Spraying plants with liquid fertilizer allows you to produce foliar feeding. Despite the fact that the main way of supplying nutrients to the plant is its root system, there is a periodic need to make additional fertilization, bypassing the root system.
Such a temporary procedure is usually needed in situations where the root method does not work properly or is insufficient. Situations of this kind are when:
Also, problems can arise because of the high soil temperature, poor aeration of it, overfilling the soil substrate.
The process of foliar feeding is very justified for the reason that the supply of nutrients is organized right where they are vital - in the leaves. It is in the leaves, in the presence of sunlight, that the basic metabolic processes go and wait for the supply of nutrients from the roots sometimes too long. Moreover, by entering through the leaves, the substances quickly turn out to be "on the spot". To be as clear as possible, the effectiveness of foliar uptake is higher by 100-900% than the root one. And if a sudden change in the acidity of the soil has disrupted the assimilation of trace elements, there remains only one way - through the leaves.
Iron through the root system is almost not received if the ambient temperature is low. Phosphorus is assimilated by almost 80% with a foliar approach, while the root method leads to losses of up to 80% of phosphorus. 50% of the nitrogen introduced into the soil is washed away.
If a liquid with nutrients is applied on the leaves, most of everything dissolved in it will go to the plant.
In the plant organism nutrients can penetrate through the cuticle, epidermis and stomata. The greater the concentration of nutrients deposited on the sheet, the higher the rate of their diffusion into the sheet. Therefore, with foliar top feeding always try to use values close to the upper limits of nutrient concentration. But we must not forget about the safety of plants. If you exceed a certain value, then instead of feeding you can get damage to the leaves (chlorosis and necrosis).
Applying nutrients (UAN) is preferably on the underside, which has a porous structure and therefore better absorbs fertilizer. The bark of plants absorbs much worse.
Choosing the time for foliar top feeding should be guided by the following hours: 7.00-10.00 (morning) and from 17.00 until sunset. These time intervals are good for the following reasons:
The optimal solution for the dispersion of nutrients is the usage of the self-propelled sprayer «Vodoley» on ultra-low pressure tires. When moving on the soil, it exerts a pressure of not more than 160 g/cm2, which makes it possible to use it even on the field with plants up to 50 cm high without damaging them. And thanks to computer «Vodoley 1» with GSM module the consumption of liquid fertilizers will be reduced.
During the work the computer coordinates the speed of the outflow of liquid with the speed of the sprayer across the field, so that the specified rate of application performs for each hectare.
