing.
worm castings do not contain the live microbes that I love from the worm tea, that I use.

Castings have their use but the tea is much better in my opinion.

I also recommend balanced 20-20-20 fertilizer at 1 teaspoon per gallon used weekly. For those that do not have the time for weekly applications, I recommend a slow release water released fertilizer like dynamite or Floritan

[linda_shel]

Question on worm tea...when I went looking for it. The only thing that I could find was something for applying to the lawn labelled "worm tea". Would that be the same or should I keep looking? It was for using with a hose and had no instructions for using in the house.

[jay]

Linda, most of us order our worm tea from OurVitalEarth.com This is a great site and it tells how to dilute it and the benefits.

Hope this helps.

Jay

[arleneg]

Linda,

You could probably use that worm tea you found. Does it indicate it's concentrated? If so, I recommend diluting it, maybe similar to the dilution that OVE suggests. Nonetheless, dilute it anyway.

[evagentry]

Camocustum. I found a great liquid fert. here that is romanian made, personally I dont think brand matters so much as composition , make sure what you buy has microelements

[11Orchid126]

Also bear in mind that the MSU fertilizer is not a brand but a formula developed by the Michigan State University. Many different companies make this formula.

You might consider alternating different formulas in a fertilizing program. That's what I do. I use the MSU formula in general and then I alternate with Liquid Seaweed and epsom salts each once a month. In the summer I use a couple of doses of high nitrogen fertilizer to promote leaf growth, and toward the end of summer I switch to a low nitrogen formula.

[Camocustom]

Wel, i will have to check these websites out. I looked as per a user on this forum pointed me to Home Depot, I went BEFORE getting the rest of these posts. Oh well, thanks anyway, i will have to get it online, i have been using shultz orchid food @ 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of h2O. And it has only been for 2-3 months, i want to get a fertilizer down because i was given a really nice new little phal. with 2 flower spikes.

[linda_shel]

Thank you for the information.