Plant Food 101: What is Foliar Feeding? — Plant Care Tips and More

Natural Plant Food: Foliar Feeding

Fertilizing your indoor plants is an important step in caring for your plants, as it ensures they get the nutrients they need to grow strong and healthy over time.

While most people think of indoor liquid fertilizers to use in the soil, what many don’t know is that your plant can also actually consume food through its leaves, or foliage. This is called foliar feeding, and it’s an excellent addition to your plant care routine.

Here’s a simple rundown on the ins and outs of foliar feeding, the most gentle (and most fun!) method of fertilizing your plants.

Plant Food Through Foliage

It would be understandable to assume that by applying foliar feed only to a plant’s leaves, you would be nourishing its leaves exclusively. But that’s just not the case! The natural, nurturing plant food that you apply to your plant’s foliage travels throughout your plant, boosting its health from root to leaf.

It makes sense: the leaves of your plant do most of the work in terms of photosynthesize. They capture more light than any other part of your plant, and contain the most chlorophyll to absorb it (you can think of chlorophyll as the “net” that captures rays of light and converts them into the sugary carbohydrates that make every part of your plant grow).

Stems and branches also photosynthesize, but to a lesser degree, because they contain less chlorophyll. So when using foliar feed, it is best to focus on applying it to your plant’s leaves.

How to Apply Foliar Feed

One of the great benefits of foliar feed is that, unlike regular liquid fertilizer, it is gentle enough to apply across all of the year’s seasons. Traditional fertilizers like Boost Vitaminé are typically applied during spring and summer, and usually only once every few weeks, and foliar feed can be used in alternation with them.

Our natural foliar feed, Potion Magique, should be diluted with water in a spray bottle or mister. The formula calls for three drops of Potion Magique to be diluted for every eight ounces of water. The spray bottle or mister should then be shaken lightly to mix ingredients. Once blended, the mix can be sprayed directly onto your plant’s leaves and voilà- that’s that! You do not need to wipe the mixture off of your plant’s leaves. Simply allow it to do its work, and enjoy the results.

Our new collection of plant care essentials, L’Alchimie Botanique, comprises a few gold-star products that we know our customers will use and love. From two varieties of plant food (liquid fertilizers) to our organic, olive oil based black soap, L’Alchimie Botanique has all the plant elixirs you crave-- but none has been more hotly anticipated than Potion Magique, our new foliar feed. This gentle indoor plant fertilizer was designed to provide your plant with health-boosting nutrients all year round, and as the name implies, its results are truly magical! But if you don’t spend your time in deep studies of recreational horticulture, you may be at a loss as to what “Foliar Feed” really means. We hear you!