Curious as to which form of fertilizer people prefer, liquid or granular. I need to order some and wonder about how quickly the granular (MSU in particular) dissolves. I'd like to order a good amount of it this time around, and am leaning towards the granular, but I have only experience with the liquid.

Thank you!

My MSU is granular, and dissolves in "pure water" readily.

8) Dr. Rick - TY!

Hi Rick, do you like the MSU Fert? Ray

I like granular. The shelf life is longer.

I by the granular form, 25lbs. at a time, because it's cheaper. I then make my own liquid concentrate to add to my R/O water. The only drawback is that the granular form really likes to absorb moisture directly from the air, so it must be kept in an air tight container. The 25 lb. quantity I buy comes in such a container.

Excellent! Exactly the info I was hoping for! Ross! I never thought of making a concentrate - great idea! May I ask what proportions you use? Thanks!!

Fred - I started w/ the MSU in April and my roth, for example has really greened up nicely - it was a bit chlorotic, and I'm happy to see it changing over. My plants seem to be liking the MSU quite a bit!

So this MSU is the shizzle huh? I might have to break down and try some. Just when my watering was getting easy.

I recently bought some MSU, but it was only 8 OZ and it seems like it will last forever going at 1/4 tsp for 1 gallon of water.

Am I missing something here??? I cannot imagine buying 25 lbs of the stuff, as other members posted.

I must mention that when I water, I first give the plants a drenching in RO and then apply the MSU in a subesquent watering.

I use granular, from Norman's. Picked up a pound at a show for $8. It works.
Read about MSU. Hope it works wonders on your plants.

I use both, depending on what my mood is. Joe (Bloomfields) said, "You might as well buy granuals, unless of course, you prefer to pay alot for water." Words from the wise lol. I feel like I am stirring the granuals forever before they dissolve, does that make me lazy? :embarass:

Susan-
I am using the MSU liquid at about 125 ppm per gallon (based on folk's reccomendations here!) which is actually about 2.5 tsp! For my 8 L sprayer, I use 5 tsp. So, I am going through it considerably faster than you.

Tadd -
I don't know if it is the "shizzle" but so far, my plants seem to be enjoying themselves.

I water twice a week (roughly - Monday - Saturday - Wednesday - repeat) and once w/ the fertilizer, once w/ a mix of distilled and rain, every fourth watering I flush w/ tap.

Traci-
yes, that is what I worry about w/ the granular.

(damn, I have to get up and get ready for work - I hate work! Wah! Forum will have to wait...until I get to work! :Shh: )

If the MSU stuff really is the shizzle, I might switch over when I'm done with my pound of Norman's.... that should be in about 3-4 years :poke: The bottle is still packed so full that I can't get the plastic spoon out without dumping some of the stuff out...

Excellent! Exactly the info I was hoping for! Ross! I never thought of making a concentrate - great idea! May I ask what proportions you use? Thanks!!

Fred - I started w/ the MSU in April and my roth, for example has really greened up nicely - it was a bit chlorotic, and I'm happy to see it changing over. My plants seem to be liking the MSU quite a bit!

I premeasure, on a dry day, ziplock bags containing 10oz. by weight of dry mix. I then add that to one gallon of water to make my stock solution. This solution is a liitle dilute, but gives me more flexibility. According to the directions, this stock in a 1:100 injector yields 100ppm of N. That means one oz. in one gallon(128 oz.) should yield a final solution with about 75 ppm of N. I then vary the concentration according to what plants I'm fertilizing. My Paphs and Phrags seem to be doing well at 125-150 ppm of N or 5-6oz. of stock solution to 3 gallons. (I use a 3 gallon sprayer to water.)

Excellent! Exactly the info I was hoping for! Ross! I never thought of making a concentrate - great idea! May I ask what proportions you use? Thanks!!

Fred - I started w/ the MSU in April and my roth, for example has really greened up nicely - it was a bit chlorotic, and I'm happy to see it changing over. My plants seem to be liking the MSU quite a bit!

I premeasure, on a dry day, ziplock bags containing 10oz. by weight of dry mix. I then add that to one gallon of water to make my stock solution. This solution is a liitle dilute, but gives me more flexibility. According to the directions, this stock in a 1:100 injector yields 100ppm of N. That means one oz. in one gallon(128 oz.) should yield a final solution with about 75 ppm of N. I then vary the concentration according to what plants I'm fertilizing. My Paphs and Phrags seem to be doing well at 125-150 ppm of N or 5-6oz. of stock solution to 3 gallons. (I use a 3 gallon sprayer to water.)

Ray has a fertilizer calculator you can use to calculate how much fertilizer to add to what amount of water for a given PPM. It is quite nice...

http://firstrays.com

I use dry fertilizer, as I don't want to pay to ship water... I'm partial to the MSU formula for various reasons (including that MSU pays my salary...), but is it the best in the world? Sure. *grin* It is pretty good, but it was designed for bedding plants. So there are probably opportunities to tweak it slightly for orchids, or particular groups of orchids (paphs, phrags, etc).

Thanks Ross!

Ray

I guess I like the MSU fert just fine. My plants seems to grow and flower on cue, its easy to store, and I'm not going boke using it.

I attribute most of my orchid success to humidity and air flow, rather than potting mixes and fertilizers. Regulating humidity was like a big switch for my entire collection, that I did not see through various changes of potting mixes and fertilizers.

I don't have the space to try controled fertilizer trials with groups of matched plants, so my oppinion on MSU is as good as for Miracle Grow quite honestly.

So I am off to buy some MSU I guess, (Little Frogs Magic Potion?) Will let you know. :poke:

Hmmm, should have re-read this BEFORE I mixed that new batch of fertilizer.
Luckily it was only about 6-8 plants. Grrr.

H<-----slinking off to flush pots.....:roll: