Pure Prairie Farm

Sugar is a nice insecticide.

Insects don’t have a pancreas so when they eat sugar it does not digest,
it ferments.  The by-product of fermentation is alcohol and aldehyde
and the insect gets an upset stomach or dies of alcohol poisoning.

Plants also make their own insecticides.  These compounds are
called phytoalexins.

Look here;  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoalexins
and here     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_defense_against_herbivory
(look under ‘types of chemical defenses’ )

These compounds are secondary plant metabolites;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_metabolite

which means they are made *after* the primary compounds that provide
for growth, reproduction and development.  The key to getting secondary plant metabolites
produced in the plant is to have soil nutrients 1) optimized and 2) available.

The nutrient plants need in the greatest amount is available calcium.  Cell walls have a
calcium pectate covering on them, calcium facilitates the movement of minerals into
and out of the cell and also calcium is needed to convert carbohydrates into proteins.

It’s this last one that is crucial.  If you look at the reference on secondary plant metabolites
it mentions that most of the compounds are made of amino acids which are complex carbohydrates
with nitrogen and minerals in the center.  Calcium is needed to convert the raw materials into
these complex compounds.

Biology books say that plants inhale CO2 and exhale O2.  What the plant is actually looking
for is the “C” or carbon.  Plants convert this carbon to sugar (glucose) thru photosynthesis.

Here is what the books don’t say; the atmosphere only has 20% of the
carbon that plants actually need.  From a plants point of view, it is always 80% short
of carbon.  No carbon means no carbohydrates which means no complex carbohydrates
which means no amino acids which means no secondary plant metabolites or phytoalexins
which means the plant is severely undernourished and vulnerable to attack by insects.

Plants that are well mineralized are able to carry out the sophisticated process of photo-
synthesis and production of secondary plant metabolites which can be seen in the plant
sap as mineralized sugars.  We can measure this with an optical instrument called a refractometer
which measures light defraction.  This measurement is called Brix.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brix

Here is a breakdown of the major minerals that plants need;

1) Potassium (together with sodium) regulates water pressure both in the cells and in the plant.  It
also determines stem thickness, number of fruits and size of fruits.

2) Phosphorus makes the sugars.  The first step in photosynthesis is light striking a phosphorus
molecule (ATP).  Also, phosphorus is the transport mechanism for movement of minerals inside the plant.

Minerals cannot move around inside the plant by themselves.  They need a taxi driver.  At the root tip,
phosphorus hooks up with the minerals like taxis outside the airport.  Copper becomes
copper phosphate and moved thru the plant.  Iron becomes iron phosphate.  Zinc becomes
zinc phosphate, and manganese phosphate, etc. So even if we have minerals available and waiting
inside the root, without phosphorus the minerals cannot translocate anywhere.  Just like passengers
outside the terminal with no taxis or limos.  Usually the fastest way to raise brix is to add
phosphorus.  Partly for the ATP molecule but mostly because now there are enough taxi drivers
to deliver minerals to the cells so they can make mineralized sugars.

3) Nitrogen is the mineral at the center of amino acids.  Almost every compound will have a nitrogen
at the center.  Also nitrogen is the most important electrolyte which means it is a carrier of
energy.  Plants need energy to metabolize (assemble) all these building blocks.  Nitrogen will
also carry water into a plant.  Chemical fertilizers high in nitrogen and potassium will make plants
that have too much water and make bloated poorly mineralized cells that are sitting ducks for insects
and diseases. High nitrogen chemical fertilizers, by themselves, are like breakfast cereal; they give
the plants energy but not health.

4) Calcium is needed to convert carbohydrates into proteins and also neutralizes some of the acids
produced inside the plant which will improve the flavor.  This is one way that calcium helps take
away bitter pit.  Flavor  in fruits and vegetables is very complex and many proteins, oils,
sugars, and minerals are involved.  Calcium is needed to produce all of these compounds.

5) Carbon is a main building block for carbohydrates which is then assembled and used everywhere.

Once we get the majors in place, plants do pretty well and small amounts of micronutrients will
have great effect.

Plant based insecticides may include Rotenone and Pyrethrin and Neem but variations of these
are made by the plants themselves if it has the raw materials.

Other products like kaolin clay (Surround) make a physical barrier to some insects.  Traps and lures
also work very well with many insects.  Some insects are repelled by essential oils of garlic, cedar,
cinnamon or others.

But insecticides only buy time.  They do not solve the problem.  Plants make their *own* insecticides!
And insects get an upset stomach when they suck on highly mineralized sap or leaves.  Until we correct
the underlying malnutrition, the insects will just come back.

Diseases are the easiest to control.  Plants make an enzyme that dissolves the cell walls of pathogens. (!)
The mineral at the center of the enzyme is copper.  If our plants are getting diseases, automatically we
know it is a copper deficiency.  Copper and zinc are the two minerals most involved in the production
of phytoalexins.  Before WW2, my grandfather used to pound a small copper nail and a zinc nail into his
elm trees to help control Dutch Elm disease.  Copper and zinc nails are roofing nails.  Even back then, they
knew that copper and zinc were involved in disease resistance.  And a little dab will do ya.  Too much and
we kill the plant.

Last autumn my raspberries got dry and I set up an overhead sprinkler for water and left it on overnight.
(Oops!)  The next day botrytis showed up on my fruit and some of the flowers.  I fed the plants a foliar mixture
of; copper, zinc, boron, iron, manganese, powdered milk (calcium gluconate), yogurt (calcium lactate)
soda pop (phosphoric acid and sugar), fish(complex carbohydrates, oils, proteins and trace minerals)
seaweed (68 trace minerals with 98% availability as well as a plant hormone called cytokine which
is a plant destresser) and karo syrup (glucose).  Within hours the disease was stopped.

I had no problem with late blight on potatoes or tomatoes when the plants received this food
once a week.  I missed one week and both crops were heavy with fruit and the late blight hit but I
was able to stop it.

Here is a plant secret; plants consume 50% of their total nutrients for the year between flower and
fruit.  The closer we get to ripening the more food plants consume.  It’s common for diseases and
insects to hit close to ripening time because there is an enormous transfer of nutrients in order
to produce a seed.  A malnourished plant will get wiped out.

Diseases like fire blight, pythium, rhizoctonia, fusarium, anthracnose, blight, botrytis, alternaria
and the others are very easy to control with plant nutrition.  It doesn’t matter if it is bacterial or
fungal.

So what should we do?  Brown leaves are high in phosphorus, potassium and carbon.  I use lots
of bone meal (calcium phosphate), lime (calcium carbonate), gypsum (calcium sulfate),
and a biological activator called Biozome ( www.biozome.com )  which are microbes in
a class called “archae” and they are SUPERIOR digestors.  They easily double the nutrient
availability of the minerals in the soil and they dominate any pathogens in the soil such
as late blight.  Small amounts of horse manure (mushroom compost) are ok for nitrogen but
sometimes it can be high in sodium so I am careful with it.  It has a high energy tho which
gives a nice bump to plants when applied in mid season.

One percent of organic matter contains 30 pounds of nitrogen.  Our soils are about 5% organic
matter so if we can get the nitrogen unlocked from the soil then we don’t need to to buy it.
Digesting microbes are the ones to do that and they need a high calcium environment which is
one of the reasons I need so much calcium to the soil.

Ok, I will stop here but I will write more at another time.

The ingredients we use to get plant health are actually kind of simple but the biology behind it is complex.

Sometime I want to explain why insects like to attack landscape plants in 1)mid May and 2) mid August.
The biology behind this phenomenon is fascinating.

Take care!

Bill