Steven Nikkila

Hello friends old and new and thank you for visiting out Forum. I hope you have a good time exploring this Forum and our website (gardenatoz.org). Let us know what you think. Thanks, Steve

Here's some more on fertilizing orchids in the winter from Ron Ciesinski of Taylor Orchids in Monroe, Michigan. He grows thousands of orchids and is just about to quit fertilizing most of them until March. "They don't grow in winter, even under lights. When they start growing again, usually in March, I use a high nitrogen fertilizer. Then once the new leaves are formed I switch to one with lower nitrogen, such as 6-30-30 and keep that up into fall, blossom booster or something like that especially in September and October. Might cut to half in winter, December, hold off entirely especially in January, start up again in March. Steven

Hi again, Carol Phew, talk about a quick reply. He promises more, and directed us to several books we both have, but says the short answer is stop fertilizing during December and January unless you're under lights. Steven

If you've done it before and the plants are fine then it seems to me we should just publish your note as one of the examples of "no one rule fits everything." Meanwhile, we'll check with our orchid guy here and see if he has advice. His orchids are under lights, for the most part, but he probably has some that are not! Steven and Janet

Does the do not fertilize house plants suggestion, also apply to Catalya orchids. I have always fertilized them "weakly weekly" as the orchid societies suggest. I over summer mine outdoors and have lots of flowers forming right now. They do not get extra light, but are in south facing windows. Carol