Foliar spray with alcohol and urea

[svalli]

We have a lot of snow and no sign of spring, so this is the time to dream for lush growth and increased harvest.

I planted first tomato seeds on Sunday, so now it is time to find the secret weapons for this season. So far on my list are MycoGrow and Jack's Magic. I still need to find a good fertilizer to supplemet what the composted chicken poop may be lacking.

[jeffinjonestown]

Originally Posted by svalli

A small company in Finland makes a foliar sprays with alcohol and urea plus some other stuff. The science behind the product should be that the carbon in alcohol is used by the plant instead of taking carbondioxide from the air, so it should be great for greenhouses or indoor growing. I saw this product at one of the gardening stores here and I am wondering, if I sould try it. I found some positive comments on Finnish gardening forums. Surprising to me is that there seems to be no other similar product around, or at least I could not find anything on the internet.

http://www.carbonkick.fi/eng/index_jacksmagic.html


Edit: This should have gone under 'General Discussions', I accidentally posted it to Seed starting section.

I've been resisting this bad joke for 3 days - but alcohol and urea? - wouldn't it be cheaper and more fun to drink lots of gin or vodka and pee on the plants?

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by jeffinjonestown

I've been resisting this bad joke for 3 days - but alcohol and urea? - wouldn't it be cheaper and more fun to drink lots of gin or vodka and pee on the plants?

Ha! Probably more efficient, too!

[David Marek]

Years ago a host on The Victory Garden Would mix up fertilizer concoctions, all I remember was he would usually add "a cup of urine"

Sounds like the secret ingredient is triacontanol according to that wiki article- helps encourage branching?. I use ethyl dilluted in water with soap for bugs, but many alcohols are bad for plants. In searching I realized why some of my houseplants were dying if I used isopropyl. Oops.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_does_i...ol_kill_plants

A ventless heater for supplemental heat will add plenty of CO2 to the air, and interestingly tomatoes are a good indicator plant if it (or any heater) is working properly/improperly.

As for adding oxygen, it is often lacking in the root zone of large container plants, so adding hydrogen peroxide to your water before watering will make the roots happy.

What would you use it on? I'm wondering if anyone else has fried their plants because they found a good deal on isopropyl alcohol.....if some is good then more must be better.

[svalli]

Originally Posted by jeffinjonestown

I've been resisting this bad joke for 3 days - but alcohol and urea? - wouldn't it be cheaper and more fun to drink lots of gin or vodka and pee on the plants?

We had an office outing Tuesday and Wednesday morning I could have collected a lot of foliar spray from my fellow engineers.

[Blueaussi]

Hydrogen peroxide will also kill all those beneficial fungi that some of us are encouraging to grow.

[David Marek]

Ouch. Good point. I approach indoor culture a lot differently than outdoor. I have tried sifted leaf compost in potting mix, but just because it looks like dirt doesn't mean it's ready to use (think stringy roots and yellow leaves). Regular compost resulted in lots of fungus gnats. So now I only use a peat/ perlite/ bark/ vermiculite mix for seeds. The best cure- all I have observed for an unhappy plant is to bring it outside. Go figure. Kind of cold to do that now.

So I suppose more useful advice is if you use fertilizer, mix it at 1/4- 1/2 strength or less so you don't kill your helpful mycorrhizae fungus. I use 13-2-13 and 13-3-15.

Test that alcohol spray on a few plants and wait at least a week. Sometimes ill effects can be delayed, especially when the sun is in hiding like it has been.

I do think the myco innoculants can be helpful, but there are many different brands and sometimes you have to take what you find. I recently got some BioOrganics endo/ecto myco blend and will use it on one tray of asparagus seedlings, and leave one without to see if it makes a difference.

All these organic/ "natural" things can be expensive, so if they don't help, what's the point? I always like trying new things, so I understand the enthusiam. This is a year of many firsts for me as well.

[amideutch]

Normally, when you water open container plants the water percolates through the aggregate and draws oxygen with it. Hydro Flood and Drain systems basically do the same thing. When the plants are flooded with nutrient solution the CO2 is expelled from the aggregate and into the foliage. When the water drains back it draws oxygen into the root structure. SWC's are a differnt story. Ami