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Epiphyte's Delight just killed many of my plants

Wolfn

Agent of Chaos
I used some Epiphyte's Delight on many of my plants the other day. I checked them out today and some of my plants are completely dead now (Pinguicula Caerulea, Brocchinia Reducta, part of my Sarracenia Purpurea, etc). I'm now starting to think this is what killed my Nepenthes Ampullaria.


That's just great.....
 
What's in it that would kill them?
 
What's in it that would kill them?


Not sure. I used some on my plants, and when I checked on my plants today, they were all rotted away.
 
One site recommended using 1/4 the recommended dosage for Nepenthes. I never use the manufacturer's recommend amount no matter what brand it is and how safe everyone says it is. I always use 1/2 to 1/4 the dosage amount on the few occasions that I use ferts. There are other factors in one's conditions that can affect how the plants will react to fertilizer. Sometimes the outcome isn't good.

Why not use fish food in the pitchers? It's safer and does about what liquid ferts will do (I'm assuming Epiphyte's Delight is mixed with water?).

Edit: I'd also like to add, Pinguicula do not take kindly to ANY liquid fertilizer that I know of. Your best bet for them is crushed fish food or powdered freeze dried bloodworms. I have a friend that uses a liquid fertilizer on his Pings, he describes the concentration as being so low it's nearly like having the water sitting in front of the fertilizer bag looking at each other (as in a very very very low dosage).

Crystal
 
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Since this particular brand of fertilizer has proven time and again to be reliable, you most likely used too high of a concentration. Sorry about your plants. It's part of the learning process. Live and learn.
 
I've never heard of people using these kind of fertilizers on pings. I have seen slow-release pellets in sarracenia pots.

I doubt the fertilizer killed your amp unless you were using a high dosage.

It's a shame you lost your brocchina. :(
 
Yes, how much did you use?

And this is why I say people should test things first on some spare plants before just using it on their whole collection.
 
I used some Epiphyte's Delight on many of my plants the other day. I checked them out today and some of my plants are completely dead now (Pinguicula Caerulea, Brocchinia Reducta, part of my Sarracenia Purpurea, etc). I'm now starting to think this is what killed my Nepenthes Ampullaria.
Wolfn,
Creating a new post like this without any detailed information (& about a product many experienced CP growers consider to be safe & effective):

- does potential damage to your credibility
- allows no one else to learn from your experience

At a minimum, please share with us what concentration you used & how it was applied.
 
At a minimum, please share with us what concentration you used & how it was applied.

I don't remember the concentration, but I believe it was too much
 
  • #10
I used some Epiphyte's Delight on many of my plants the other day. I checked them out today and some of my plants are completely dead now (Pinguicula Caerulea, Brocchinia Reducta, part of my Sarracenia Purpurea, etc). I'm now starting to think this is what killed my Nepenthes Ampullaria.


That's just great.....

I am sorry to hear about the loss. I have used Epiphyte's Delight at 1/4 strength from time to time, over the years, without any problems -- particularly for Nepenthes and Heliamphora . . .
 
  • #11
Man, Wolf -

I feel your pain. I had a similar thing happen when I fed some of my Cephs and smaller Neps with "Hikari Cichlid Gold" Fish food Pellets that comes in the RED pouch.

I'd been using the green pouched ones just fine (Hikari Cichlid Staple"), and they are a tad smaller. Two days after using the red ones, one each per pitcher, about 30 pitchers turned to a mushy black... aarrgghhhh!

I remember it this way now: Green means GO, Red means STOP.
 
  • #12
I"m very sorry that you lost a lot of your plants! It does sound like it was due to operator error and not the fertilizer. Crystal and Capensis both said it right. Never use at full dose. I use 1/4 with anything I feed. also If you have never fertilized before (wheather you have never done it before or a change in fertilizer) test a few plants first. See how they respond and change accordingly. I personly hardly ever feed (1-2 times per year). My plants grow just fine! Really the only reason I can see fertilizing CP's ever is in comercial applications where the longer you have the plant the more money you loose.
 
  • #13
I have no idea what's in this particular Epiphyte's Delight product but I only fertilized my Nepenthes, not anything like a Ping or VFT, Sundews, seeing as how they are so sensitive. I had my U. alpina melt down after getting just a hint of overspray from a "gentle" bug spray I was shooting at a Nep.

I used Gro More brand Urea Free orchid fertilizer on my Neps and Orchids to great effect. 1/4 strength of course. This is fertilizer that has it's main source of nitrogen as nitrate nitrogen or ammoniacal (sp?) nitrogen. Whatever you get should not say "derived from urea".

As it was explained to me Urea based fertilizers rely on there being an abundance of soil microbes to convert it from Urea to the nitrate available nitrogen. Neps and orchids are generally growing in soil-free mixes like LFS and Bark/coco husk which doesn't act as a good home for those urea converting bacteria and this urea not being converted is what leads to the burning.
 
  • #14
Maybe I should think about this a little more, but I think an overdose of urea-based fertilizer is less likely to burn than an ammonia-N or nitrate-N fertilizer would. Urea won't boost the ionic strength of a solution and its absorption and adsorption don't have any direct pH effects. The rest of what Swords said about the need for microbial assistance is absolutely right. I don't fertilize CPs because, well, it seems like a crime against nature.
 
  • #15
What the conclusion was from the orchid shop guy (this is all his theory) was that it wasn't necessarily the fertilizer itself overloading the plant but rather the unconverted fertilizer salts crystallizing on the roots and preventing water absorption and future proper flushing of the roots. He eventually released his own gentle fertilizer called Orchid Jungle or something like that but it's a liquid and seems a waste when a 1 pound box of Gro More lasts almost a decade. Actually a couple years then it gets hard like brown sugar.

As far as my use of it went I probably fertilized my Neps every two weeks at 1/4 strength during one of the twice/thrice weekly flushes but I also fed each operational pitcher a defrosted cricket every week or two. Since I didn't have any Neps that I didn't fertilize & feed (other than establishing cuttings) I can't say for sure that the fertilizing made them grow faster than unfertilized plants but from peoples description of how slow Neps were supposed to grow I think it seemed to help as mine seemed to grow rapidly. But ya do gotta go light with it!
 
  • #16
kinda why i like my fertilizer derived from fish......even if i go to concentrated nothing in there that a plant cant handle so all that will happen is i lose a pitcher cause the food being to rich.....course i only use it on Neps, Cephs and helis as far as CPs......
 
  • #17
Back when I had tillandsia, I would just fertilize the orchids with that pink powder orchid fertilizer - I think it's Schultz - and then with the teaspoon or so left of that water at the bottom of the container, I would dilute that again up to a whole gallon (I was using old milk gallon jugs) and dump it over them.

With the nepenthes, they just get the caterpillars I keep finding all over the mint and basil and whatever creepy crawlies I find/kill around the house. Minty-fresh pitchers :).
 
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