What is some of the best fertilizers to spray on your plants?
thanx
Greg

I'm new at this but I started using the Garrett Juice about a month ago on all my plants and they really like it. I could see a difference in a couple of weeks. You can find it in the garden centers or try the recipes on this site. I give a good spray to the leaves once a week and drench around the base every two weeks and my little shrubs and treees are finally growing.

Aerated compost tea recipes are definitely the ultimate in foliar/soil drenches. They supply both available soluble nutrients and beneficial aerobic soil/composting microbes quickly to plants and soil, plus they have incredible disease/pest controls, and soil conditioning abilities.

Second best, are all non-aerated biostimulants like Garret juice, classic compost teas, herbal or weed teas, seaweed teas, and fish emulsion. All these are mainly natural fertilizers and soil amendments. They all contain little or no beneficial aerobic bacteria or fungi in them like aerated teas do.

I totally agree with CaptainCompost on the aerated compost tea. When I folair feed my plants with the compost I see results with in minutes. The leaves turn a darker green and they look so much healthier.

There's actually a problem with foliar feeds which are high in nitrogen. It is possible for some plants to grow entirely without roots when they are feed through the leaves. If your plants rely on foliar feeding to the extent that they get virtually nothing from the roots, then YOU become the plants only source of nourishment. If you wanted to go on vacation, forget it because the plants need to be fed and watered.

The approach with aerated compost tea is a good one. These teas usually do not have anything like the amounts of nitrogen you would find in the soil, so the plants don't become dependent. Furthermore the biological component of the teas helps the plant develop a coping mechanism to resist pests from the environment. So if you go on vacation the plants should be able to handle any stressed that might occur while you're gone.

I agree totally. Keep in mind that no foliar tea or biostimulant is a replacement for good composting and mulching. Teas are designed to complement not substitute, constant composting and other soil amendments.

Teas are great quick fixes or stress relievers or disease/pest fighters, until your organic garden soil heals up, or until the gardening enviroinment attracts more beneficials, on a regular basis.


I use my tea recipes are an insurance policy to guarantee better success from my garden crops, and from my garden soil.