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Fertilizing the plants is as important as watering them or giving them a suitable location. Without compost, the plant ends up depleting the nutrients in the soil it is in, and after this it would soon become sick or wilt.
And although there are many types of ecological fertilizers that you can use in your plants and crops, foliar fertilizer is one of the fastest absorbed, and is therefore especially suitable for treating weak or diseased plants. If you want to learn how to make a homemade and ecological foliar fertilizer, join us in this Green Ecologist article.
What is foliar fertilizer for?
Before detailing how to make the foliar fertilizer in a homemade and ecological way, we will explain exactly what it is for. Plants grow from three basic elements: sunlight, water, and nutrients. The first two are known all over the world and very evident in their supply to the plant, but the third is not always so clear.
When you are going to plant in a pot, it is best to add humus or compost of some kind to the substrate to enrich it with organic matter that feeds the plant. Outdoors this is not so common, but it also gives very good results with cultivation since, although the roots have more space to search for food, they will also end up depleting it.
A form of give vitality to the plant and improve its growth is to apply compost regularly, especially when its growing season begins. This can be applied in a traditional way, on the ground or added to irrigation water, or in a foliar way. Land plants come from algae, which have no root system and absorb nutrients directly through their leaves. Terrestrial plants still retain this ability and, not only can they do so, but their absorption of nutrients by leaves it is much faster.
Here are some recipes to make organic foliar fertilizers and we explain the best way to apply them.
Homemade biol fertilizer
The biol, or organic biofertilizer, is a very effective fertilizer that is used by decomposing organic matter into a biodigester, a container that you can prepare yourself for this use. For the biodigester you will need a drum or tub, to which you must make a hole in the lid in which to fit a hose connection, then sealing the edges with glue. This hose must then be connected to a bottle with water, where the process gases will stop.
Next, we give the ingredients for a mixture with about two liters of liquids. If you make more, keep the approximate proportions.
- Start by pouring 18 ml of skim milk, 125 grams of brown sugar and a pinch of baking powder into a separate bucket. Stir for a few minutes, with a wooden tool, until you get a homogeneous mixture.
- In the drum mix 1.8 liters of water, 500 grams of crushed vegetable remains, 500 grams of fresh manure and 125 grams of wood ashes.
- Stir well again and add the contents of the bucket, to mix once more until smooth.
- Then close the lid tightly and leave the drum to rest in a shady and cool place, with the hose inserted into the bottle of water, at a similar height.
- In about 3 or 4 weeks you should see how the hose no longer produces bubbles in the water in the bottle, which means that the mixture in the biodigester has stopped producing methane. After this time, the mixture will be ready. You can make sure that this is the case by adding a little alcohol to it, checking that it forms a thick layer in the biol.
- After this, strain the mixture to separate the liquid and you can now use it as a foliar fertilizer.
Horsetail and nettle foliar fertilizer
For prepare horsetail and nettle foliar fertilizer follow these simple guidelines:
- Boil half a kilo of horsetail branches and leaves and half a kilo of nettle branches and leaves in 2 liters of water for half an hour.
- Let the mixture sit for a whole day.
- Strain it later, to keep the liquid, which is already usable as a foliar fertilizer.
How often to use foliar fertilizer
The foliar fertilizer application It produces results at high speed, but in return, its benefits also disappear more quickly. For the plant to take advantage of the benefits of this type of fertilizer, repeat it each 15 days during the months of activity of the same, which in most species tend to be those of spring and summer.
How to use foliar fertilizer
To finish, we tell you how to apply foliar fertilizer. The best result is always to use a spray bottle or pump for spraying. These kits are usually not cheap, but a good sprayer will last you a long time and ensures a very good application not only of fertilizer, but also of natural pesticides in a time of need. Follow these steps to use foliar fertilizer on your plants:
- Pour your fertilizer or foliar compost into the atomizer, with a drop of detergent for scrubbing for every 3.5 liters of water.
- Spray the plants with the mixture, making sure to wet the leaves well.
- An important detail regarding when to use foliar fertilizer is to always do it first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon, avoiding doing it just before watering or when rain is expected. In this way, the mixture will not harm the plant by sunburn or be prematurely removed from the leaves by irrigation water or rain.
In addition, as an extra tip, we recommend cleaning the leaves before applying products that have to penetrate them. Here we tell you how to clean the leaves of plants. Now that you know how to make a foliar compost or for the leaves of the plants, we advise you to also learn about How to make homemade compost for the plants with this other post from Green Ecologist.
If you want to read more articles similar to How to make a homemade foliar compost, we recommend that you enter our category of Cultivation and care of plants.
