Well, before I show you the actual recipe or the Formula for the making of our so called magic solution, you must know some Basic concepts. Please do not skip these 5 points am gonna discuss now. Will try to make it as short and as simple as possible, specially for beginners.
1. What do you mean by foliar Spray? Foliage means leaves! So the term foliar spray says it all, that is Spraying a liquid fertilizer on your plants foliage which aids in absorption of certain essential elements like calcium, magnesium through their stomata. Stomata are pores found in the epidermis of leaves which help in nutrient absorption and also gas exchange.
2. Calcium and Its importance: Calcium is the most important component of a plants cell wall. Hence for cell division and growth its indispensable, especially in rapid growers like tomatoes. So we will keep this point in mind and add calcium into our mix.
3. Magnesium and Its importance: Did you know Magnesium is the central atom in between four nitrogen atoms in the chlorophyll molecule. For beginners, Chlorophyll is the pigment present in leaves which is essential for photosynthesis – that’s plant food production. So we will keep this point in mind and add magnesium into our mix using our famous organic Epsom salt.
4. Soil PH concept: We have discussed in detail about the importance of soil ph in nutrient absorption in my video titled Ideal Soil PH for plants. You can check that HERE. Well! when it comes to foliar spray of fertilizer solution, its completely independent of the soil PH, because nutrients are absorbed through leaves.
- And last concept: Many Experts recommend applying egg shells andcalcium tablets to soil and some evenmake a smoothie juice or paste using all kitchen waste like banana peels, fruit peels and what not. This in perhaps unscientific according to me to directly apply to your plants. I don’t know! If you have any scientific explanation to this, please do write in the comment box. What I feel is why not utilize this idea of making this smoothie and keeping a dedicated heavy duty blender or mixer for this purpose for faster composting. Yes! if you are adding this paste to your compost bin and feeding your earth worms, this can accelerate composting process.
So you can utilize this concept of foliar feeding if your plants are not performing well despite all your efforts, care, fertilizing, watering promptly and what not! Many viewers keep asking the same question. So why not make it a habit of alternating your feeds – that’s fertilizing your plants once in 15 days with foliar spray to feed your plants. Because this idea is independent of soil PH value.
Now The Formula or the recipe of this Magic Fertilizer liquid.
I will quickly list out the ingredients one by one and quickly explain the benefit of each of these components.
1. Water: Nothing to explain about this universal solvent. We will formulate this recipe for 1 liter of water.
2. Milk: You can use skimmed milk or if available Raw milk is best. You can even use spoilt milk, butter milk or stuff like that. Use it with lower than 20 percent dilution in water that is 1:5 dilution. So you can add about 100 ml or 200 ml milk to our universal solvent. Milk is not only a source of calcium, but also an antifungal for treatment of powdery mildew and blossom end rot disease on tomato and other vegetable plants. It also kills many plant viruses like tobacco mosaic virus. In place if milk you can add 1 liter of a special water. Yes that’s special calcium rich water for plants. It s nothing but the left over water after you hard boil few eggs. The egg shells release a lot of calcium into this water during boiling.
3. Epsom Salt that’s magnesium sulfate which is a greatest source of magnesium and sulfur. This is easily available at a gardening store or at your local pharmacist and even online. So the dosage is max 5 gms or little lesser than a teaspoon per 1 liter of water.
4. Then the Most important ingredient for adding the major NPK elements into the foliar spray is COMPOST TEA. So, how do you make compost tea? Its really simple. Just Add a handful of decomposed manure or compost like cowdung powder or vermicompost per liter of water. You can make your own quantity of 2 liters or 5 liters depending on your garden size. Allow this to brew for atleast 1 week. Make sure you stir this atleast once every 24 hours to oxygenate this mix till 1 week. Then strain out the liquid using a cloth and use this liquid. I shall make a detailed video some other time on how to use some simple gadgets like an aquarium air pump to quickly make your compost tea.
Well, For now, Once the compost tea is ready, you should dilute this like 1:5 in water and then add about 1 liter to the above solution. Normally if you are using only the compost tea as a foliar spray, you need to use 1:10 dilution. But here we are making a 2.1 liter solution in total. I Hope you got my point!
