A well balanced and engineereed fertilizer mixture could contain bug discouraging materials. Often such bug discouraging materials comprise ingredients that do not act chemically on bugs like a pesticide does, but act physically on bugs like discomforting them through deregulating their breathing system and the like. The acidification of orchid potting mix is the biggest potential hazard for the healthy growth of orchids. The pH of the orchid potting mix after watering increases continuously as a consequence of the decay products generated by micro-organisms during the decay of orchid potting mix. During drying up of the orchid potting mix, the pH of the wet orchid potting mix increases even more owing to the increasing concentration of decay products during drying up.
Various orchid potting materials possess different acidification rates.
Therefore, a well balanced and engineered fertilizer mix should contain potting mix independent pH buffer materials.