Mike - I think you'll be just fine with the Foliage-Pro. Instead of me explaining what you already know, I'll let you read through some info. The Michigan State University formulations you'll encounter are widely used as supplemental nutrition by many thousands of growers with excellent results.

"Without High Phosphorous
A New Fertilizer Proves Itself with Orchids
Orchids Vol. 72 No. 6. June 2003

Article Text by Jan Szyren

THE PAST TWO YEARS HAVE BEEN the most exciting of my horticultural career. Imagine my delight at receiving a Certificate of Cultural Excellence as my first-ever AOS award for Coelia bella 'Anastasia', CCE/AOS, which scored 91 points. Since that joyful event, the Michigan State University collection is, to a local judge, "creating quite a stir in the local orchid community..." with nine more cultural awards, an Award of Merit and a Highly Commended Certificate, 28 show trophies and countless blue ribbons since. The secret to my success: a new fertilizer developed at Michigan State University. And the great news is you can use this fertilizer at home, too.

The nutritional program at Michigan State University is vastly different from the majority of recommendations circulating within the horticultural world about the fertilization of orchids. This fertilizer is now being referred to as "Michigan State University's Magic Fertilizer." In fact, there were two formulas originally produced for the university that have been shown to work well for orchids. The first, called RO Water Special or 13-3-15, was designed for a pure water source like rainwater or reverse-osmosis (RO) purified water. Due to the extreme variability of well-water mineral content, the RO Water Special formula is the preferred choice for the home grower. The second formula, called Well Water Special or 19-4-23 was designed to complement the well water found at Michigan State University.

John Biernbaum, PhD, of the Horticulture Department at MSU, along with Bill Argo, PhD, of the Blackmore Company and Larry Metcoff of GreenCare Fertilizers, designed and formulated these two fertilizers for use in the MSU research and teaching greenhouse ranges on a broad range of horticultural crops: Easter lilies, poinsettias, annual bedding flowers, perennials - just about everything but orchids. Several years ago, I sought Biernbaum's advice and he suggested I give the Well Water Special a try on the orchids. I have been using it for the past six or seven years and I also use it for everything grown in the teaching collection: ferns, conifers, annuals and perennials, hundreds, even thousands of tropical plants, cacti and succulents, from mundane coleus to the unusual Welwitschia mirabilis.

The results obtained with the Well Water Special on the 400-plus species in our orchid collection were absolutely unbelievable after just one season. Five years later, we have specimens of Bulbophyllum, Coelogyne, Dendrobium, Laelia, Cattleya, and Cymbidium that are almost too big to carry.

In response to my puzzlement about our spectacular flowering and the folklore that high levels of phosphorous are required for flowering, Biernbaum told me that "it's not the high doses of phosphorous that boost the flowering, but the lack of excess nitrogen." (Excess nitrogen will cause excessive foliar growth at the expense of flowers.) Additionally, these two fertilizers complement or balance the two types of water that are found at Michigan State.

HOW I USE IT

For the MSU orchid collection, I use the Well Water Special at a concentration of 125 ppm nitrogen. I first make a concentrate of the fertilizer by dissolving 27 pounds (12.2 kg) of the Special fertilizer in 50 gallons (190 l) of water, and then add one gallon (3.8 l) of organic acid (Serplex organic acid by GreenCare Fertilizers) to counteract the horrific alkalinity levels and high pH of MSU water. The concentrate is diluted with well water through an injector at a 1:100 ratio, yielding the solution of 125 ppm nitrogen. For those without injectors, this is equivalent to about 2 teaspoons (12 g) of fertilizer to 5 gallons (23 l) of water. I give two to three applications of the fertilizer followed by a generous RO drench, with less fertilizer and more RO for the lady's-slipper orchids and pleurothallids. In essence, this means the plants are fertilized with a low concentration of nutrients at almost every watering. This practice, called Constant Liquid Feed, reduces wastes due to unassimilated nutrients and also greatly reduces potential groundwater contamination from high-concentration runoff.

Because I love to water the plants, I prefer clay pots and wooden baskets. In the spring and summer, when new growths are developing, I often water many plants daily, Monday through Friday. But I do treat each plant as an individual. A dose of fish emulsion given in the spring is the only supplement.

On sunny days, the greenhouse warms up, causing the evaporative coolers or fans to run constantly, circulating such a volume of air that those plants in clay pots or baskets dry rapidly. Also, because the goal is big, beefy new growths, I choose to err on the moist side during periods of active growth. In the warmer months, I also like to go through the entire collection after watering (fertigating) and spray a fine mist of RO, just enough to wash the leaves off and trickle down into the pots. This helps keep excessive buildup from forming (we jokingly call our well water here "liquid rock") and besides, it just makes me plain happy - the earthy smell, the humidity, the glistening leaves and flowers. This is joyful work.

Of course, in the winter, this becomes problematic. I try to avoid at all costs the slightest amount of water stress, keeping each plant as hydrated as possible. Due to security issues, the orchid houses are locked on the weekends and the collection is left alone for two days. So the plants do dry out fully every weekend. I delight in those occasional dreary rainy summer days, when it's safer to skip watering entirely, those being my best days for repotting, grooming, weeding, sweeping or doing library research."

