Foliar feeding

[maroun.c]

Do you.think foliar feeding is if any added value icer regular fertilizer use for bonsai.
How about when u have a tree which is struggling from bad roots/soil and need to buy few weeks/months for optimal repoting season, or like with conifers where only half root pruning is advised bd u have to give it at least a year to change the complete soil of a tree do u think foliar feeding would help ir is it still best not to feed before tree is in better soil and doing better?
Thanks

 

[DirkvanDreven]

Foliar feeding with fish-emulsion is very beneficial for your trees! But don't practice this close to your home. It smells bad!

 

[Potawatomi13]

YES!

 

[KiwiPlantGuy]

Do you.think foliar feeding is if any added value icer regular fertilizer use for bonsai.
How about when u have a tree which is struggling from bad roots/soil and need to buy few weeks/months for optimal repoting season, or like with conifers where only half root pruning is advised bd u have to give it at least a year to change the complete soil of a tree do u think foliar feeding would help ir is it still best not to feed before tree is in better soil and doing better?
Thanks

Hi maroun.c,
Interesting topic with many points of view.
My opinion is that foliar feeding is a fallacy.

The misguided notion is that the leaves you spray with a light mist give you benefit. Eg. The stomata are open to receiving food,water, and other stuff IS the problem as there is not enough trial tested studies to suggest foliar feeding is any good.

The idea that if a lot of foliar fertiliser is sprayed on the leaves then drips LOTS into your bonsai soil is a completely different story. The argument is that roots in your pots are open to receiving fertiliser from the likes of chemical/organic and fish emulsion etc.
Whereas there are not enough there is not enough cells on a leaf to benefit from foliar
fert.
Just my opinion, Charles

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

A frequently-argued topic here. Might be better to read all the old fights than to start a new one:

Search results for query: Foliar feeding

www.bonsainut.com

Unless.....

 

[maroun.c]

A frequently-argued topic here. Might be better to read all the old fights than to start a new one:

Search results for query: Foliar feeding

www.bonsainut.com

Unless.....

Oups that was definitely not the intention
My concern was for trees struggling from poor roots as.most of trees I get here come in bad soil...

 

[penumbra]

It works. I have used foliar feeding for almost 60 years. When I was 13 Ilearned about it from a then 72 year old nursery man. It is a practice that goes back several hundred if not thousands of years. Mother nature has been doing it for millions of years. If it does not work for you, you are doing something wrong or expecting different results. More than likely if you think it does not work you have not tried it in any sort of regular fashion.

 

[Dav4]

I think it's benefit is mainly noted when the foliage being "fed" happens to be held directly above the root ball....

 

[Forsoothe!]

Foliar feeding with fish-emulsion is very beneficial for your trees! But don't practice this close to your home. It smells bad!

And, it attracts bugs, birds, large and small marauding animals, and presumably, fish. Conventional liquids at any portion of recommended levels give you guaranteed analysis without stinking. Choose your poison wisely.

 

[penumbra]

I think it's benefit is mainly noted when the foliage being "fed" happens to be held directly above the root ball....

Except that it is not necessary to water foliage to the point of run off.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Except that it is not necessary to water foliage to the point of run off.

Exactly what's negative about wetting foliage? They like it! It keeps the mites down.

 

[Anthony]

Check size of oxide and see if it can enter through the openings in
the leaf
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Forsoothe!]

Check size of oxide and see if it can enter through the openings in
the leaf
Good Day
Anthony

Too esoteric by half. Please explain in layman's language. Confucius say, "Be long winded when necessary..."

 

[Anthony]

Hello Forsoothe!
[ I owe you a pm ]

The idea here is the oxides [ N,P.K..... ] may be too large to pass through the
openings on the leaf.
You may find information at Gardenmyths.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Forsoothe!]

Hello Forsoothe!
[ I owe you a pm ]

The idea here is the oxides [ N,P.K..... ] may be too large to pass through the
openings on the leaf.
You may find information at Gardenmyths.
Good Day
Anthony

I will look, but I think the nitrogen will pass thru via osmosis, and damn the rest.

 

[penumbra]

Exactly what's negative about wetting foliage? They like it! It keeps the mites down.

You miss read what I was saying. It is a response to prior poster suggesting that the benefit from foliar feeding is due to the water entering the zone area. My response is that just wetting the floiage of the plant with a liquid fertilizer will have a tremendous plant response with out watering the plant. That is of course unless the plant is so dry that it is under stress. But yes, watering foliage to the point of run off to the root system would be of more benefit.

 

[leatherback]

and other stuff IS the problem as there is not enough trial tested studies to suggest foliar feeding is any good.

Look at scientific literature. There are hundresd if not thousands of studies showing it works.

 

[penumbra]

You can bury your head in the sand and ignore the plethora of studies that have proved its effectiveness. It doesn't effect me or my plants at all as foliar feeding's efficacy was proven to me over 50 years ago and hundreds of times since. I think it is arrogance to think that plants, literally our ancestors, did not figure this out millions of years ago. We live by the grace of plants that have created food, medicine, shelter and even the air we breath and they were doing this long before we were here and still do so in spite of us.

 

[just.wing.it]

I started pouring fertilizer on my juniper this year, and I will say that they seem to really like it.... $0.02.