If you have Moringa, you already have an excellent plant to make a foliar spray from. not only does Moringa have a plethora of micros, it also acts as a bio stimulant, because of the amino acids, and natural hormones. ( cytokinins )
More is not better, seems Moringa is powerful stuff, the basic recipe is, a 1:30 ratio of water to moringa. today I am making my first batch.
use young moringa leaves no more than 45 days old. I picked them, enough o fill 1/2 cup compacted , then added them to a blender with some water. I will filter this and add it to a 1 gallon sprayer.
another added benefit is its a natural anti-fungal.
My experiment is to see if this will stimulate flowering in my mangoes , I have read that Zeatin ( cytokinins ) have that ability in other plants. it can also delay fruit maturation so that they have longer shelf life and get bigger on the tree.
I also have a poor looking Meyer lemon tree, that was at work on the porch, leaves are small and yellow, I never have given it any minors , only what was included in a basic 6-6-6 fertilizer granules.
Moringa leaf extract (MLE): a natural plant growth
enhancer: Leaves of M. oleifera are rich in zeatin, a
cytokinin in addition to other growth enhancing
compounds like ascorbates, phenolic and minerals like
Ca, K, and Fe that makes it an excellent crop growth
enhancer (Anjorin et al., 2010).
Moringa leaf extract is best used as plant growth
enhancer (Phiri & Mbewe, 2010). Foidle (1999) carried
out a project named “Biomasa” to grow moringa and
explored the foliar effects of its extract at three different
concentration i.e., low (12.5 g MLE in 100 mL water),
medium (25 g MLE in 100 mL water) and high (50 g
MLE in 100 mL water) on radish and bean (25 mL per
plant). It was reported that medium level of MLE was
more effective than other treatments. There was an
increase of 94% in radish and 65% in bean because of
MLE application.
Lab experimentation had shown that moringa spray
had a wide range of beneficial effects on plant crops.
Effects of spray indicated accelerated growth of young
plants. Plants were firmer, more resistant to pests and
disease, longer life-span, heavier roots, stems and leaves,
produced more fruit, larger fruit, increase in yield 20-35%
even if a fraction of these results could be reproduced in
the field it could be a great help in increasing food
supplies for millions of hungry people (Foidle et al.,
2001).
[url=http://[url]http://www.anancy.net/documents/file_en/moringawebEN.pdf]
[url]http://www.anancy.net/documents/file_en/moringawebEN.pdf]http://www.fspublishers.org/jass/past-issues/JASSVOL_8_NO_3/10.pdf]
[url=http://[url]http://www.anancy.net/documents/file_en/moringawebEN.pdf]
[url]http://www.anancy.net/documents/file_en/moringawebEN.pdf[/url]
in cashews it has been shown to control powdery mildew, increase production in veggies, seems no matter what its used on , it has some benefit .
I have also seen videos of people making homemade seaweed sprays, they just collect seaweed, wash it to remove the salt, blend it etc.
and finally, there seems to be a lot of hoopla over comfrey last couple of years or so.
http://www.comfreybocking14.co.uk/why permaculture folks love comfreyThis is not the wild comfrey that is invasive, the bocking 14 comfrey is sterile. not sure how these do in the tropics, but it seems to have the same fertilizing nutrient levels as manure.
