Foliar feeding nutrients for cuttings

This is something I haven't read before, an interesting tip for supplying some nutrients.

Unrooted cuttings arrive with a finite supply of nutrients in their tissues. These nutrients rapidly disappear in the first week of propagation as overhead mist is continually applied. Therefore, it’s expedient to apply nutrients prior to root initiation. There are different methods to deliver nutrients, but the use of water-soluble fertilizers in the mist solution has become popular over the past decade. The nitrogen concentration usually ranges from 50 to 100 ppm and the macronutrients are provided in proportion with the nitrogen. The minor nutrients are provided in proportion to the iron concentration, which is typically 1 ppm. Thus, the macros and minors should be mixed independently or a special propagation fertilizer can be purchased.

(...)
the water should have a low electrical conductivity and a low alkalinity (low concentration of bicarbonates). When mist is frequently applied to leaf surfaces and is constantly evaporating from those surfaces, salts contained in the water don’t evaporate and leave residues on the foliage.

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The entire short article by Dr. James E. Faust contains some nice tips and real information based on practice. An interesting read.

Perfecting Propagation by Dr. James E. Faust (2017) -
https://www.growertalks.com/Article/?articleid=23210

Nice link. Haven’t read it all but we’ve always done fine with well fed cutting having enough carbs to make it without additional feeding. 50%shade with mist keeps them from having to work to hard. Also I’ve found iba 3000ppm or “2” to
be much better than 1000ppm (h1).

I don't listen anymore. From the people that talk, too the people that do, they all have different ideas. Some feed to keep them happy, while others won't feed to make them look for some. And everything between.

Misting and humidity is just the same. How many times do we read 100% humidity. How would that effect transpiration. You will need to feed them somehow. But it's beyond help. For those with a more sensible approach, food coming in at the root should be quite adequate.

What environment does this happen in naturally. That works. Maybe it could be made easier for them, but what they're evolved to do, is generally the best starting point.



The link won't work for me, but I'm pretty blinkered to any such suggestion anyway.
Foliar feeding cuttings is a great way to bugger up a good thing.

A full spectrum nute with a bit of added fulvic acid as a foliar spray can be use to supply nutes to your plants.
According to the nutritech blog nute uptake can be up to 20 times more efficient using foliar feeding, as above.

f-e said:

I don't listen anymore.

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I think that's a fine approach with all the nonsense spread online.

f-e said:

The link won't work for me, but I'm pretty blinkered to any such suggestion anyway.
Foliar feeding cuttings is a great way to bugger up a good thing.

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This I disagree with, unless the guy is a hack, he seems to be writing honestly about standard industry practices for plants that are not cannabis. Surely those crop growers wouldn't have been doing it for years it if it didn't work. Maybe it's a nice way to keep the cuttings healthier. Some yellow a bit before their roots explode and they (of course) get healthy again.


I don't do any foliar feeding or spraying myself ... personally my cloning success was 0% until I used a humidity dome and NAA hormone powder.

I have been folia feeding my clones for many many years, with a mild solution of BioBizz fish-mix. 1ml to 1L water, sprayed once a week (twice total) while rooting.

I found I get much stronger and healthyer looking clones that way, tho 95% success rate. I still tend to make quite a few more clones, then I need to pick the best ones.

But I also think it plays in, how you are making your clones.
I would not care to do this with aeroclones, as they root so fast you won't need to folia feed.

I root in RW cubes, slower yes ... but easyer to plant in much less time.

We used to spray cuttings with a product called Nitrozyme, kelp based product. Worked great, haven't seen it on the shelves lately.

So what about Clonex mist ??

Lester Beans said:

We used to spray cuttings with a product called Nitrozyme, kelp based product. Worked great, haven't seen it on the shelves lately.

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Canna rhizotonic is also Kelp based and works great for foliar cuts, young plants and such. I have recently used it for a first time on a few trays, that i send to a friend's place, and although I'm not observing or taking care of the trays the guys said mine arevup and happy since the moment they came and better than theirs... On another side I am very nursery experienced, and what worked the best for me after a few months of tweaking quite a few parameters and killing many, many unsuspecting cuts was:
Dip the oasis rooting cubes to 3.2 pounds weight(with the bottom tray under the cubes, no perlite) in a solution of
0.8ml/g root excel gold
4ml/g Dyna grow KLN
4ml/g Quantum(microbal plant inoculant)
4ml/g Hygrozim
0.3 ec Bloom and micro any brand
Ph 5.5 - 5.7
Room humidity 70%
Temp 77-78

This way I was removing the lids off the trays after 24 hours and dipping the trays in fresh solution usually once in 3 days, after it drops below 2 pounds(1.7 pounds was the optimal dry weight before watering) then drained at 2.8 pounds.
No misting of any sort applied through the whole process tho
Over 90% success rate on thousands of thousands of little babies, with the whitest, strong, puffy, yummy roots you will ever see in 10 days, usually transplanted at 14. Plants lush, no burned tips, not a single yellow leaf just perfect...
Happy growing all...

f-e said:

I don't listen anymore. From the people that talk, too the people that do, they all have different ideas. Some feed to keep them happy, while others won't feed to make them look for some. And everything between.

Misting and humidity is just the same. How many times do we read 100% humidity. How would that effect transpiration. You will need to feed them somehow. But it's beyond help. For those with a more sensible approach, food coming in at the root should be quite adequate.

What environment does this happen in naturally. That works. Maybe it could be made easier for them, but what they're evolved to do, is generally the best starting point.



The link won't work for me, but I'm pretty blinkered to any such suggestion anyway.
Foliar feeding cuttings is a great way to bugger up a good thing.

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It's funny you mention humidity as I don't use domes at all for my clones, and am around 95% successful if the cuttings remains turgid for 48 hours.

If I include the ones that don't make it 48 hours, I drop to around 85-90% success rate. (1 or 2 never make it the 48 hours.)

Mhy room ambient 24 ish degree Celsius. 50 %ish humidity. Tray in closet. Reputable thermometer hygrometer from amazon(thermapro) showing thermostat controlledheat pad temp 25degree Celsius. Humidity reading constant 100%. Done gets initially sprayed must on day one. Clones and dome look dry immediately and stay lookin dehydrated but humidity is apparently there constantly high

Done[Sp] gets initially - dome gets initially sprayed

The best approach for me has been to prep my moms well before I take the cuttings. In addition to ramping the moms up metabolically with bright light and proper nutrition in veg, one week before the snip I spray them with a fulvic/kelp extract blend. This seems to carry them through the 10 days/2 weeks of rooting with no yellowing.

Also, I don't really get why anyone would 'spray them every day'... what for? To me the goal should be for the cuttings to not need extra moisture; you want them to reach for water by developing roots. Why give it from above? I get a near 100% root rate, and almost always within 2 weeks.

Even the humidity dome comes off after a day or two, and often I don't even use one. RH is about 50% and they do just fine. If your newly cut clones are wilting and floppy you should probably be using some silica on the moms to stiffen them up a bit.