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Foliar Feeding

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daniel draeving

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Has anyone ever tried foliar feeding on their tobacco plants? I was doing some reading about it and some flower and vegetable gardeners swear by it. I was just wondering if it would be effective on tobacco.
 

Mad Oshea

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Yes, I do it all the time. I use two types that work well and will always use them. One is FAST2GROW, It is made with chicken poop. And the other I make. There are many ways as well as the folks here prefer as well. I will post it for My foliar here. Grgfinney is using in as we chat. And has great production. My Gramps tought it to Me many a year ago. Dissolve 1 teaspoon each of Epsom salts, salpetre, and baking powder (not soda) along with 1/4 teaspoon houshold ammonia in a gallon of water Use it every five to six weeks. Shake it up well befor You use any of the two.
 

Jitterbugdude

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I use it on my veggies but not my tobacco. Tobacco grows like a weed anyway plus I do not want to add any off tastes to my leaves. The most effective foliars will have phophates in them. You can test the effectiveness of your foliar spray by using a Brix meter. If the Brix (sugar levels) goes up after spraying then you know the plant has picked up the nutrients.
 

Chicken

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FOX-FARM..... allthough a little expensive, is the brand i would go with,,, it's derived from all natural ingrediants,,,

to avoid that taste it may put in your leaves..
 

bonehead

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i used to use foxfarm hydroponic fertilizers in some of my american hydroponic ebb and flow tables. it worked great but the cost became prohibitive real quickly with the amount you would use in a year for hydro grows. i used up what i had left for suplimental feeding for regular grows and it worked out great.
 

daniel draeving

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I use it on my veggies but not my tobacco. Tobacco grows like a weed anyway plus I do not want to add any off tastes to my leaves. The most effective foliars will have phophates in them. You can test the effectiveness of your foliar spray by using a Brix meter. If the Brix (sugar levels) goes up after spraying then you know the plant has picked up the nutrients.

I was just thinking of diluting some miracle grow and trying it. Do you think it would it would impart an off taste in the leaf just using it once a week for the first month?
 

LeftyRighty

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If you use miracle grow. use only the Miracle Grow for Tomatos. the regular stuff has chlorides in it - don't want that, will definetly give your tobacco an off-taste. Also, I recommend folar spray at 1/2-strength, lightly, in evening, or it may burn the leaf on a sunny day.
 

Jitterbugdude

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Actually you want to foliar spray early in the morning. The stomata open in the early morning. By spraying at this time the leaves will readily uptake the nutrients in the spray. Sunrise is a nice time.
 

Knucklehead

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Watch the extra Urea in the Miracle Gro for Tomatoes. DGBAMA posted it has more Urea than regular Miracle Gro.
 

daniel draeving

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I actually found a place not to far away that sells fox farm fertilizer. It must be expensive, they don't want to advertise the price.

I think I'll try spraying a few plants and see if I notice any difference.
 

DGBAMA

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Watch the extra Urea in the Miracle Gro for Tomatoes. DGBAMA posted it has more Urea than regular Miracle Gro.
Beat me to the reminder.

We fed regular miracle grow to our entire garden every couple weeks when I was growing up. Great success.

Foliar feeding does not replace fertilizer absorbed by the roots, more of a short term boost. The positive to this is you can stop any time, like if they bud early.
 

mrthing2000

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Sorry to resurrect an old thread--but if you foliar feed, do you still need to fertilize through the soil? I sort of screwed up in the beginning and the roots are pretty shallow. Still in pots at the moment but will transplant soon.

I'm wondering if I combined foliar feeding with water everytime I 'water' the plants if that would be beneficial versus hoping it . Of course I'd cut back to just water if they started to look stressed or get weird.

Even with some of the slow-release fertilizer I'm seeing that it is not greening up the way I want it to. I've started using liquid hydro nutrients, about 1/2 strength, to water them and it slowly helped. But they do perk up quicker with the foliar method.
 

Chicken

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Sorry to resurrect an old thread--but if you foliar feed, do you still need to fertilize through the soil? I sort of screwed up in the beginning and the roots are pretty shallow. Still in pots at the moment but will transplant soon.

I'm wondering if I combined foliar feeding with water everytime I 'water' the plants if that would be beneficial versus hoping it . Of course I'd cut back to just water if they started to look stressed or get weird.

Even with some of the slow-release fertilizer I'm seeing that it is not greening up the way I want it to. I've started using liquid hydro nutrients, about 1/2 strength, to water them and it slowly helped. But they do perk up quicker with the foliar method.

id say give it a shot,,and see if the colour changes any.

id say look for a product with a lot of micro-nutrients, the n-p-k- will be there naturally. but bacca also likes boron,calcium,magneese,magnessium,zinc,iron,sulfur

[ at least thats the listed micros on bacca fertilizer i deliver. to major farms. ]
 

ProfessorPangloss

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I've been using Monty's Joy Juice on all my transplants of all kinds, and it might be closer to what you're looking for. It's basically concentrated fertilizer tea - it mixes at less than a teaspoon to the gallon. That should be weak enough not to hurt anything, and it's loaded with micronutrients. Honestly, you could probably drink it and not get hurt.
 

Jitterbugdude

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Foliar feeding is used as an addition to soil fertilizer. The best time to foliar feed is very early in the morning while dew is still on the leaves. At that time the stomata are still open. Spray the underside of the leaves.

You can test the viability of your foliar spray by measuring the Brix levels before and about 30 minutes after spraying. If your foliar is working, your Brix levels will have risen from baseline.
 

USHOG

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One of my folar recipe is to bubble some compost mixed in with some non chlorinated water and add some sugar. Let this bubble for 48 hours and then strain and apply. Do check the PPM and PH of the solution you don't want to over do anything.
 

rustycase

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Back when, I read an ag report by one of the southern universities describing their experiments with foliar feeding tobacco.

End result was the leaf was noticeably greener, but harvest was substantially the same, by weight.

...and I do not recall the source information...

Some of the championship pumpkin growers employ a secret recipe for foliar feeding...

my 2 cents
rc

It might be good if someone could grow equal rows, doing a foliar drench for one, and applying the equal amount at the base of the other??

.
 

Jitterbugdude

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Like I tell my wife... don't confuse quantity with quality... :rolleyes:
Although foliar fed crops might not be bigger, they are usually sweeter (if the foliar raises Brix levels) and insect damage is greatly diminished with foliar fed plants.
 
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