To spray or not to spray? (leaves)

Me again

Doing some research, and there seems to be 2 trains of thought regarding spraying leaves on indoor grows,

1) spraying leaves creates hotspots and burns leaves if drops are big enough, and can lead to fungus at "night" due to cold and dark = perfect mold conditions humidity tents are better.

2) Spraying with small amounts of nutes increases plant growth due to the increased nute take up (assume through the leaf stomata, as that's how water and CO2 gets in),

but I also figure that the water will create the plant to form a thicker waxy cuticle (plant biology: excess rain makes them waxier to increase run off, like in the rain forest, but not thinking so extreme )

not sure if this is a pro, because it'll help the plant keep in its lovely natural chemicals by creating a thicker diffusion pathway, but it will still actively remove waste it doesn't need (product from nute and respiration (oxygen + whatever waste is left from the nutes)

or a con, because the plant will put more energy into creating the cuticle instead of creating THC and CBD

Anyone got any experience spraying leaves?

as per, did a quick search but couldn't see anything

PTB

I use a wetting agent ( 1 TBLS. Of dish soap). Takes care of water beads on the leafs.

Slab said:

I use a wetting agent ( 1 TBLS. Of dish soap). Takes care of water beads on the leafs.

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dish soap to reduce surface tension? this not risky? (don't want soapy green lol)

HAha, I realize it's counter intuitive.

It is standard practice.

"surfactant"

Slab said:

HAha, I realize it's counter intuitive.

It is standard practice.

"surfactant"

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AH of course, haha makes sense now cheers! does your wetting agent have nutes or not?

i dont mist my plants, and if i do its when they get water in the "morning" to recreate the dew in the morning, or the rain hitting them.

if you foliar feed, the roots will get used to not doing the work, so its not good to abuse foliar feeding

I've never tried foliar feeding but have been toying with the idea lately. I've been growing the same way for a long time, and have been thinking about trying some differant stuff, maybe it will make a differance who knows. I've never been a fan of the idea of leaving moisture on my leaves. I think your supposed to foliar feed when the lights are out to aren't you?

from my experience, I spray about 30 minutes before my HID lights turn on, spray the under side of the leaf as opposed to the upper side, get as fine of a mist as possible and use a wetting agent if you want (i don't)

if you're growing under florsecents then you can spray anytime.

bmeat said:

i dont mist my plants, and if i do its when they get water in the "morning" to recreate the dew in the morning, or the rain hitting them.

if you foliar feed, the roots will get used to not doing the work, so its not good to abuse foliar feeding

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yeah Ive never heard of that in all my 13 years of growing...

Thundercat said:

I've never tried foliar feeding but have been toying with the idea lately. I've been growing the same way for a long time, and have been thinking about trying some differant stuff, maybe it will make a differance who knows. I've never been a fan of the idea of leaving moisture on my leaves. I think your supposed to foliar feed when the lights are out to aren't you?

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You have it backwards.. your not supposed to foliar feed when the lights are off. You say you dont like leaving moisture on the leaves... what do you think happens in nature when its raining lol plants love being foliar fed as long as they dont get nute burn..

PassTheBiff said:

AH of course, haha makes sense now cheers! does your wetting agent have nutes or not?

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Yes, I do. Once in veg and once in early flower with a 10% strength solution
I mist often with plain water, (rain water when available )during veg.
It raises humidity to optimum levels, eliminates dust and makes it inhospitable for bugs.

For big plants, it won't make much difference. When you really want to spray is when plants are clones (rooted or not)

If you use use too strong of nutes (I think nitrogen specifically) you'll make the leaves curl up and maybe even die.

I'd recommend using Spray and Grow 3 part, with either a splash of Super Thrive or vitam B. Make sure you read the mixing instructions on the bottles - you put in Coco wet (this is probably dishsoap, but you use so little, paying a couple extra bucks doesn't really matter), Spray and Grow, then Bills Perfect Fertilizer after the Spray and Grow turns dark yellow. And use warm / hot water.

If you have 10cc syringes, you probably want to use them to measure everything out.

Slab said:

Yes, I do. Once in veg and once in early flower with a 10% strength solution
I mist often with plain water, (rain water when available )during veg.
It raises humidity to optimum levels, eliminates dust and makes it inhospitable for bugs.

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Good to know, so mostly plain H2O with soap? (makes sense i guess)

tibberous said:

For big plants, it won't make much difference. When you really want to spray is when plants are clones (rooted or not)

If you use use too strong of nutes (I think nitrogen specifically) you'll make the leaves curl up and maybe even die.

I'd recommend using Spray and Grow 3 part, with either a splash of Super Thrive or vitam B. Make sure you read the mixing instructions on the bottles - you put in Coco wet (this is probably dishsoap, but you use so little, paying a couple extra bucks doesn't really matter), Spray and Grow, then Bills Perfect Fertilizer after the Spray and Grow turns dark yellow. And use warm / hot water.

If you have 10cc syringes, you probably want to use them to measure everything out.

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so foliar feeding is really only best for small seedling plants? but i assume if you moved to a high P nute when your flowering this'll boost bud production?
Plants are on night cycle now will apply some of this next day cycle

Time to sit back and chill

spraying plants is only for cloning and if you have bug issues in flower and no other choice. Otherwise put it down and find something else to do with your time. These plants really want you to leave them alone. Stop fucking with em and they will reward you. you are just trying some stupid reason to play with em to make em grow more bud when you need to step away and go do something else.

Relaxed said:

spraying plants is only for cloning and if you have bug issues in flower and no other choice. Otherwise put it down and find something else to do with your time. These plants really want you to leave them alone. Stop fucking with em and they will reward you. you are just trying some stupid reason to play with em to make em grow more bud when you need to step away and go do something else.

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This isn't true. There are some great foliar feeds one can do. There are thousands of great ones.

a mongo frog said:

This isn't true. There are some great foliar feeds one can do. There are thousands of great ones.

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probably a lot of great ones. i wouldnt use them though unless roots are getting eaten or rooting away though. the only nutes that fall from the sky in the wild are the nasty chemicals we put into our water

bmeat said:

if you foliar feed, the roots will get used to not doing the work, so its not good to abuse foliar feeding

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Complete bullshit theory. Bmeat makes stuff up out of thin air. I've misted plants with light nutrient applications for 30 years

it is a theory but it makes sense. i also rember reading about it in a book. if you feed to early and out frequently with foliar, it will weaken the roots

Last week I decided to give it a try. I mixed up a light solution of the floralicious plus, with 2 drops of superthrive in it. I misted everything gently, and they have been looking good ever since. No I don't think I saw any significant changes, but the stuff I sprayed wasn't really a nute solution. The floralicious is mostly humic acid, and sea kelp(20% kelp) so I thought the foliar spray may help to strengthen the foliage , and perhaps help with nute uptake. Either way even if it didn't do anything to help, it didn't hurt.

I only spray because I've heard insects instinctively don't like wet foliage due to risk of getting wings wet and making them immobile.