Feeding your tropical plants through their leaves

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All plants need food and water. Tropical plants, especially here in the desert, definitely need it. In addition to using dry plant food, it's good to feed your plants through the leaves, with a mixture of water-soluble plant food and water.

For many years I did this by filling up one of those hose-end sprayers with something like Miracle Grow and watering everything. A few years ago I moved the hose to the other end of the garden and realized that I didn't do the foliar feeding as often, as it was more of a hassle to do it. Dragging a heavy hose around is a real drag for me, especially with my bad ankle!

But I bought something on impulse yesterday at Home Depot, a two-gallon plastic watering can. At first I thought I would take the "rose" off of the end, but when I tried it, I was surprised. It really does do a nice little shower of water! It takes some practice, you have to be sure not to over-fill it, or it will spill out when you tilt the can, but it really does work. How about that?

So now I have gotten back to foliar feeding. For a container this size, I am adding one or two small scoops of the water-soluble plant food. It doesn't have to be Miracle Grow, any brand works fine. I have always used a lot, so I look for it on sale, or at Big Lots.

A plastic watering can like this can be easily filled at the kitchen sink, where I have moved the plant food to be handy, and then you can go out and do some very precise foliar feeding.

Excuse me, I'm gonna go do some now.

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