The Regenerative Grower's Guide to Garden Amendments by Nigel Palmer

Author:Nigel Palmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

A simple mister-type spray bottle or a manual pressurized pump spray bottle works well for applying foliar sprays in home gardens.

Schedules for foliar spraying may vary depending on many factors. One possible schedule is to simply foliar spray all crops every 7 to 10 days using a broad-spectrum mineral amendment. For fruit trees, a basic guideline is to apply a foliar spray once in the fall, again in early spring, and another time during fruit-set. Sometimes I choose to spray on a windy day, knowing that everything downwind of the sprayed area will also benefit from the application.

Making and Applying a Foliar Spray

I use an electrical conductivity meter when mixing foliar sprays. The electrical conductivity of rainwater is close to zero, but the mineral amendments recipes I use are loaded with ions that increase the conductivity of the solution considerably. The recommended dilution rates for these amendments are 1:500 (amendment:water) or 1:1000. Even at these dilution rates, the electrical conductivity of the solution will increase with each additional type of amendment added. Conductivity is measured in millisiemens per centimeter (mS/cm). I monitor the electrical conductivity as amendments are added, and in my experience solutions that have values between 1.5 and 2.5 mS/cm do not seem to burn plant tissue.

Foliar sprays have a tendency to ball up on the plant surface because of the surface tension of water, but it is desirable for the spray droplets to spread out on the leaf for better absorption. One way to overcome surface tension is to add a wetting agent to the spray. I’ve found, though, that foliar sprays made with homemade amendments and rainwater do not have this tendency to bead up. This may also result from the particular way in which I mix the spray solution in a bucket with magnets mounted on it, as described earlier in this chapter. The surface tension of water is reduced when exposed to magnetic fields in this manner—the structural change of the water molecules acts as a kind of wetting agent. The water also becomes more stable and accelerates plant growth. It is interesting to read research papers on this subject, and I’ve included some in the bibliography.

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