Turn Mittleider Weekly Feed Into Mittleider Super-Natural Nano Nutrients ™
- Before planting your garden apply and mix into the soil both the Mittleider Pre-plant mix (1 oz/ft) and the Mittleider Weekly Feed mix (1/2 oz/ft).
- Begin applying foliar spray as soon as leaves appear. Do not wait until plants have true leaves.
- Place 8 ounces of Weekly Feed Mix into a good, strong blender, such as a Blendtec or Vitamix.
- Blend Weekly Feed at high speed until it is as fine as cake flour (“micronized” powder – no granules).
- Add 1/2 Tablespoon of granular Humic Acid (com/shop) and 1 pint of boiling distilled or reverse osmosis (RO) water to blender (pure water dissolves maximum amount of Weekly Feed and does not introduce other minerals).
- Blend at high speed for up to 2 minutes, adding water as possible without causing spillage.
- Add liquid to 3 ½ quarts of distilled water in a gallon-size plastic jug. Yields 1 gallon of Weekly Feed “NANO+” or Mittleider Super-Natural Nano Nutrients ™ concentrate.
- Cap and store in a safe place until needed.
- Shake thoroughly before each use.
- Add 8 ounces of this Weekly Feed NANO+ concentrate and 1/2 teaspoon High Yield Sticker Spreader (Walmart, etc.) or other Non-Ionic Surfactant to 1 gallon of water in spray equipment.
- Alternatively, you can use an electrostatic sprayer, which produces much smaller droplets and adds a tiny positive electrical charge, making the material cling to the leaf surface. Spraying is quicker, you do not have to continually pump to keep air pressure, less material is used, and better coverage is achieved, especially on the under-side of the leaves, where the stomata are located. I am using the Victory Innovations Backpack Sprayer with good success.
- Preferred spraying time is morning, before the temperatures rise (below 80 degrees), or late afternoon after extreme temperatures are reduced, but at least an hour before sundown, because the stomata close around sundown.
- Water plants before applying foliar feed, and wait to spray nutrients until leaves are dry.
- Spray upper and lower leaves. Nutrients enter plants primarily through the stomata on the underside of the leaf.
- Observe plants carefully for scorch or wilting (will not happen unless much higher dosage is used). If either of these occur flush the plant leaves and soil with plain water and reduce concentration of the foliar feed by half.
- Nutrition enters plant leaves in as little as 1 hour, and is generally completed within 24 hours. Effects are often observed within a day or two.
- Repeat every 3-7 days, depending on growing conditions and observed results, throughout crop growing cycle. Spraying twice each week is a good place to start.
- Adjust frequency of foliar spraying as needed to maintain rapid growth of your plants.
- Not seeing desired growth and vigor? Increase the amount of Weekly Feed concentrate you are using per gallon of spray solution. Also, consider supplementing with an application of Mittleider Weekly Feed in the soil, and document your progress and findings.
- For lawns, feeding just 3 times at 3 to 4 week intervals is usually sufficient for a temperate climate growing season..
Since you are not watering the plants, but rather just wetting the leaves (continue watering the soil as normal – see Watering Lessons in The Mittleider Gardening Course book), a great deal less fertilizer is applied, thus saving greatly on fertilizer costs.
As an example, during the warm months my garden of 524’ of soil-beds & Grow-Boxes requires 3 gallons of foliar spray per feeding. So, even if you have to feed twice per week to grow healthy plants, that’s 6 gallons of spray, or just 2.2 ounces of Weekly Feed per week on a very big garden. Traditional feeding by applying ½ ounce per foot of Weekly Feed to the soil per week requires 262 ounces or 16.5 pounds per week. So, you will be using 1/89th as much Mittleider Weekly Feed with foliar spraying the NANO+!
Worth doing? I KNOW it is!
Jim Kennard – 12/9/23
