Advice on Foliar feeding please

[dreadlock]

Been growing for 3 years or so now, only just decided i would try out the art of foliar sprays which plants love after observing a few friends. was just lazy n busy to try it til now..

The aim is to give plants seaweed/kelp + molasses for the 1-3 weeks of flower which are supposed to boost trace elements amino acids, vitamins.. am i missing something?

whilst supplying trace elements to plants directly via foliar sprays main elements will be covered by base nutrients via roots. hoping to get healthier plants this way..

not sure which seaweed/kelp should be uing? is the bottled liquid seaweed fertilizer for vegetables good or will brewing my own seaweed tea.. although i've heard brewing kelp/seaweed takes weeks longer where the end product is a pure liquid much like the one you can buy in stores..

I will be making a a EWC tea to feed once a week in flower so brewing anything shouldn't be a prob..

need to know if anyone has used foliar sprays? what and how you used it, ph etc?

any advice / suggestions welcome please..

thanks for looking..

Grow info:
3x mod scrogs
1x600w
coco hempy + perlite res
temps on 25 of 20
rh 40%

 

[shokdee]

Sounds OK to me, maybe someone else has a more educated opinion.

All I can say is the spray must be fine mist, not heavy drops. The finer the better, try ATOMIZE the water. And, spray in the mornings, when the plant is waking up. Good luck and sounds like a nice grow.

Shokdee

 

[dreadlock]

cheers for the info

 

[shokdee]

I can't sleep worrying about this - if you go into flowering, maybe do not foliar feed at all! Anyone can help out here??

 

[dreadlock]

hey mate, hope you slept well lol prob good not to foliar when buds form.. should be ok for weeks 1-3... any idea? sure someone else out there knows about this

 

[shokdee]

should be ok for weeks 1-3... any idea?

Not sure, that's why I can't sleep!~. Can you foliar feed first 1-3 weeks into flowering? is the question folks!

 

[OrganicOzarks]

I foliar feed once a week every week until two weeks before harvest. Never had a problem. I don't know why everyone is scared to foliar feed. Think about growing plants outdoor. Any plant. It rains all of the time. Not much of a difference.

 

[shokdee]

That was my thinking OrganicOzarks. What do you foliar feed?

 

[OrganicOzarks]

That was my thinking OrganicOzarks. What do you foliar feed?

Compost tea, and a plant based tea up to 2 weeks before harvest. The only reason I stop then is because I don't want the teas to effect the taste.

 

[dreadlock]

makes sense to stop using it near harvest i guess.

placed order for some nitrozyme, great white , molasses and ewc..

plan is to make a tea from great white, molasses, ewc feed once per week..

foliar spray with nitrozyme weeks 1-3, apparently causes stretch if used to much so will have to experiment..

any ideas on ways to improve my foliar feed from above guys..? growing a sativa this time, which are sensitive to N so have to be careful here..

Will making a tea with worm casting, great white, nitrozyme be better? heard its not good to spray molasses..

 

[OrganicOzarks]

Just make a compost tea, and spray it. If you want to add some nutrients then add a bit of guano to your tea. I feed my plants only teas until two weeks before harvest. It will save you a lot of money if you get some local compost/worm castings, and use them. Craigslist is your friend for this. Ditch the bottles form the hydro store. Go to microbemans page www.microbeorganics.com and study up. YOu will soon be an expert.

 

[dreadlock]

Ive been studying EWC, micro organisms tea etc for a while now. sadly all faded away over time since i never got round to it..

plan was to make the switch to full organics for the reason you mentioned, less hassle etc.. im after qaulity over quantity so works for me

thanks for the link.

Not sure if compost tea will work in hempy without a pump or minor adjustments. rekon it would work?

I'll read up and hopefully get an idea to prepare for the next run.. this way i can finish of bottle nutrients.. good riddance lol

could give me an idea what sort of benefit i might get from feeding a simple tea once a week on plants now.. nutrient, npk wise.. if using worm casting, great white, molasses once a week..?

curious if you have any experience or info on foliar with nitrozyme early flower?

 

[OrganicOzarks]

I don't know what nitrozyme is.

 

[dreadlock]

ok leave the nitrozyme out of the equation for now.. what would the tea mentioned above with molasses, ewc, great white mycorhizae have npk values off?

curious to know when applying the tea would the chemical fertilizer from previous feedings effect this?

Nitrozyme, a highly concentrated extract of kelp from sea plants, contains a vast array of natural growth enhancers. a plant extract whith growth hormones.. - Cytokinins - Auxins - Enzymes - Giberellins - Ethylenes - plus many Micro-nutrients. supposed to really help. never used it before.. not sure about it yet as many don't use it with tea.. i thought since organic it might be ok but maybe not needed with all the nutrients already available with ewc, great white n molasses..

just in the process of reading through the link..

keep you posted

 

[dreadlock]

just read through the link, very informative and cleared some things up. although too much detail im afriad.. the tea i plan to use now is simple and will be applied once a week along side chemical nutirents.. that link goes into way too much detail maybe for someone going all out organics...

anyone used the ewc tea with chemical nutrients once a week in coco or hempy? is it worth it... once again i have plants in flower interested on trying them on..

regarding the same tea, has anyone used it as foliar spray instead of direct feed which can be used regardless of the medium?

.. someone else has got to have a clue about benefits of using this simple tea?

 

[habeeb]

here's my advice, don't foliar feed.

I'm guessing you want a answer, as not many people can just take something for what it is, so to anyone wondering what a jackass statement that is.. waste of time

 

[dreadlock]

guys having a rough night, apologies for the previous post, if it came across as offensive it wasn't intended.. was having a bit of trouble at work and let it get to me, silly!! it's the combination of work, late nights n lack of sleep.. over thinking as a result..

not going to rush this..

all the info needed is covered on a link courtesy of organicozarks.. appreciate it man

all the best guys

 

[mwz]

I put a drop of dish washing liquid per litre. I read this is a wetting agent which supposedly makes the droplets smaller or something.

I spray just, like minutes, before the lights turn on. I haven't sprayed in 24/0 veg, however if I were to, I would turn on flouros and turn off the HPS, then spray and let the foliar dry before turning the lights back on.

I've successfully sprayed in flower up to when the buds start to frost. Apparently the max relative humidity (I am happy to be corrected if it isn't) is around 60 for flower. After I foliar, my relative humidity goes up by around 10. So I make sure that the relative humidity is below 50 before spraying.

So yeah, I recommend foliar. My plants loved me spraying seaweed concentrate in early flower. I found there was a visual 'lift' in the plants in the days following a spray.

Some people like foliar, others don't. Personal preference I guess.

 

[OrganicOzarks]

I foliar feed twice per week in veg no matter the humidity, and keep all lights on. The humidity here constantly stays between 50-60%. Never had any mold, or mildew. It could happen, but it has not happened yet. I foliar feed in flower twice per week once with compost tea, and once with a plant based tea up to 2 weeks before flower is over. I do it about an hour before lights off. They are usually dry before lights off. Never had a problem, and foliar feeding the correct teas will actually protect your plants from disease, molds, and some pests.

I really don't know why people get so weird about foliar feeding. It makes no sense at all.

 

[OrganicOzarks]

I am getting ready to foliar feed right now, and the humidity is, wait for it, 91%. Oh no it's the end of the world!!!!!