12 months on K-Lite results

Following; that's what I'm using, and if I need to adjust things, I'd like to know. I haven't been using it long enough to see any potential nutritional issues yet.

 

Raven, why not start with details of your irrigation and feeding regimen?

Your implication is that diseases you saw were the result of some sort of deficiency, but unless you were underfeeding in general (i.e., insufficient nitrogen), deficiencies in P & K - the only elements in reduced levels compared to MSU RO - are not known to affect plants in that way.

“Chlorotic”, “weak”, and “unblooming” are classic results of a nitrogen deficiency, not P or K. I will add, however, that if you have been grossly underfeeding while using RO water, it is possible that, in addition to nitrogen, your plants might be experiencing issues with the calcium, and/or magnesium supply, as they are both in greater concentration in K-Lite than MSU RO.

For the most part, in slow-growing plants like orchids (I cannot speak to the issues with gesneriads or blueberries, as the formula was really not designed for them), nutritional deficiencies limit the growth rate - if you consider each mineral a “building block”, the rate of growth is determined the element in least supply, but both P & K are fully mobile in plant tissues and stored within plants at levels far greater than they need.

K-Lite has been around for over a decade at this point, and I have not heard a single report matching yours, so I have a difficult time seeing an cause-and-effect relationship between fertilizer formula and disease.

Another reason I suspect underfeeding in general is my own experience. When I grew in a greenhouse, feeding was regular and constant - 25 ppm N at every watering, with the application frequency varying depending upon the season and weather, but generally speaking, they got about 75-100 ppm over the course of a week. When I moved to NC, where I have no greenhouse, my plants are out on my deck from April to October and in an enclosed porch over winter. No more automated feeding, so I use a hose-end sprayer to apply a 100 ppm N solution weekly, just using my tap water, which is close to “RO with added calcium” for irrigation in-between.

I must admit, however, that I was not particularly conscientious about the feeding part last year, and I’d be generous to say that my feeding rate dropped well below half of what I planned, and I experienced some of the same chlorosis issues that you described, with some phalaenopsis. Once I brought them inside for the winter and they are in closer proximity to my living space, I became far better about my feeding regimen, and I, too, saw an improvement in a relatively short time. No change in formula, but a definite increase in nitrogen.

 

If you really want to test it, sounds like you need to discontinue the probiotic again and see if the plants start having problems. Maybe just pick a couple of guinea pigs you aren't as fond of and toss them on the altar of science.

 

Raven, I am at a loss to understand the issue, but it just doesn't sound like a nutritional issue to me.

By the way - I can ship Inocucor to you...

 

Marni, I agree with you - if it was a bad batch of fertilizer - as that suggests poisoning, not a nutritional deficiency.

From its inception through about 2015, I was the sole retail outlet for K-Lite, which, by the way, was formulated by the PhD that did so for the MSU formulas, and is made in the same factory, Greencare Fertilizers in Illinois. While there was some variation in the sources of raw materials, making the texture somewhat variable, the chemistry was always solid (it’s far more uniform these days.) As I was retiring and planning to shut down First Rays, I got Kelley’s Korner to pick it up, and during my “moving hiatus”, before I was asked not to shut the business down, several others picked up the product. I do not know if they’re actually selling the same product or just using the name, but I have not heard of a bad batch being reported among those I’ve ever carried.

 

I suppose “toxicity” might have been a better word, and I think your thoughts on the imbalance in the ratios may very well be possible.

Certainly an overdose in trace elements can really screw up a plant, but what may have happened is an imbalance among nutrient ions that can compete for the same site within the plant’s anatomy, and in both cases, it takes a while for the plant’s internal chemistry to readjust back to normal.

 

I grow a small number of carnivorous plants. As carnivores, most of them are adapted to live in bogs and other low-nutrient environments, and have lost the ability to filter out minerals in the water. If you give them water with minerals in it, the minerals build up in their leaves. In small amounts, this damages the older leaves slightly, but is tolerable. In large amounts, it weakens and eventually kills the plant. They can't clean the minerals back out of their leaves, the affected tissue just weakens and usually dies. I wonder if the same concept applies here?

 

Orchids vary all over the map in their tolerance of minerals.

Raven stated “Most problems occurred with Bulbophyllums, Dendrobiums, Angraecoids, Pleurothallids”. Of those, only the pleurothallids would strike me as being likely candidates for potential issues, but in reality, there is SO much variability in all those genera that it’s impossible to generalize.