Carrie
Is there any bad difference between normal fertilizer and orchid fertilizer, would be orchid die if i used this on it? Ive used it for alocasias and even carnivorous plants, i make a tea out of it basically
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nepenthomancerI would absolutely never use earth worm castings for any carnivorous plants particularly not nepenthes it’s exactly the opposite of what the contents any of their substrates would have in nature and would probably cause nepenthes to stop pitchering. It would be bad for all the others too though. All Carnivorous plants developed to eat bugs because of how low in nutrients their substrates are, and do best being fed via their traps. Why grow traps if they get fed through roots? They’ll often focus on growing roots and get quite deformed traps if fertilized in this way. Additionally the urea in earthworm castings can kill carnivorous plants, and orchids really don’t like it. It really is best just to let your carnivores eat bugs and feed your orchids with either a 20-20-20 or a fertilizer made specifically for orchids as to not burn them.
3 likes- Carrie
I think my fertilizer would be too burn them right? My venus fly trap was atrocious before I started putting little sprinkles of this fertilizer in its water🤩
0 likes - nepenthomancer
I would not do that if I were you. It will make it grow deformed traps and possibly stop growing all together.
1 like - nepenthomancer
To put it into perspective, tap water alone has enough nutrients to kill a VFT over time.
0 likes - Carrie
This is how my venus has been looking for many months now, i think she’s pretty
0 likes
- nepenthomancer
That’s great I’m glad, but I promise you I’m not making this up if you don’t trust me there’s plenty of resources that explicitly say this nutrient content will eventually kill a VFT. It’s obviously up to you what you do with that information though.
1 like
send_nodesNo, don’t use this for orchids. They’re quite different from most houseplants and require a different ratio of nutrients. It probably wouldn’t kill them, but it could prevent them from flowering, and cause the plant to decline over time.
4 likes
MeasomerPiI agree with not adding worm castings to orchid media in most cases. I haven’t used the tea on any of my orchids so I don’t have any practical experience there. I do not add castings to any epiphytic orchids (like phals, cattleyas, oncidiums) or paphs. The roots of those plants do not tolerate staying wet hence the chunky media. Adding small particles increases moisture retention which is detrimental to the root health. I don’t see any harm watering them with worm tea (but as I said above I haven’t done it). I have added small amounts of castings to orchids that prefer denser, more soil-like media, like vanilla and epidendrum. And by small I mean a pinch or two annually for a 4” pot. They are doing fine.
1 like
