Folar Fertilization
We all have had the basic course in fertilization:
plants need NPK — nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. This is like saying humans need carbohydrates, fats, and protein. It tells us the basics but certainly does not say how to eat well. We need a balanced diet with nourishing foods, and plants are similar. They prefer nutrients in which the complex chemicals are bound organically. Rather than a dose of chemical nitrates, plants thrive best on organic products that provide not only the NPK but also a range of trace elements.
Vegetation evolved in the oceans, bathed in a solution containing every imaginable mineral. Seaweed takes food directly from seawater. Land plants, like their marine ancestors, can take in nourishment through the pores or stomata on their leaf surfaces. Stomata are tiny mouths that breathe in CO2 and exhale water and oxygen. They also transport nutrients up to ten times more efficiently than root systems. Foliar feeding bolsters the nutrients available to each plant, like a regular dose of vitamins and supplements.
Most vegetation requires a minimum of 16, but probably more like 50, essential minerals and trace elements. Is it just coincidence that some of the best providers of these elements come from the ocean? Fish products are high in organic nitrogen; kelp is a wonderful source of minerals, particularly
potassium, and algae have a range of trace elements and hormones beneficial for cellular development. Research suggests that natural sea salt contains a vast range of trace elements. When sprayed in a very diluted form, sea minerals provide most elements needed to prevent deficiencies.
Foliar fertilization is fast becoming an essential addition to standard cultivation techniques. For many growers who have grown up with chemicals it is a small step to organic fertilization; the NPK is just
packaged differently. However, there is another, less well-known aspect to plant cultivation based on biology rather than chemistry — the realm of the microbes.