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We're looking at foliar feeding for plants - what is it, how does it work, and why you should consider doing it.
What Is Foliar Feeding?
Everyone knows that plants absorb water and nutrients through their roots - but did you know that plants can also absorb water and nutrients through their leaves?
That's right! Just like humans can absorb things through our skin, plant leaves can also be highly absorbant.
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Foliar feeding makes use of this property by feeding nutrients or probiotics directly to plants via their leaves.
When you hear "foliar", think "foliage."
Some leaves do have hydrophobic or waxy coatings that prevent absorption and cause water to bead up and roll off - but we'll address how to circumvent this later in this article.
Why Foliar Feed Plants
Now that we know that you can feed plants through their leaves, let's talk about why you'd actually want to do this.
Because plant leaves are exposed and accessible, unlike their roots, foliar feeding can be faster-acting and more direct than feeding the roots or soil.
This can be especially important for plants experiencing nutrient deficiencies, since an organic foliar spray can help correct the issue faster than a soil drench (and much faster than a soil amendment.)
Foliar feeding is an especially impartant technique to understand in organic systems, where water-soluble synthetics aren't used. Organic systems ar naturally slower to change, with many soil amendments taking months or years to see change.
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While this slow, organic soil-forward approach and long-term mindset are what we advocate for here at Learn Dirt, it's nice to have a tool in your toolkit that allows you to help plants out quickly if they're struggling.
That's the role that foliar feeding fills, it's you fastest-acting way to help feed plants in a hurry when there's no time to spare.
How To Foliar Feed Plants
That's all for now, thanks for reading!
If you have any questions, comments, or would like to connect with fellow gardeners, head on over to the forum and post there.
