# Foliar Fertilizers and Plant Soil Mining Questions



## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

I've been reading a fair amount of info on liquid fertilizers, i.e. foliar types and one thing that jumps out at me is threads/info that suggests that foliar fertilizing causes the plant (in this case hay) to mine the soil, in addition to the foliar and in doing so, depletes the soil.

My question is - is the soil depletion any worse than applying no fertilizer or is the depletion spurred on my the foliar fertilizer?

Upon first reading, I thought this foliar fertilizing (purposely not naming any brands) was a good idea, but now have reservations - especially if the foliar application, long term, mines out the soil's nutrients.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it I gather I gather the foliar application isn't enough to sustain the plant and it uses up what's left of the ground nutrients via its root system - mining the soil.

So would the work around to soil mining aspect of foliar fertilizing (I'm assuming this is true) be to repeat the foliar application through out the growing season? Would that prevent the plant from having to go to the soil and essentially mining it?

And, again, absent any fertilizer, would the plant mine the soil anyway?

Just trying to understand.

Any comments are much appreciated.

Thanks!
Bill


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

This may not answer your question but foliar fertilizer can really add to a dry fertilizer program.


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## TJH (Mar 23, 2014)

Yes, all crops will mine the soil. I tried the foliar route with not much luck. Feed the soil, let the soil feed the plants, and if you wish use the foliar as a boost. I am no Phd just the school of hard knocks. I've just about lost a stand of Bermuda from foliar feeding, and as hog987 says they can add up to some serious cash just like the dry, but will give you nothing in your soil bank.


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## PaCustomBaler (Nov 29, 2010)

Bill, I'd say yes...you eventually mine the nutrients right out of the soil using only a liquid fert. program. Row crop growers can better get away with it, since the grain is only getting pulled off the field. We are pulling the entire above-ground plant biomass off when we hay the ground, so nutrient removal will be significantly higher than row crops.

I have a "custom work" customer that has had the local fert. dealer do a foliar "weed and feed" each year for the past 5 years. Hay yields have been consistantly going down the last 5 years and the customer asked me why this was happening. I told him because he's not putting enough NPK to the fields to replace what he's harvesting. He replied, "But they put more on each year than the prior year!...and I entirely believe him.

I've had no luck in *only* foliar fertilizers for cool-grass hay production. Like hog987 said, liquid fits well but only on top of a decent dry fert. plan.

If I'm doing a herbicide application, I'll throw a little N into the tank to help trick the weed into thinking it's getting fed, when really it's getting killed.


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## country boy (May 27, 2010)

I played with some grasshopper a couple years ago, I sprayed some field that I had put 450# of fertilizer on it and I could tell the difference where we ran out of spray it looked like you drew a line across the field. grasshopper offers a 42% nit that you can cut to spray 4 acres @ 21% instead of just two per bag @ just a few dollars more per bag . but don't just use foliar or it will kill your dirt for sure.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

One can not fully provide all the nutrients that a plant needs to grow and complete its life cycle (produce hay/seed/grain) by using only foliar feeding. Here is what a ton of Coastal bermudagrass hay removes from the soil: 50 to 60 lb of N, 14 to 17 lb of phosphorus, and 30 to 40 lb of potassium.

And here is what the recommended amount of Grasshopper 30-8-10 supplies as a foliar feed: 3.75 lb of N, 0.44 lb of phosphorus, and 1.0 lb of potassium.


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## TJH (Mar 23, 2014)

From the book The Non-Toxic Farming Handbook by Phillip Wheeler Ph.D. and Ronald Ward: Foliar feeding works best in cooperation with a good soil fertility program. Without the proper soil fertility base to begin with, foliar spraying can have very mixed results. Good success could be obtained in certain instances where the right nutrients were sprayed at the right time for the growing plant, yet these would be exceptions to the rule. One would expect to see minimal positive results if good fertility programs were not followed. Foliar feeding is not as efficient when used as a rescue program. Foliar feeding is intended to strengthen basic fertility programs.

I have experienced this to be true. The foliar "stuff" did not work on marginal land that I did not apply dry fertilizer to.


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