Foliar Feeding the Why and How. Clearing It Up for Some Foliar Feeding Questions

I am making this post to try and help anyone ( who wants it ) who is thinking about foliar feeding or is currently foliar feeding and having issues. I have seen a lot of threads that are telling people to only Foliar feed when the lights are off. This is like saying the best time for a weightlifter to take his protein or vitamins when he is sleeping. The reason is this:

#1 The only reason people are concerned about Foliar feeding when lights are on is mostly due to burning caused by water being on the leaves. I see the answer to this is always do it when lights are off and that is not going to give you maximum results and here is why. Plants do not metabolize when there is no light.

#2 There is a extremely simple way to prevent burning and be able to spray every single day as soon as your lights come on like I do with no burn. They reason I have no burn is because I use a surfactant. Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension of a liquid, the interfacial tension between two liquids, or that between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming agents, and dispersants.

#3 Foliar feeding when lights are off does not have the effect it was intended to have because without the plants metabolizing what you are putting on them you are basically wasting the spray. If you see brown spots starting to appear then you should add a surfactant to your spray. There are a lot of people who use different things but it is very easy to correct the burning with Foliar sprays when adding one. If you are having a burn issue try adding something like Wet Betty from AN about 1 and 1/2 tsp per gallon.

I hope this helps some people out.

isnt a correct way of foliar feeding to do it an hour and a half before the lights come on? using led green lights.

a mongo frog said:

isnt a correct way of foliar feeding to do it an hour and a half before the lights come on? using led green lights.

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No.. The correct way is to spray as soon as the lights go on so that it can absorb the spray more efficiently because that is when it starts to metabolize.. I am not saying that you can not spray when off just saying I think you will lose some of the effect.

the only thing a plant won't eat in the dark is CO2

I add a couple drops of dish soap.

I wouldn't recommend using a surfactant dude, thats a group of chemicals that I've seen used in commercial/food agriculture and I recall wearin' gloves and googles n' all that shit when handling it. They Break down the waxy layer on the outside of your plants leaves so that water doesn't form into balls and run off the leaf, but instead evenly distribute all over the suface of the plant ( good for chemical pesticide apps.), however not good shit to handle/smoke, I foliar feed and I just grab the plant by the base and giver a gentle shake while I spray her down. Breaks the droplets up, coats the leaves....raise the lights for abit, turn the fans up....all better solutions to surfactants IMO.

saganist said:

I wouldn't recommend using a surfactant dude, thats a group of chemicals that I've seen used in commercial/food agriculture and I recall wearin' gloves and googles n' all that shit when handling it. They Break down the waxy layer on the outside of your plants leaves so that water doesn't form into balls and run off the leaf, but instead evenly distribute all over the suface of the plant ( good for chemical pesticide apps.), however not good shit to handle/smoke, I foliar feed and I just grab the plant by the base and giver a gentle shake while I spray her down. Breaks the droplets up, coats the leaves....raise the lights for abit, turn the fans up....all better solutions to surfactants IMO.

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There are Surfactants that are made especially for these plants like suggested Wet Betty ( You do not need gloves or goggles etc. ) That is why I suggested it and was just giving explanation of Surfactants and what they do..

cool...just a little info. But ask yourself...is this a product that is essential enough to the success of my garden that it should be introduced to the equation?

saganist said:

cool...just a little info. But ask yourself...is this a product that is essential enough to the success of my garden that it should be introduced to the equation?

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Yes it is. Bescause it comes in different forms the definition is a guide. Use it if you want don't if you do not want it was to help people with burning of leaves not what your opinion on using it is.

saganist said:

I wouldn't recommend using a surfactant dude, thats a group of chemicals that I've seen used in commercial/food agriculture and I recall wearin' gloves and googles n' all that shit when handling it. They Break down the waxy layer on the outside of your plants leaves so that water doesn't form into balls and run off the leaf, but instead evenly distribute all over the suface of the plant ( good for chemical pesticide apps.), however not good shit to handle/smoke, I foliar feed and I just grab the plant by the base and giver a gentle shake while I spray her down. Breaks the droplets up, coats the leaves....raise the lights for abit, turn the fans up....all better solutions to surfactants IMO.

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Also please do not try to give advice on ANYTHING """ you have just seen someone use" As anyone knows there are different lines of products some containing different ingredients. It is like saying do not use ammonia to clean because I heard it kills people. While in fact PURE AMMONIA is like a yellow cloud and it will kill a human fast. While cleaning ammonia will not. Not to great of an example or have to many facts about ammonia but I hope you get the point.

When I do foliar feed, which is rare, I use dried seaweed.

Check my seaweed link in my signature for more details.

I don't foliar feed often, usually to help correct nutrition deficiencies, or when applying a batch of home made organic pesticide and bug preventer. I don't do it to flowering girls.

KuLong said:

When I do foliar feed, which is rare, I use dried seaweed.

Check my seaweed link in my signature for more details.

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Try Nitrozyme.. works great and is in liquid form.

My420 said:

Try Nitrozyme.. works great and is in liquid form.

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No thank you.

I will stick to the Earth's seaweed that is untouched by a corporation.

KuLong said:

No thank you.

I will stick to the Earth's seaweed that is untouched by a corporation.

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Hmm I may have to try that...