Thursday, December 2, 2010

Worm tea and orchids

The worm bin in the photo is the second I've had, having first started with a simple plastic container. I like this stacking one better because it allows the liquid to collect and be drained easily. And, as any worm compostor knows, the liquid is the best fertilizer you can find.

Worm tea can be heavily diluted, and used as a drench or a spray, but I like to add about half again of water. Since the beginning of the year, I've used it exclusively on the orchids, with some very gratifying results.

I don't feed my orchids as often as I should, but most of them flower on and off regardless. However, for years I've had a large cattleya growing on the north side of a coconut palm trunk. It flowered once, nearly 10 years ago, but now it's got two huge blooms! I was stunned to find them a few days ago.

And a vandaceous orchid that's not flowered before produced some delightful blooms of the palest purple, a color I've not seen before.

Here are the pix:



An indication of the size