The genie had barely settled back into the dark liquid when he heard the second wish: “Don’t just feed my orchid. Make it grow stronger.” This was a more serious request. Any well-formulated fertiliser can feed a plant. It supplies nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and the other essential elements, and—as we established in Part I—a root…
Tag: orchid fertilisation
The Genie in the Bottle, or Three Wishes. Part I: Feed My Orchid
We walk into a garden centre and stop in front of the fertiliser shelf. On the left are the mineral fertilisers: precise, businesslike, armed with tables, percentages and chemical symbols. They look as though they have come straight from a laboratory and might ask us to sign the test report at any moment. On the…