And then there is this from Bill Argo - an innovastive way toi package nutrition:

"Understanding pH management and plant nutrition
Part 1: Introduction
Bill Argo, Ph.D.
Blackmore Company, Tel: 800-874-8660, Int�l 734-483-8661, E-mail: bargo@blackmoreco.com
Originally printed in 2003 in the Journal of the International Phalaenopsis Alliance, Vol. 12 (4).
Plants are basically water surrounded by a pretty
package. If we place 100 lbs. of healthy living plant
material into a special oven to remove all the water, we
will have only about 10 lbs. of dry plant material left.
In general, plants are about 90% water and 10% dry
matter.
The 10 lbs. of dry plant material that we have left is
made up of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), and
a number of inorganic salts. If we take the 10 lbs. of
dry plant material and remove all the carbon, hydrogen,
and oxygen, there will be about 1 lb. of ash left. Thus,
plant nutrition is the direct management of about 1% of
the plant by weight.
The ash that is left is composed of the essential plant
nutrient. However, these nutrients are not all taken up at
the same rate. The essential plant nutrients can be
separated into two groups, macronutrients and
micronutrients. Macronutrients are found at relatively
high concentrations in the plant tissue and include
nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium
(Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S). Micronutrients
are found at much lower concentrations in the tissue
than macronutrients and include iron (Fe), manganese
(Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), boron (B), and
molybdenum (Mo).
These twelve essential plant nutrients are commonly
provided by various fertilizer sources, which includes
not only the water-soluble fertilizer, but also can
include the irrigation water and container substrate.
There are several other nutrients that are considered as
essential for normal growth including sodium (Na),
chloride (Cl), Nickle (Ni), and possibly chromium (Cr).
However, these later four essential plant nutrients are
not required by plants in large amounts. Because they
are often found as contaminants in a number of different
fertilizer sources, it has not been demonstrated that that
they have to be specifically apply to plants.
Substrate pH and plant nutrition
The term pH is a direct measurement of the balance
between acidic hydrogen ions (H+) and basic hydroxide
ions (OH-), and can be measured with a pH meter. The
pH of a solution can range between 0 (very acidic) and
14 (very basic). At a pH of 7.0, the concentrations of
H+ and OH- are equal, and the solution is said to be
neutral.
When growing plants in containers, the pH range
commonly found in the solution extracted from the
substrate is much narrower, from about 4.5 to 8.5. The
recommended substrate pH range from growing plants
in containers is even more specific, around 5.8 to 6.2,
depending on the crop.
The reason that the pH of the solution in the substrate
is so important is that it affects nutrient solubility. Using
Figure 1 as an example, the solubility of micronutrients
(iron, manganese, zinc, boron) and phosphorus decrease
with increasing substrate pH.
Substrate pH can also be an indication of problems.
For example, low pH can be an indication that sufficient
lime was not added to the substrate, or that a fertilizer is
being used that is too acidic for the water quality. High
pH can be an indication that too much lime was added to
the substrate or that there is too much alkalinity left in the
irrigation water.
Substrate pH can also affect the uptake of nutrients
by the plant. Iron (Fe) uptake generally decreases with
increasing pH because it precipitates out of the soil
Not for publication or reproduction without the authors consent. Pg. 2
solution at higher pH levels. Phosphorus (P) also will
precipitate out of solution at higher pH levels.
Phosphorus uptake will be further reduced above a pH
of 7.2 because any phosphorus left in solution is
converted into a less available form. Nitrogen (N)
uptake can be indirectly affected by medium pH
because low pH decreases nitrification (conversion of
ammoniacal nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen) or the
conversion of urea to ammoniacal nitrogen.
Plants and nutrient uptake
Plant species differ in their ability to take up
nutrients at a given pH level. While there are not good
examples with orchids, there are good examples with
other plants produced in containers.
For example geraniums and African marigolds are
very efficient accumulators of iron (Fe) and manganese
(Mn), and are often grown at a relatively high substrate
pH (6.0 to 6.8) compared to most container grown
crops. The high pH reduces iron and manganese
solubility, which limits the uptake, and prevents toxicity
problems.
At the other end of the spectrum are plants like
rhododendrons, blue berries, and petunias, which are
very inefficient at taking iron from the soil solution, and
are often grown at a relatively low substrate pH (5.2 to
6.2). The low pH increases iron solubility, which
increases the uptake, and prevents deficiency problems.
There is a third group of plants, like poinsettias,
chrysanthemums, and impatiens that can be grown over
a relatively wide range of pH�s (5.5 to 6.5) without
showing any deficiency or toxicity problems.
While I don�t know it for sure, I would guess that
orchids are like all other plants. Some species will
perform better when grown at a low pH, some will
perform better when grown at a high pH, and for some,
it will not matter. However, for each of these groups,
the acceptable range where they will grow and perform
the best will be relatively narrow and will be similar
that of other plant species. If you had to choose a pH
range to grow all orchids, then the recommended range
would 5.8 to 6.2, again, just like all other crops.
pH management and plant nutrition.
` Many growers make the assumption that
growing in containers is like growing hydroponically.
Unless water is constantly dripping out of the bottom of
the container, then it is not like hydroponics. Others
consider growing in containers like growing outside in
soil. It is not like that either.
Research has shown that the pH and nutritional
management of container grown crops, including
orchids, is affected by the interaction of a number of
different factors, including the water quality, watersoluble
fertilizer, and the substrate. In the next issue, I
will discuss water quality."

You can see that orchid nutrition isn't notably different than that of anything else you'd be apt to maintain in containers.

Al