Has anyone else tried foliar feeding in Carolina ( beside the growers of illegal cash crops)?
I have very bad soil that ranges from clay to clay and sand to brickbat clay. I've been trying the organic approach and just this year started foliar feeding with fish emulsion.
It's smelly and nasty stuff but I've never had such great results with any fertilizer. My garden looks like Godzilla and things I had given up on last year have made miracle comebacks. It will be interesting to see how things hold up to our intense summers this year.
So, if you've tried this, let me know about your results.
Foliar Feeding
I have never heard of foliar before. Can you give me some more info on this or a site where I can read up on it. The area I am moving to has the same soil issues.
Carat foliar feeding is nothing more than spraying liquid fertilizer on your plants leaves and not on the ground. The benefits are that the leaves take it up immediately and start using it rather than it having to come up vascularly from the ground via the roots. I do foliar feeding on large hedges and trees and bushes that are in areas where liquid does not soak into the ground readily but runs off. In my experience, plants that like acidic food, like roses, gardenias, azaleas and the like seem to respond best to this type of feeding.
I usually do my spraying in the late afternoon with a fine mist and try to get both sides of the leaves.
X
OH okay. Thanks for enlightening me. I have heard of fertilizing this way and that you can also mist plants with water this way if they are wilted and need water quickly. I never knew it had a real name. I thought foliar was maybe a brand name or a different kind of fertilizer that I had never heard of before. Here in the desert heat plants can go from standing up straight to wilted near death in less then a day and I use this method alot with my container plants. If I find one in trouble I drag it to the shade and mist it down. I haven't tried fish emulsion but have used seaweed fertilizer and it seems to do great.
Carolinablue, Is this something like MiracleGro or something you make up yourself. My plants sure need something! I am on the NC/SC border.
MollieB55, no I don't use MiracleGro. Try using fish emulsion- it's an organic liquid fertilizer that can be used for root drenches and foliar feeding. Yes, it really does stink but it has made the biggest difference of anything I've tried. As you know clay soil and broiling sun (and weekly floods this year) put a lot of stress on your plants. It's not that expensive and you can pick it up at Lowes. Try it for a while and see!
I'm not working for the company or selling anything- I am just so excited to find something that seems to work.
Carolinablue, Thanks, I will! I have the clay, a week of 90+ and earlier today the flood. I have tried so many things. This sounds good to me!
I rely on foliar feeding/fish emulsion quite often and have been doing it for nearly 20 years.
C-Blue...try the brand "Alaska fish emulsion"...it doesn't seem to stink as much as some of the other brands.
I also will mix kelp in with it during the cooler Spring days and late Fall days to help the plants deal with the cold nites. Works wonderfully well!
Weeds also make a great tea for foliar feeding; you may want to try that sometime but don't use weeds that have flowered/seeded.
Worm castings, manure, alfalfa...also excellent for making foliar sprays out of!
Shoe.
Horseshoe, leave it to you to find a good use for weeds. LOL
Hah! Well, CARAT, I'm a miser, ya know!?
Some years back I was realizing that we were all pulling weeds out of our gardens because they were either plain ugly, a nuisance, or stealing nutrition from our preferred plants. Then it dawned on me that many weeds have roots that really go down deep, pulling up nutrition from down below.
At first I started with all kinds of weeds, pulling them up and letting them soak in either five gallon buckets of water or 55 gallon drums. The "leach" worked great as a drench or foliar food. (Course now, that is also how I found out to not use weeds that had flowers/seeds on them as I was "planting" them right back in the garden!)
Over time, I decided to narrow it down and now prefer to use only 3 to 5 "preferred weeds"! Lambquarters, dock, and plaintain are a great combination.
Shoe.
Okay, just so I understand this correctly. You place weeds in a mesh bag of sorts and place it in a 5 gallon bucket, add water and let it sit? How long, do you cover it, stir it, add anything else to help?
Nope...no need for a mesh bag (unless you prefer to use them).
I just cram a bunch of weeds in a five-gallon bucket (at least 1/3rd full, smashed down) and fill with water. You can cover the top with a plastic feed bag or garbage bag and set the bucket in the sun. In a day or two, you can use the leach water.
Just pour it off into another bucket. (A window screen or similar over the other bucket will keep the weed stuff from falling into it.)
You can then dilute the weed tea by at least half but I've diluted it down to ten parts and still see great results.
Now, lookee here...if you steep this stuff too long it'll really start stinking, just like manure tea will.
I think you'll like it. It's easy to make. The ingredients are free for the taking. It's very beneficial to the plants, the soil, and very safe to use for all involved.
It don't get no better, eh!?
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I think using one of DH's paint straining bags will help in the end process. Just take the bag out let it drain a bit and then no use for the screening into a different bucket. Going to have to give that a try here tomorrow. I have alot of weeding to do since I was gone for the past month. MIght get some good out of it.
Casey
Great idea.
When I make manure or compost tea I use old feed bags so I'm sure it'll work.
You must be going crazy! Weeding and working at BOTH ends of the U.S!
Yeah it has been hard lately. I am getting tired, but the fact that we will get a better price for a yard that is maintained fuels me here, and just knowing that when I get to SC all the work I have been doing on these trips will help me out so much in the long run once we move.
I know for a fact now, the rain hold some special ingredient that allows weeds to grow faster. I think I actually watched kudzu grow one day. You can weed here and then it takes a bit for the weeds to show back up but in SC you weed and the next morning more weeds are back. But then I guess it is the price you have to pay to also have all the trees and other plants grow so freely.
Just so you know you can purchase a 10"x10" bag for about .50 at your paint store or Lowes. They come in various sizes and are a fine mesh made from nylon. Paint filters through easily and holds all the slimies out.
Thanks Horseshoe- I tried the Alaska brand and it still stinks but I still love it. I had never heard of the weed tea but I have tried the compost tea. Despite the floods and broiling sun, the fish emulsion is still the only way to go. I'll have to try the kelp- where did you get it? I've seen it in a catalog but never around here.
I usually get kelp meal/kelp products from Gardens Alive. However, I'm seeing it more and more at local garden centers and Lowes/HomeDepot nowadays also.
Shoe.
Years and years ago I got horse manure that they had grown mushrooms in. Talk about stink! The neighbors wouldn’t speak to us for weeks! After our tomatoes and corn and beans came in, all was forgiven!