Foliar feeding of veges is often recommended (fish emulsion, weed tea, seaweed tonic, a morning piss etc) but does a plant actually absorb nutrition through its leaves or does it simply get access to it when it drains onto the soil?
some good stuff here Hawkypork we do it at purple pear but always keep in mind that we are first and foremost looking to build soil that is best placed to support the plants.
While healthy soils will create healthy plants, there is an added bonus of foliar sprays ensuring plant vitality. According to Chaboussou, plants have two states, one of proteosynthesis which is the optimal state of a plant for optimal enzyme activity and growth and proteolysis which is the stage of plants as they degenerate encouraging recycling in nature. If a plant is unbalanced nutritionally, there will be an accumulation of amino acids and sugars available for pests and disease. A healthy plant has an ability to produce eliciators that will give healthy signals to pests and disease, encouraging them to move on to plants in a state of proteolysis. A healthy plant can also produce compounds that inhibit growth of parasites through inhibitors called phytoanticipines, or synthesised in response to parasitic attack (phytoalexines). In favouable conditions, such as the use of artifical fertilisers that inhibit plants ability to produce its natural self-defenses, the suseptibility is increased. In inoculating plants with healthy soil and foliar sprays, the result is in the plants natural protection against infection. Local resistance can be achieved through feeding eliciators though the leaves of plants and trees with foliar sprays that have a high diversity of trace elements and beneficial micobes and fungi. Systemic aquired resistence can be achieved though through nutrients that flow though the whole of the plant, achieved from a healthy balanced soil. So yeah, foliar sparys are totally legit!
Excellent answer, matto! If you don't mind, I'll copy that for use in some (verbal) lessons I have coming up.
No worries Don... but you can thank Eugenio's lesson on trophobiosis at the biofertile farms workshop.He has a PDF on the regenag.com forum under trophobiosis which may elaborate a bit.
a local organic farmer here in India advised me to use diluted cow urine as a foliar spray against bugs. I suppose it would also feed the plants too? Since i am not too sure how to go about getting my hands on cow urine, does anyone know if human urine serves the same purpose, and if so has anyone tried it and used it succesfully without damaging plants?? thank you
Not really sure about it as a foliar spray, but I've pee'd on a whole lot of plants in my lifetime, and I can't recall any that died AFAIR, they do recommend letting human urine stand for a few days to gas off some of the ammonia before use. That is if you are using it straight - if you were watering it down it'd probably be ok fresh. Let us know if it works - always looking for ways to recycle.
Good question https://foliarfert.com/pages/how_does_foliar_fertiliser_work.htm https://books.google.com/books?hl=e...KbdH3O-ePklblumC5NQIK9yzc#v=onepage&q&f=false
Great answer matto, you've clearly done your research. What are your thoughts on pruning tomato plants? ie, does the open wounds allow for the easy passage of infection, or fungal spores? I've got the sneaky suspicion that my curled leaves on my tomatoes have something to do with me pruning them.
I use my own wee,and now i use my worm wee/poo juice...and i love using my aquaponical water to foloiar spray tender seedlings etc,or just as a tonic for anything thats a bit weepy,yellowy,or curled leaf, Aqua water can be used straight or on the rocks lolol.wee has to be dilutedat approx 15/20 .1 ratios,depending on the plant/tree etc age and requirements... Ive used fresh wee str8 from my body around fruit trees,andfresh or stale(wonder if it tastes stale) on seedlings,and trees... unless you wee alot or have plenty of donations,can also make a difference.... When in doubt,dilute it,wee is very high in nitrogen.. Tezza
thanks for the reply- I'll try it out on a couple of tomato plants to experiment and see what happens....