Help needed with Fertilizer, please!

Hello,

Today I went to an agriculture shop wanting to buy my Phals some fertilizer. They didn't have any specialized orchid fertilizer but the engineer gave me a 20-20-20 (Urea Free) product that is used for all kinds of plants and manufactured in the UK by Scotts.

I'm not going to use the product unless I get the go-ahead from the experts on this forum. how should I use it (if it is appropriate), I usually water my Phals every 7 days, I pour 0.5 liters of water in each pot and let the pot drain before I place it back (is it a correct method or not?)

My phals are currently in bloom.

This is the product that I purchased along with the label on the back.

Thank you all in advance.

First off it isn't urea free! 13.5% of the 20% N is urea based. Next, this product is intended to be used on lawns and I don't know that taking a teaspoonful will dissolve in water even though the label says the trace elements are water soluble. While it may be true that one doesn't have to use fertilizer specifically designed for orchids to feed them, lawn fertilizer is meant for your lawn. Just my 2 cents worth.

I agree with Howard.................also, as it says on the label "...Contact Scotts......for specific recomendations".

I feel the same way...20-20-20 isn't right for your needs, nor is this fertilizer acceptable for orchids. I agree that you could use it for your lawn or to green up your ornamentals in the spring.

As Howard pointed out, its not urea free, but nevertheless, it is a good foliar feed. All the components of the fertilizer are water soluble and meant to be absorbed by the leaves. If given in the right proportion urea (less than 75-100 ppm) is good for orchids as a foliar feed (Its bad for orchid roots as in orchid media urea is converted to ammonia by bacteria very quickly causing the pH to rise and burning the roots.)
There was a long article in the AOS magazine sometime last year, I also remember the title, it was Growing the Best Phalaenopsis, and it recommended Urea in their fertilizer regimen.
As the product mentions, give it a try on some Phals for a week or two before spraying your whole collection. I would recommend you adding 0.5 g of fertilizer to 1 litre of water, this will give you 100 ppm each of NPK also the amount of N from urea will be 62.5 ppm which is acceptable. Just remember that it should be sprayed on the leaves of the plants (Once every week or so). Also at such low conc. Urea will not be bad for the roots.