Foliar Fertilization and Stages…
I had breakfast with an uncle this morning and our discussion turned to foliar fertilization. My experience in foliar fertilization is not as extensive as him since I just started in farming. Foliar is touted to give that last mile of growth spurt as well as give a surgical method of controlling a plants nutrition. Which is quite important as a plant’s health is very big factor in it’s resistance against diseases.
He was talking shop with my dad in the early 90’s when my dad was conceptualizing and experimenting with his formula. Talking to him gave me fresh insight as to what my Dad’s notes meant (weird, trying to understand a dead man’s notebook, it’s like something out of archeology.)
In my dad’s formula, he was using only 6 elements in his mix, a consultant told me that they actually use 9 right now (my uncle uses 10). My uncle said that the reason he only used 6 was because he made up for the other 3 in ground fertilizers. Trying to strike a balance in the ratio of the elements against each other was like a trapeze act, as too much of one could affect the potency of another and vice versa.
To which my uncle also said that you can actually make it cheaper by reducing some of the elements in the mix depending on what stage the plant is in right now (seedling, youngling, fruitbearing, etc). Wow!, flashes of a light bulb popping came into mind. That’s something I have to look into. And that, made me understand why in the gardening section of Ace Hardware, there are different types of foliar mix for flowering plants and ordinary garden plants. Being able to reduce a particular fertilizer counts a lot if you are a penny pinching farmer like me.
All in all it was an interesting morning.
[source]