Orchid Care for Beginners - How to fertilize Phalaenopsis Orchids & chose the best Orchid food

Hey guys, it's Dani. Welcome to another episode destined for orchid beginners. Today we are talking about fertilizing phalaenopsis orchids. Now up until now we saw how to properly repot these orchids and then how to properly water them. It's only fitting that we talk about how to fertilize them. Today's episode is sponsored by repotme.com which offers you everything you could possibly need to successfully grow orchids from media to fertilizer to pest If you're into African violets or bonsais, they do have something for you as well. So I'll link them down below. You can pay them a visit by clicking on the link in the description. And with that said, let's just start by talking about the different types of fertilizers you can find on the market, what they're good for, what you should choose and what I prefer. Now before we start the subject, it is important to mention that orchid fertilizers are different than other fertilizers you might find on the market. Orchids are not heavy feeders, certainly not as heavy as other houseplants. Therefore the other fertilizers, even though they're perfectly fine as fertilizers, they're not necessarily suited for orchids because they tend to be quite strong in the dosage recommendations that you find on the label. Also the ratios of different nutrients are different in the case of orchids. So I strongly suggest you use special orchid fertilizer, particularly at the beginning when you don't have all that much experience with orchids. And as far as orchid fertilizers go, there's quite a wide array on the market. You can find powder fertilizers, such as the one that I have here, but also liquid fertilizers and even slow-release fertilizers. I find that for beginners, the best suited fertilizers are those which can be diluted in water. So the powder fertilizers and the liquid ones I think will be the easiest ones for you to use. Nutrients are split into two major groups, macronutrients and micronutrients. We call the macros the ones that are used in higher quantities by orchids and the micronutrients the ones that are just as important but they're not consumed in big quantities. You can typically find the values of these nutrients on the label of the fertilizer. On the front label, usually you will see the macronutrients and they are expressed in the form of a number. This is actually a percentage. Typically, fertilizers will display the first three macronutrients but some of them will display calcium and magnesium as well. For the purpose of this video, we will only look at the first three numbers. These signify nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. And in my example, we can see that the first number is 13. It's quite a large number if we compare it to the second number, which is 3. This is what we call a higher nitrogen fertilizer. Typically, high nitrogen fertilizers are usually called growth fertilizers because they support vegetative growth, development of leaves and roots, but not only. The truth is, a fertilizer such as this will support the development of flowers and flower spikes as well. On the market, you will also find bloom boosters, which will have a different set of numbers. Typically, the last two numbers will be higher than the first number. That is what we And typically, it is marketed as a bloom booster. Some people like to use bloom boosters and consider they do help with blooming. Some people prefer to take the middle ground and go for a balanced fertilizer. Such a fertilizer usually has very, very similar numbers, so a 5-5-5 or 20-20-20 can be considered a balanced fertilizer. In my opinion, both of these fertilizers are good. I personally prefer not to use bloom boosters. I like to use a higher nitrogen fertilizer pretty much all year round, and my fertilizer of choice is actually the one that I just showed you, the MSU. I find these fertilizers are more useful than bloom boosters because they support growth, and with good growth, there will be good flowering as well. Apart from this, it is important to choose a fertilizer which does have quite a lot of trace elements. So when you choose your fertilizer, make sure that you go for one which has a nice array of micronutrients or trace elements, as well as macronutrients. Should you go for powder fertilizers or liquid fertilizers? It's really up to you because both of them will get dissolved in water. With both of them, you can control the amount of fertilizer you will dissolve in your water, but the difference between them is that the powder fertilizer is a lot more economical. So if you have a lot of orchids or you simply want to be economical, do go for the powder fertilizer. And if you don't have a lot of orchids or you prefer the liquid fertilizer, that one is good as well. If you choose to go for a powder fertilizer, here's a great tip for you guys. Powder fertilizers are usually very hygroscopic, meaning they will absorb moisture from the air and they will start to become a little mushy. Well, what I like to do is place a small quantity of my powdered fertilizer in a different container which closes hermetically and open the main container of fertilizer as rare as possible. I am keeping this in a dark closet. I make sure that the lid is on tight and this is what I work with. There could be more said about fertilizers, but I think for now it's enough. I think it's already sounding a little bit too complicated, but really it's not. The bottom line is that you go for a fertilizer destined for orchids. You follow the instructions on the label. And if you're not sure about bloom boosters or growth fertilizers, just go for a higher nitrogen one or a balanced fertilizer which has both macronutrients and trace elements. So now that we know a little bit about the different fertilizers we can buy, how do we actually deliver the fertilizer to the orchid? Well, we do so through the water we use when we water orchids. And if you missed the video in which I show you how to properly water phalaenopsis orchids, depending on the medium and environment, I suggest that you watch that first because fertilizing orchids is nothing more than mixing the fertilizer with that water. The technique is absolutely identical and it applies exactly like I mentioned it in the previous video. So I'll link you down below to that video so you see the actual technique. I'm not gonna go through all of the steps today, but I will show you how to mix the fertilizer and give you a few more important details about the procedure. Now the fertilizer that I will be using is especially created for rain water, reverse osmosis water or distilled water. And this is because I do use exclusively reverse osmosis water. Basically though, you can