Saturday 12 July 2014

Some Useful Tips

I am noting some useful tips that I have been following

1) Rice wash water is rich in vitamin B and is good for Orchids. I have been using it for the past 3 weeks or so and orchids seem to love it

2) When foliar feeding orchids, spray on both the sides of the leaf, for some of the genus like Phalaenopsis, the stomata is on the underside of the leaf and would be beneficial to spray on the underside.

3) Do not use inorganic/chemical fertilize weak or infected plants. you are better off using rice wash water to help plant grow better

4) Seaweed extract is great for orchids but do not use seaweed extract too often. Seaweed extract contains certain hormones that speed-up root development but over usage would be harmful for orchids and over usage would lead to stunted growth.

5) Do not buy seaweed extract in large quantities, the hormone in seaweed extract breaks down faster and looses its useful value within an year or so.

6) Keep seaweed extract container away from direct sunlight. sun light accelerates the breakdown of the hormones in seaweed extract.

7)  if you have an fresh water aquarium or your friends have an aquarium, use the aquarium water for orchids.  aquarium water has dissolved nutrients from fish poo and are beneficial to orchids.

8) During periods of low humidity in Bangalore, bare root vanda's are the most impacted. I soak all my bare root vanda's into a bucket of water every alternative day for 30 minutes or so and this seem to help the vanda's from loosing too much of their roots.

9) When using systematic fungicide (carbendazim/ thiophanate methyl), add a very small quantity of 20-20-20 to help plant absorb the fungicide better. This is similar to sugar coated pills that we take.

10) Do not use any copper based fungicide on Dendrobiums.

11)  Do not spray fungicide/insecticide on the flowers or on buds.

12) Neem oil is oil base, spray early in the morning (6-7 a.m.) and not any longer.  spraying later would burn the leaves

13) Rotate fungicide regularly to ensure that the fungi does not immune to the same fungicide.

14) in my experience, carbendazim/ thiophanate methyl are compatible with Streptomycin Sulphate. Hence I usually add this bactericide to my fungicide regimen and apply.

15) Do not mix or create own mixtures of commercial pesticides or fungicides as each of them work differently and mixing them could be harmful to you and orchids.



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