Home : FAQ : Foliar Feed your plants

WHY FOLIAR FEED YOUR PLANTS:

Considering foliar feeding your plants?  Foliar spraying is a valuable way to give your plants a varied and balanced diet by applying any number of different products to the leaves of the plant.

You can manipulate a fast and very positive response from any plant through an easy to apply foliar feed application. 

The delicate leaf tissue will absorb whatever it is that you're applying, and put it to use immediately for an increased vigor in growth and fruit or flower development, and an increased resistance to insects and fungal issues.

Some care must be taken when applying foliar sprays as you can overdo anything (if you're not sure about any foliar product, please don't hesitate to ask us!).  The concentration of whatever you're applying must be very weak in comparison to a root application, but when applied with care, just watch your plants respond almost immediately!

WHAT TO USE:

We're true believers in foliar feeding, and we got a huge selection of foliar spray products. 

They all have great descriptions of what they can do for your plants, but there are a couple of basic products that we apply religiously ourselves. 

The first is any seaweed type product (Nitrozime, Maxicrop Seaweed, Age Old Kelp...).  Seaweed contains a huge supply of natural hormones, and these hormones when applied to the leaves will cause increased growth rates, and increased fruit or flower size.  Try a seaweed foliar spray on a mother plant 3 or 4 days before taking your cuttings from the plant. The increased hormones will cause the cuttings to root faster and more vigorously.

If your plant is experiencing mysterious nutrient deficiencies (as they all do on occasion), try a foliar application of humic or fulvic acid.  This will help the plant to use the nutrients that you're already giving it through root feeding, and usually only takes a day or two to correct the deficiency.

Another of the most useful foliar feeds is the application of live beneficial products like Mycorhizal fungus (Plant Success Soluble, or Great White) or General Hydroponics Flora Blend with all of it's live microbes (or use your own homemade worm casting or guano tea).  These will give your plants a built-in defense against insects and fungus issues by increasing their resistance to the onslaught of these problems.  Say goodbye to spider mites forever!

HOW TO APPLY FOLIAR SPRAYS:

We recommend applying your foliar feeds no more than twice a week (usually rotating between a couple of different products). 

Try to avoid drenching your fruit or flowers.  Mist or slight over-spray on your fruit or flowers is OK, but the plants leaves and stems are where the foliar feed is most valuable. 

They don't need to be dripping when you're done applying, but just a nice light misting is all that's really necessary to gain all of the foliar benefits.

Just like with insecticide treatments, turn off your HID lights, or back them away from the plants to decrease the intensity of light until the application slowly dries as this will allow for better absorption. 

Keep good circulation moving around your plants after a foliar application to prevent mold issues from developing in a stagnant wet environment.

APPLICATION RATES:

If the product that you're going to apply has foliar feeding instructions, just follow the instructions very carefully.

If the product doesn't have foliar instructions, you can still usually apply it in a foliar application, but apply the product at a rate of 10 to 15% of the maximum root application instructions (especially if the product has any respectable N-P-K, like "grow" or "bloom" nutrients- again, if you're not sure, please ask us).

It's probably best to avoid the really high N-P-K chemical nutrients which are best left for root application.