Simple Approaches to Making and Using Foliar Fertilizers

One of our main goals in the permaculture garden is to foster soil life, and there are many methods we use for accomplishing this goal. We apply thick mulches and add plenty of organic matter. We practice no-dig methods so as not to harm existing soil life, and we enhance richness by adding things like worm compost, manure, and leaf mold. We increase fertility with nitrogen-fixing plants. We cultivate perennial polyculture gardens, as well as use crop rotations in annual beds. From day one on the site, we begin our work as ambassadors of the soil.

But, creating the kind of dynamic and regenerative soil we are after takes time. Two months of work, or even two years, likely won’t get our garden soil to the place we want it.

Obviously, we still want to produce some food in the meantime, and homespun liquid, foliar fertilizers are a great option for doing so. These are particularly effective before soils have reached their optimal fertility because, rather than slow-feeding roots, liquid fertilizers are more commonly absorbed via leaves, the foliage. This isn’t to say we stop caring for the soil, as has happened with other fertilize-based agriculture, but we can use simple DIY liquid fertilizers to boost production as we work the soil back into shape or when it seems plants are lacking something.