Digging in the Dirt > Gardening Information

Garden Help: Foliar Feeding

Foliar feeding is just that: feeding your plants through the foliage. When nutrients are applied directly to the leaves, they are absorbed quickly into the plant through the stomata, tiny mouth-like organs on the leaves that facilitate nutrient intake and gas exchange.

Foliar Feeding Basics

• Stomata are located primarily underneath the leaves, especially in the sun-loving plants. So when you spray, be sure to get underneath the plant's leaves.
  
  
• Allow some spray to drip onto the soil to nourish microorganisms and plant roots.
  
  
• Never spray during the heat of the day, as the magnification principles of the water droplets can burn the leaves which are not receptive at this time anyway because the stomata are partially closed.
  
  
• Early mornings and evenings (an hour or two after sunrise and an hour or two before sunset) are best. We prefer evenings because this gives the nutrients to the plant during its nighttime respiration period when the stomata are most active.
  
  
• For large applications, a backpack sprayer is often used, but a hand-held pump sprayer works well for most jobs.
  
  
• Some people like to spray before the full moons, speculating that the full moon energy pulls up and out through the plant while applying during the new moon for root crops, as the moon pulls energy downward.

Critical Feeding Times
Be aware that foliar feeding isn't meant to supercede a good organic, soil-building program, but it does add that extra nutrient boost at key plant-life events, including:

• In the nursery (in cell trays, flats, or containers)
  
  
• After the plants are up and in full vegetative growth
  
  
• When the plants start making buds, blossoms, fruits and seeds
  
  
• During times of stress, especially from prolonged dry weather or if your plants look wimpy and undernourished
  
  
• Before and after food harvest to stimulate and inspire continued healthy production
  
  
• During early and late season frost times to lengthen the growing season and increase plant hardiness to environmental stresses (the uptake of nutrients increases the soluble solids levels in plant tissues lowering the plant freezing point)

With long season crops, an application of foliar fertilizer every two weeks will extend the fruiting season and improve the flavor and quality of the crop.

Foliar Feeding Solutions
There are a lot of foliar products available and just as many "recipes" to mix for their application. Maxi Crop, a powdered kelp concentrate is a favorite at our research farm and our EarthJuice liquid organic fertilizers show promise for foliar feeding as well. Many people report great results with diluted and filtered compost tea. It is best to filter any solution through a fine sieve, multiple layers of cheesecloth or other suitable filter to avoid clogging up your sprayer.

Tea Time in the Garden?
Herbal teas are an increasingly popular ingredient for foliar feeding mixtures. In making your own foliar feed tea, you should decide which herbs, when combined with a seaweed base, will best provide for your plant's needs or specific conditions.

The Basic Mix
The most common recipe for foliar feeding is 2 Tablespoons of powdered seaweed concentrate per 1 gallon of herbal tea spray (3 oz. of herbs per gallon of water). Though not mandatory, it's wise to include a sticker-spreader like a tablespoon of molasses to prolong the beneficial effect and help avoid loss from rain. This gallon of foliar liquid contains sufficient nutrients to treat 2,000 sq. ft. of your garden.

Which Herbs Are Best?
One of our favorites, yarrow tops, is high in potassium and helps to regulate potassium formation, which enhances carbohydrates and root development as well as sulfur formation, which in turn helps build proteins and certain enzymes to govern the chemical environment of soils.

Another herb we highly recommend is chamomile, whose flowers are high in calcium and help regulate calcium formation for building cell walls and other fibrous structures of plants. It also helps regulate the availability of other mineral nutrients.

We often use oak bark, which is also high in calcium and helps to make plants more disease-resistant.

Stinging nettles are widely used largely because of high iron, magnesium and protein content, which all help to form chlorophyll, without which there can be no photosynthesis. They also aid in overall plant vigor, growth and insect resistance.

Another herb among the hundreds that can be used in foliar solutions is valerian. Its flowers and roots help in the formation of phosphorous, which is essential to flower, fruit and seed development and sugar metabolism.

Whatever you use, experiment, and come up with your own combinations. It's fun, and your plants will love you for it. They'll show their appreciation with such visible results: healthier plants, higher yields, better tasting food, and taller, brighter flowers.

Have fun, and happy spraying!