New Grower Can we talk foliar feeding?

[NRKgrw]

Hey,
This is my 1st grow, day 42. I've just been concentrating on the basics, but I'm interested in lots of other topics in growing. One of them is foliar feeding.
I'm using GH nutes, the flora trio, and i have just about everything else they offer as well. Does anyone else use GH and if so, what, when and how much.
If using other brands, let me know that too. I'm really interested in what everyone's doing and learning more everyday.
Thanks y'all! NRK

 

[DarshAK]

I'm interested too...but sadly have no advice to offer as I've never undertaken foliar feeding. If you don't mind I'm subbed to learn more!

 

[NRKgrw]

I'm interested too...but sadly have no advice to offer as I've never undertaken foliar feeding. If you don't mind I'm subbed to learn more!

I haven't either. Hopefully we'll get some responses darsh!

 

[blue]

Foliar feeding can be a nice quick way to sort out a deficiency - Like epsom salts for a MG deficiency.

You will need to feed the soil (or medium) where the roots are for the plant to grow properly.
If foliar feeding to rectifiy a deficiency, you can use a small drop of dish soap as a surfactant to allow better uptake!

Hope this helps!
All the best

Blue

 

[NRKgrw]

Foliar feeding can be a nice quick way to sort out a deficiency - Like epsom salts for a MG deficiency.

You will need to feed the soil (or medium) where the roots are for the plant to grow properly.
If foliar feeding to rectifiy a deficiency, you can use a small drop of dish soap as a surfactant to allow better uptake!

Hope this helps!
All the best

Blue

Hey blue, thanks for responding. I have read about using a bit of dish liq, curious as to how that helps.
I was more interested in foliar application as a supplement say like before lights out. Perhaps it's called something else. I am new so anythings possible! lol

 

[blue]

I can help with that

Here's the science behind surfactants - I haven't read it as i'm not that interested in this kind of science and just happy to know it helps get the nutes to the plants.

Rather than posting the whole wiki in your thread - here's a link with all the info you'll ever need on surfactants

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfactant

I don't foliar feed unless theres a def .... then only occasionaly! Mostly by keeping your medium clean and not too strong or too weak, most of the problems you'd use a foliar for - won't be there! The best trick is to keep your medium nice and healthy and clean.

 

[Waira]

Good topic NRK! Foliar spraying is a very good method to learn, for feeding, treating defc.'s, and pest control... Foliar feeding is a common practice across agriculture; done generally at lower dosage conc. that you would for soil feeding,... the beauty behind it is that it gets things very quickly into the plant, which is why it's so great for treating many defc.'s (not all-- K is not recommended for some reason).... for more immobile nutes, like Fe, Mn, Zn, Ca, etc., it's perfect for getting stuff right to the spots where it's needed most... while in liquid form, goodies get access via the stomata, the gas/moisture exchange portals found over the entire leaf surface top and especially bottom,... If there's trouble with the soil/res' solution/roots, foliar can bypass this and help feed the plant during the crisis and recovery,... Now, to make it vastly more effective, you need to use a water spreader/wetting agent, like Blue discussed... the principle behind this stuff is that it takes the surface tension out of the water or whatever solution that you're spraying with, so that it coats and sticks more evenly, instead of just beading up... more surface area covered=more absorbed! Also, when treating for pests, it helps penetrate the vermin's natural water repellancy, allowing the stuff to access their bodies better !!
Another use is for helping overly dry mediums like coco or soils regain their absorbancy,... particles tend to bind tightly sometimes, and so the water may just find narrow paths of least resistance and make for uneven wetting,... with a wetting agent the water will penetrate and moisten more evenly...
There's several brands out there for this, some "organic", usually yucca extract-- something you'll see commonly in ingredients of fert, supp's, etc.; other from synthetic formulations,... your dish detergent is loaded with surfactants, but it's also loaded with harsh detergents, so if in a pinch, use something milder,... uhhh,... Nutrilife SM-90, Coco wet, Earth Juice Assist, Humboldt Nutr. Sticky,.. forget AN's Wet Betty, a total rip-off in price for such a product!
...quiz Friday!!

 

[Panic]

Good Concept to cover. Just like blue said about mg and epsom salt for foilar worked perfect for MG def, took about a week though wasn't instant like some foilars can be; err less time consuming. I love using a micro nutrient as a foliar at some point in each phase. When I saw the MG def I did the same thing every new user on AF.net does ask the pros (muddy, a4, waira, truu, Blue,....). I do know this dont have like 10 foliar sprays, cause mistakes here are deadly. I have one bottle pure ph, and make individuals as neccessary. I wish i could go back and quote people who sprayed out of one bottle and didn't put 2+2 together and within hours beeeeeeppppppppppp.... usually with soil mistakes can be rectified within a reasonable time frame; medium dependent. *** Pro question**** Silicate as a Foliar?y/n
***Don't care about spelling Folia...Foila...Whatever the word is**

 

[A4]

Good Concept to cover. Just like blue said about mg and epsom salt for foilar worked perfect for MG def, took about a week though wasn't instant like some foilars can be; err less time consuming. I love using a micro nutrient as a foliar at some point in each phase. When I saw the MG def I did the same thing every new user on AF.net does ask the pros (muddy, a4, waira, truu, Blue,....). I do know this dont have like 10 foliar sprays, cause mistakes here are deadly. I have one bottle pure ph, and make individuals as neccessary. I wish i could go back and quote people who sprayed out of one bottle and didn't put 2+2 together and within hours beeeeeeppppppppppp.... usually with soil mistakes can be rectified within a reasonable time frame; medium dependent. *** Pro question**** Silicate as a Foliar?y/n
***Don't care about spelling Folia...Foila...Whatever the word is**

Absolutely use silica as a foliar and many of them come with instructions on the container for mixing ratios.

I have done a lot of testing with foliars a couple of years ago, all the way through harvest and can tell anyone interested that foliars isn't just for nutrient correction. When used properly, they are the absolute best tool in the chest for beefing up plants. I have a mixture I created that is Calcium, Kelp, and Dextrose that I fed all the way through harvest and harvested 196 grams dry from one plant in organics. That grow was documented here at AFN. So, YES, lol, foliars are the bees knees for getting the most out of plants. One thing, when foliar feeding through the flower cycle, always do a bud wash when harvesting. It cleans all the nastys off the buds so you don't inhale them. It also makes the buds taste superific!

 

[Waira]

thanks for the smack brother Panic! A big yes! to silica as a foliar (LOL! think fo' liar )... I too apply 3-4 times each grow a micronute (Fe-Mn-Zn-Cu) + silica foliar spray, just to be sure,... our rescue secret sauce at the orchid nursery was a blend of Superthrive, Si (Pro-Tekt brand), a little molasses and water spreader,... excellent results on traumatized plants of any stripe! .... And yeah, no multi-bottles of shit laying around! FUBAR city waiting to happen there,.. beside, many of these things don't have much shelf life, especially with Superthrive and molasses in it-- that can go bad in a day! As a rule, mix fresh and use it up within a day....