Foliar Feeding
Plants are able to absorb essential nutrients through the openings in their leaves, the stomata, and through their outer layer the epidermis. Trees also have the capacity to absorb nutrients through their bark.
The effectiveness of foliar sprays to feed a plant with nutrients was tested by Michigan state university. Traceable phosphorus and potassium were applied to foliage and was shown to be absorbed by the plant anywhere between 100% and 900% more effectively than root feeding.
It is important to note though that foliar feeding is not a substitute for a healthy soil food web and the appropriate nutrients in the root zone. Foliar feeding, as described by Dr Carey Reams, can act as a pump helping plants absorb the full spectrum of needed compounds from their root zone. In an upward perpetuating cycle the higher the mineral content of a plants sap through mineral uptake at the roots, the more effective foliar applied nutrients are magnetized to the plant.
Marked improvements in plant health can be noted when a foliar spray is providing a nutrient that a plant is deficient in. It may not yet be present in the soil, or due to a multitude of potential interactions with other compounds in the soil, is tied up and not available for the plants use. Liebig's law of minimum stating that the nutrient in least supply to meet a plants requirements is the one that limits growth , explains why it is often micro-nutrients in parts per million that make up an effective foliar spray.
Foliar feeding is utilized to aid proper soil fertility as well as energy and to assist or alter the plants growth for the better. We perform this service In the Olympia area and further afield.
