Use of Eleanor's VF 11 on Orchids
Charles H Vandyke
This past weekend I found out that several commercial orchid growers are
using a product called Eleanor's VF 11 on orchids. Apparently this has
outstanding effects for producing great orchids, and this is from some
very conservative growers.
Does anyone have any experience using this product or know others who
have used it successfully?
What is it and what does it do? I wonder if it is used on all orchids
at all stages?
Where can you purchase it? (I see Charley's Greenhouse Supply sells it
in rather expensive pint quantities. Anyone see it in larger sizes
and/or cheaper?)
Thanks
Charles VanDyke
cvan...@andrew.cmu.edu
Gustav Koopman
Just some comments about such products:
Periodically some appear then diseappear on the market.
My main opinion is that :
* They usually contains one or more of the following :
- NAA ( an auxin, used to stimulate roots), less common is IBA ( Indole
Butyric Acid) and Indole Acetic Acid, both have virtualy similar effects,
though concentration and durability in a solution or to an exposition to
the sun is variable.
- Thiamine HCl ( a vitamin, possibly useful to the orchid
- Biotin ( another vitamin)
- Pyridoxin, Panthotenic Acid Ca salt, riboflavin, and several other
vitamins
- Peptone like, and a lot of peptids ( like Casein Hydrolysate, sometimes
they use the garbage produced by pharmaceutical labs when doing peptidic
concentrates for human patients.)
- Alcohols most famous is Methanol ( the alcohol, use in small quantities
to enhance growth), Triacontanol is less common but very efficient too.
- Organic compounds like coconut water, banana pulp, papaya, etc... I
visited a plant in Thailand, and the process is very simple : they use
bacterias to reduce all this matter into smallr molecules, then they
extract the whole using solvents ( aceton and benzen mostly). They
dehydrate the powder, which is brownish, and dilute it in water, added with
Sodium Azide, and several other preservants.
So one or more of these compounds is used in these ' 100's vitamin and
hormons concentrates'.
My formula is currently being used by some of the major grower in Holland :
Solution A :
Glycine 3 g
Nicotinic acid 1 g
Thiamine HCl 500 mg
Pyridoxin HCl 100 mg
NAA 100 mg
In 100 ml of ethanol.
Use 1 mL/10L, each watering. + 100 mg Pepton/ 10L one watering out of two.
Do not forget the Calcium Nitrate when feeding ( 88g/1L of water, then
1mL/L), and of course the plant food. I use 10-52-10 starter after
repotting, then 20-20-20 ( even in bark, owing to the high nitrogen content
of the other additives.) for the remaining.
It is as good than many additives I have ever used ( IncludingVitagrow and
SuperThrive). And it is cheap too. The complete solution A costs less than
a few dollars to build.
It is very cheap to make, providing you can find the required chemicals (
try SIGMA, but ask for the US address on this n.g.)
Best
Gustav
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