Haxuan:

I wick or mat all my plants.. so they are fertilized each and every time. I use fish emulsion (1/2 t. per gallon) and Peter's Speciality (1/4 t. per gallon) and Allegro Plant tonic (1/2 t. per gallon) along with Physan (1 t. per gallon with each fertilizer). I alternate each fertilize each month. I completely clean all containers/trays and start fresh with a different fertilize.

If I want a certain tray or deli container to begin blooming faster, I only use the Peter's Speciality each month until I have obtained the blooms or stalks I want. I do this prior to show.

My favorite is FE (fish emulsion) and Allegro Plant Tonic for the babies. It really gets them growing fast and not so many blooms. I would rather have the growth than the blooms for the babies and teens, then add the Peter's when I am ready for the blooms. Their roots and leaves are more important in the beginning than to see the color. The color will come later when they are more mature. Do not push the blooms, you want good healty plants first.

I buy AV's for their bloom first, then if I do not like the way the plant is growing, I will put leaves down and get the plant I want for symmetry and I will have the bloom when the plant reaches maturity from the babies. To make sure you have the exact bloom as the mother plant, take a sucker or put a bloom stalk down, otherwise you may get sports or a different variation of the mother blooms from the leaves. Do as you would with a chimera.

Hope this helps,
Tea

Dear teazing

I'm not a native speaker of English and so I have some trouble understanding some of the words.
You said "I wick or mat all my plants". What does this word "mat" mean? Does it mean you place the pots of AV in a deep tray which contains some water? If so, I imagine the pots standing in water. Doesn't the issue of "wet feet" a problem here? I read in many garden books that you shouldn't place a pot of plant directly in water; instead, you should stand the pot on some pebbles to avoid them getting "wet feet".
Can you explain this word "mat", please. This is very interesting and useful to me since I keep my AVs in our holiday home where I only visit bi-weekly. I use the wick system with the mature AVs but don't do so with the growing ups because I have many growing ups and it will take a lot of time to repot them with wicks.
If you confirm that AV pots can be placed directly into a tray of water, that will be very useful for me since I don't have to worry about whether my AVs would get enough (or so much) water while I'm away.
Thank you for your sharing.

Haxuan,

The mat is just a piece of synthetic fabric - like a piece acrylic blanket cut the way so it is sitting on a top of your grid and the edges soak water from the reservoir. So the wicks instead of touching the water below are just laying on this wet fabric.

For the growers in a dry climate it helps to increase the local humidity. As far as I know in Vietnam you do not have really low humidity - so it is perfectly OK to skip it. More of it - if your pots have an additional airflow from the bottom - it actually helps.

Cheers

Irina