That’s it, mix it thoroughly and load the spray bottle or use your electric sprayer or whatever and foliar feed your plants. Spray very early in the morning or late in the evening because leaf stomatas are well opened at this period so that absorption happens at its best.
Well, Lets list out the 10 tips on increasing blooms and know what to do in brief. Always Remember one principle for blooms – the plant performs better when its free from stress.
- REPOTTING: This is generally your first task as soon as you bring your plant home from a nursery. Do not repot immediately, Allow your plant to settle for atleast one week to its new environment. During repotting, you need to mix some important ingredients into the potting mix like for a 12 inch pot, roughly about 1 tablespoon of steamed bone meal powder. Optionally you can also mix the mycorrhizae fungi – the beneficial fungi or even pseudomonas and Trichoderma powder. You can check my detailed video on Mycorrhizae and other important videos related to this topic from links in description of this video.
- CONTAINER SIZE: The concept here is: if you choose a deeper container, it will focus more on root development and less on flower production. The best one is a container that is wider than the usual nursery pot, but still not too deep. This way you will make your plant strong and make it produce more flowers.
- LOCATION: Keep your plants away from the traffic and pollution. Also in a location that’s not disturbed by frequent movements from people or animals and even your pets.
- SUNLIGHT: Place your plant in a location where you get adequate sunlight. Atleast 6 hours to 8 hours DIRECT SUNLIGHT is compulsory for flowering plants. If its too hot like in summer, protect them from noon sunlight using a green shade net.
- WATERING: If you are growing in containers, daily watering is must specially in summer season. Do not worry about over watering if are using a well draining soil.
- PEST CONTROL: Controlling pests is very important step to keep the plant healthy and blooming. Examine the plant closely for pests and insects including underside of the leaves. Common pests like whiteflies, aphids, mealybugs can be easily eliminated using neem oil + liquid soap in water. Or adding oils like Clove Oil or eucalyptus oil increases the efficacy. I have one very important video on pest elimination using one powerful method. You can check these related videos from card links at top right corner or in description.
- RAKING THE SOIL: This is anther important step before applying any fertilizer or manure to your plant. Raking the soil is recommended once every 15 days. Make it a habit to rake the soil and then apply your fertilizer every 15 days.
- SOIL: Here you should remember few important points like:
- a) PH of soil , b) How to make the best potting soil for flowering plants c) Keep the soil well draining. The First factor is PH. Plants like Rose and Hibiscus prefer slightly acidic soil like around 6 to 6.5. If you have a PH testing meter, you can accurately use this hack to use Alum powder to make your soil acidic. Even if you do not have this meter, you can roughly add about 5 to 10 gms of alum powder in one liter of water once every 15 days to maintain this acidic level, which is very important for absorption of nutrients you add to your plant. You can also use 1 – 2 teaspoon of white vinegar per liter of water to make your soil acidic. Again you can watch my related videos on these topics from links in description.Now When you make a potting mix, you can add extra 10 percent additional compost like decomposed cowdung powder. And also bone meal powder as discussed earlier.
- FERTILIZER: In this video, I will be talking only about organic fertilizers and not chemicals like NPK or DAP.
Add a handful of decomposed horsedung or cowdung powder or vermicompost on the top layer of the soil once every 15 days after nicely raking the soil. This should be the minimum fertilizer use and frequency. You can also use compost tea sprays or even mustard cake tea and other foliar feeds if you want better results. What I use once every 15 days is My Cocktail Fertilizer Powder. You can check a detailed video on how I prepared this mixed fertilizer, from a link at top right corner of this video and also from description links. - PRUNING: Yes this is most important step which many of us neglect or some newbie gardeners think like – its plant cruelty. But this is not the truth. Pruning or pinching and also deadheading of the flowers from time to time is the most important step for maintaining blooms.
Generally Pruning which is of two types Hard Pruning and Soft Pruning. Hard Pruning is done in early spring that’s in Feb end or March beginning. If you missed that, No Worries! You can still perform Soft Pruning or Trimming. Trimming sparks new growths specaily in rose bushes.
So that was our episode on the 10 surefire ways to increase blooms. If you have any other hacks and tips, please share in the comments section below.