Feed the Soil and Feed the Plant, or Soil good enough to eat!

After you have addressed mineral balance with lime or dolomite and a complete fertiliser, then it is time to fee the soil life and feed the plant. Mineral update is determined by mineral imbalance and soil microbes.

The best way to build soil microbes is with a champagne food source and/or compost. You may be quite content with the response from balancing and feeding the soil but if you are keen to achieve exceptional, problem-free growth, then you might also consider foliar feeding the plant.

Foliar feeding is a direct route into the plant, which bypasses any problems in the soil. Stomata are tiny little mouths on the underside of plant leaves, which are actually designed to capture carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and for moisture transpiration. Stomata are, in effect, the gateway between the outside and the inside of the plant and when nutrients are supplied to the leaf and enter via the stomata it is actually 12 times more efficient than applying those nutrients to the soil.  Apart from this increased efficiency , there are other reasons to foliar feed. Soil-based lockups where too much of one mineral antagonises the uptake of another are common and foliar feeding bypasses these lockups and delivers directly to the plant.

Some plants will respond better to a soil application of liquid minerals while others prefer foliar applications.