use this fertilizer with tap water as well if it's soft water. In some parts of the world, you can be actually lucky to have soft water directly from the tap and everything is okay, you can use something like this. So in this instance, I will use exactly the directions on the label. The dosage this fertilizer requires is 3 quarters of a teaspoon per gallon of water. Now my watering can is a little over a quarter of a gallon, so I will be using a little less of a quarter of a teaspoon. I do have a little teaspoon here which I got separately. So I will use this for now for this watering can. I usually prepare more water than this. Now powder fertilizers need a few minutes to mix with water. I like to use a bamboo skewer and mix a little bit the water, but I still let everything sit for two to three minutes, time in which all of the salts will completely dissolve. With liquid fertilizers, you typically don't need to do this because they're already pre-mixed in the water. So that's good, but the downside is they're not as concentrated, so they're definitely not as economical. As I was saying, I fertilize my orchids when it's time to water them. So in the case of this Phalaenopsis, let's just take a look inside the pot. We can see that the medium is dry, the roots are silvery. This orchid definitely needs watering. So today I'm going to fertilize it as well. Since my medium mainly consists of bark, I will opt for soaking this orchid today. So all I need to do is just fill this decorative container with the fertilized water that I prepared earlier, just like I would when I water this orchid. And then I will let this orchid sit for about 10 minutes, time in which the roots will get to absorb the water. After 10 minutes or so, I will remove the orchid from its decorative container, make sure to drain the pot very, very well, and throw away the remaining water at the sink. After draining the pot and disposing of the water, we just simply put the orchid back in its decorative container and back in its shelf. There's no need to rinse anything. You need to let the water with fertilizer sit inside the medium, inside the pot, and continue to fertilize and hydrate the orchid. And that is really all there is to it. All the same rules of watering orchids apply, meaning don't let water sit in the crowns or in between the leaves of the orchid. Don't let the orchid sit in a pool of water. Pretty much all of the things we talked about last time. However, before we end the subject, I do want to mention a few more ideas. Always make sure that you don't over-fertilize the orchid. Make sure you don't dose a higher quantity than what the label recommends. It's always better to under-fertilize than to over-fertilize. Over-fertilization leads to salt deposits on the medium and on the roots themselves as well. If the quantity of fertilizer is too big, the orchid will not be able to consume everything. If the salts accumulate too much, you will start to notice darkened patches on the roots, especially on the top of the medium. Those patches can be caused by hard water, but also by excessive salts from the fertilizer. This is why, in cultivation, we typically like to flush the orchid about once a month. What this means is a proper watering, just like you saw today, but without fertilizer. This makes sure that the fertilizer salts which might have accumulated on the roots or inside the medium are dissolved and flushed away. Once a month, it is a great idea to do your proper watering without fertilizer. You can obviously do this more often than once a month, but do try not to forget about it for months on end. Each fertilizer brand will have its own recommendations. Some will say to fertilize once a month, some will say to fertilize once a week. The important thing is that you don't fertilize in higher quantities than what the label suggests. If you have never fertilized an orchid before, or you've never worked with a particular type of fertilizer, the safest thing to do is to use half the recommended amount. In this way, you will be able to test out the fertilizer, but limit the risk of shocking the orchid with a big amount of fertilizer. Commercial fertilizers will usually tell you to fertilize once a month. One little hack that I like to do is to split the recommended amount in four, and I would fertilize once a week rather than once a month with a smaller quantity. In this way, I made sure that my orchid had fertilizer pretty much all the time, and I never actually gave too much fertilizer to my orchid. After four weeks, I would make sure to flush the orchid properly with clean water, and then repeat the cycle. Phalaenopsis orchids are continuous growers, meaning they never take a break or a dormancy, no matter what you might have heard. After the flowers drop, these orchids are actually starting to grow. They will start to create new leaves and new roots, and this is when they need fertilizer the most. I personally fertilize my Phalaenopsis orchids all of the time. I do, however, fertilize less in wintertime, because the orchids are focusing on flowering rather than vegetative growth. But I never actually take a complete break from fertilizer. So if you are wondering if you can fertilize your orchid while it is in bloom, yes, you definitely can. You can use lesser quantities if you want. It is, however, very important to fertilize when the orchid grows new leaves and also new roots. You will also find in your orchid journey that some orchids will be able to bloom and grow roots at the same time. This is why I believe they actually do need fertilizing all of the time. But indeed, when they're in bloom, you can absolutely fertilize less, but nothing bad will happen if you fertilize them while they have flowers. Alrighty, so this is about it on orchid fertilizers for now. Being that these orchids grow very, very slow, and they don't require a lot of nutrients, deficiencies will not show right away, but in time they will. So orchids do need fertilizers, but I hope this video gives you an idea of how to properly fertilize your orchid. And as you grow in your orchid journey, you will find your preferred fertilizers and methods as well. I have been using this particular fertilizer for about three years now, and I really, really like it. So thank you so much to Repotme for sponsoring this video and providing my favorite fertilizer. So that's it. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope this was useful for you guys. And you know the drill, like or dislike this video below. Subscribe to my channel for regular orchid videos, tutorials, Q&As, and other fun orchid subjects. And stay tuned for next month when we shall continue our orchid series with another simple tutorial for orchid beginners. So with that said, I'll see you next time. Bye!