Fertilizing Orchids

[justlearning!!]

I have a couple of small orchids, that had never been "fed" since I got them a few years ago, but had bloomed a couple of times in that period. A couple of months ago, I rescued a bigger orchid from my mother's rental property (the tenants thought they were doing a good deed by repotting it in regular potting soil and burying all the roots... accckkk!)

When I brought the bigger orchid to a florist to have it repotted correctly, I also bought some "orchid food". I mixed it according to directions, and watered all three plants with it a couple of times.

The leaves on my smaller orchids turned reddish all along the edges, and the tips looked almost burnt. The larger orchid got a brownish/black spot on a leaf. From the only info I've been able to find online, it sounds like they're getting sunburned, but the smaller orchids have been in the same windows for 4+ yrs

Is the orchid food the problem? Should I move them to another place if I continue feeding them? (Or should I just leave them where they've always been and not feed them again?)

Thanks!!

[MikeWA]

Sounds like sunburn. The conditions changed somehow. They got more sun than normal. Could have been many cloudy days then one very bright one with direct sunlight on the leaves. Withought seeing where the plants are it is hard to tell. Most plants will not burn unless direct light hits their leafs.

Fertilizer will usually cause brown leaf tips on many genera but not cause what happened to your plants. If you followed the directions on the bottle then you are safe. You can give orchids recommended dosage from an orchid fert but go 1/3 strength with a normal plant fertilizer. You can also dilute to 1/8 strength and fertilize more often.

Personally I am lazy about fertilizing. I use a different type all the time. Sometimes I go once a month and other times I can got 8 months without fertilizing. Typically they can do very well with only getting fertilizer 4 times a year but that does have a lot to do with the type of water you have. Some areas have a lot of diluted salts such as Magnesium and other areas have horrible water that must have trace elements added before watering orchids.

[justlearning!!]

Thanks for your response... I really wasn't sure if I should just give up on the whole fertilizer thing! Reading your response and thinking back, I remember having an unusually hot and sunny weekend after I used the fertilizer the second time (the temperature spiked to 90F from an average temp of about 50 at that time). And since at that point I had just started "feeding" them, I automatically thought the fertilizer was the problem.

Thanks, maybe I'll give the fertilizer another try.