There continues to be a considerable amount of controversy associated with the use of glyphosates like Roundup. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly found traces of glyphosate in many common foods, according to agency emails obtained by The...
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Plant Metabolism and Disease Reduction
In both animals and plants, susceptibility to disease is the result of metabolic problems. As we mentioned in last week’s newsletter, the overwhelming majority of chemical pesticides are nitrogenous and often chlorinated as well. The traditional balance between...
Practical Alternatives to Chemical Fungicides
Some fungicides known to be effective in vitro against Erwinia amylovora,the first bacterium proved to be a pathogen of plants,turn out to be wholly ineffective against Fire blight in orchards. What we’re learning is that many anticyptogamics, or anti-fungus agents,...
Getting Pest Control from Healthy Plants
The nutritional balance of the soil and its unique micro community work together to keep plants healthy. It’s no different with human beings - you can take all the supplements in the world, but if you’re not healthy to begin with then they will have a negligible...
Soil Stability = Crop Insurance
If our bodies were small enough to enter the tiny passages in the soil, we would discover a world populated by a wild array of creatures, all fiercely competing for every leaf, root, fecal pellet and dead body that reaches the ground. We would also find predators of...
Organic Matter Is Key to Improving Crop Margins
Many of our farms have declined to 1 percent or less organic matter in their soils. That’s alarming when the pasture land right next door likely has 5 to 6 percent organic matter. In my past newsletters, I’ve addressed over-tillage, lack of cover crops, and high...
Micronutrients Help Plants Battle Environmental Stress and Disease
Crops require 16 essential elements to grow properly. Three elements -- carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (0) -- are derived from air and water and comprise 94.0% to 99.5 % of fresh plant tissue. The remaining 13 nutrients, which come from the soil in the form of...
Big players preach soil biology at Biocontrols Conference
I just returned from the Biocontrols Conference held just outside San Diego, in Carlsbad. This is the second time I’ve attended this conference, and it’s a very well run event. There was a panel discussion involving Materra Farming Company, Duncan Family Farms,...
Let It Breathe: The Importance of Soil Respiration
Healthy soils have a high rate of respiration. Soil respiration refers to the production of carbon dioxide by soil organisms. This includes respiration of plant roots, the rhizosphere, microbes and fauna. The concentrations of both O2 and CO2 are largely dependent on...
Making It Stick: Glue-Making Fungi Build Crucial Soil Aggregates
The function of soil is to help grow crops by holding water and supplying nutrients. We all know how important it is to have soil that can “breathe.” The roots of a plant will die without oxygen. In a process that creates vital “spacing” in the soil, bacteria use glue...