Good Food. Red delicious apples, fresh-picked carrots, ripe garden peas, fresh sweet corn - all enliven our senses to the thought of their sweet flavors. They not only taste good, they are good for us. We humans are a product of our surroundings and past experiences. Our bodies subconsciously, and consciously, tend to desire food that is good for us. It knows what it needs. Inventive food manufacturers have learned well how to prey on some of these cravings, but the primitive intuition of the body’s seeking for its needs is ever present. We must become the growers of nutritious food by allowing the plants to fulfill their full nutritional value through our careful tending of their needs. Growing nutritious Good Food, not just plants to eat is our objective.
Growing high quality food is our objective; plant management is the vehicle to that success. What defines a good plant, what tools do we have, what do we want to avoid, and how do put together a system of success are the questions to explore in our quest to good food and good health.
We must define how we will show which food is better for us. It can be said, “an apple is an apple, they’re all the same.” This is marking a stereotypical response similar to comparing car to a horse. Apples are all different- different varieties, different colors, different sizes, different tastes, and, of course, different nutrient content. We shall key in on the last item- nutrients. Nutrients, the basis of nutrition, are the key to good food. We want to fill our plants full of good nutrients. Plants given an environment with all the needed nutrients in a form available to them allow them the ability to construct all of the complex compounds intended as written in their genetic material. We need a multitude of carbohydrates, fats, sugars, and proteins for our own nutrition. Guess what, plants make those for us if they have the correct nutrition. On that note, take two apples. One is grown in balanced soil with adequate and varied nutrients. The other is assaulted with a couple nutrients in high amounts with the purpose of making it grow big and bulky without a proper balance of nutrients availed to it. Which one would you bet fulfills this statement better, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
What are key indicators of good food? In general, good food is healthy plants. Healthy plants are healthy because they are not infected by disease or pests. Healthy plants are not infected by disease or pests because they are healthy. “Fortunate because they are able.” Able to defend themselves, that is. Plants are stationary beings. They can’t hide when danger lurks around the corner. They will form symbiotic relationships with soil biology to defend from bacterial or fungal attack. Genetically, they can grow physical defenses preventing attack. Plants must be given the mineral nutrients allowing the full defense mechanism to take effect. A healthy plant is key indicator of good food.
We can measure the health of a plant. One method is to meaure the Brix of the sap. Brix is a measure of the dissolved solids and/or sugar of the plant sap. A high Brix shows that the plant is able to draw nutrients from the soil easily as identified by a good concentration of dissolved solids. A low Brix shows that the soil nutrients are less available to the plant and the plant is “empty” of nutrients. A high Brix repels insect attack - discussed later. Another measure of plant health is sap pH. This will indicate the cation uptake by the plant. And lastly, for full picture of plant health, take a tissue test of the plant. This can enable you to see how the plant is taking up nutrients and what if any nutrients are lacking or less available to the plant. This is a good snapshot of what the plant is seeing and may offer short term opportunities for remedy or at least allow for better management of the next crop. It is important to remember that just because a plant is big and has a deep green color it does not necessarily mean that it is healthy. That color and growth can be artificially induced. Measuring plant health is easy and offers good insight into the plant’s world and your management needs.
There is an insect repellent factor to high Brix. A high Brix correlates to high sugar content. High sugar content repels insects because of a simple concept. If an insect, which does not have a liver to process sugar, consumes a high sugar sap, the sap turns to alcohol and the insect will die. In a “watery” plant the insect may consume freely. An insect would rather die than eat a healthy plant; take a look at your garden to see for yourself. High Brix and healthy plants also have different UV light patterns and electrical charges “telling” insects to stay away. Nature is designed to destroy unhealthy plants. Foliar feeding is a tool that allows control of plant nutrition and pests through an efficient fertilization process.
Your agronomic toolbox is as big as the grey matter between your ears. Growing a good crop requires some thinking more than anything. The cultural practices you employ along with good varietal selection and a stroke of luck with the weather will give you success. Managing for success will also require inputs for soil health and fertility. You will also need items to manage plant health throughout the season. Equip yourself with knowledge and a few items to complete the task.
You have many choices for soil fertility. The key with the choice of materials is to pick those that will not harm soil life or the plant. Start with a soil test - a very good tool. This will give you an idea of what nutrients to provide. Take a look at the soil.
- Is it too wet or too dry?
- Does it have that nice crumbly texture?
- Are there earthworms present?
- How is the decomposition process?
- Does the soil have a nice dark color indicating high organic matter?
These are questions and situations to evaluate. We can work a soil into shape by providing compost, maybe fresh manure, rock phosphates, lime as needed (for pH control and to provide calcium and magnesium nutrients), and other rock minerals as needed. To increase soil biology, we can maybe grow a “green manure” - a crop grown just to work back into the soil while it is green and growing. Green manures help the soil biology and soil tilth. We may choose to inoculate the soil with good biology by using compost as mentioned or brew some aerated compost tea. There are many tools to improve soil fertility and biology.
There is a key point to remember when developing a nutrient plan. You want to balance the soil; the balance is of all the nutrients, not just nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The flaws of the NPK “only” concept are numerous. It's its own discussion that I won’t go into here. We want to get the balance of all 16 elements needed by the plant in a form that will allow the plant to intake. We may not need to add all of those elements. We have the tools, soil amendments, to correct these situations. One thing you can do is make a perfect soil test, but it doesn't assure success. You need to combine the nutrient management program with a system to sustain good biology. The biology, the 100 million to 2 billion organisms in each teaspoon of good soil, are major players to providing nutrients to plants. They convert rock powder nutrients into plant-available forms and they also hold nutrients as such. Cultivating your soil’s biology is as important as the nutrients you add. As mentioned, green manures and good compost are excellent tools to achieve this task.
It is also important to not hurt your biology. Some of the important tasks in managing your soil biology are:
- Build organic matter to regulate soil water and air
- Avoid compacting your soil
- Don’t bombard the crops and soil with chemicals
- Avoid working the garden soil when it is too wet or too dry
Good soil nutrient management and maintaining good soil biology will help make your crops healthier.
Another tool we may use for plant health and mineral intake is a foliar feeding program. We can use this method as a way to “spoon feed” the crop throughout the season. Foliar feeding is not a new concept. Research I have seen has shown some nutrients are absorbed through the leaf of the plant at up to 20 times the rate that it can be taken up through the soil. Translation of that is some nutrients require 20 pounds when applied through the soil but only needed one pound when foliar applied to obtain the same mineral uptake in the plant. Some products used for the foliar feeding include fish hydrosylate, fish emulsions, molasses, sugars, kelp and absorbed mineral powders. Foliar feeding enables me to get plant to intake the nutrients better and “fill up” plants with nutrition.
What do we want to avoid when planning and managing for the growth of healthy plants and quality food? Simply said, anything that corrupts the system. Natural systems have been around longer than synthetic compounds. Nature has developed its own system to maintain a homeostasis of plants, insects, and diseases. Unobstructed natural systems will protect “worthy” plants and destroy “unworthy” ones. The whole system of checks and balances exist to see to it this occurs. Nature will produce antibiotics, alleopathic compounds and other defense mechanisms to protect plants and animals. Alternatively, nature will send in the “troops,” grasshoppers, aphids, slugs, other pests and diseases. to destroy unhealthy ones. It is our job to not disrupt these systems or introduce compounds upsetting the balance.
Why don’t we want to use synthetic chemistries - toxic rescue chemistries? They can disrupt the delicate balance. If they must be used, one must ask the question, “Why do we need to use them?” The answer to that question is often something we did ourselves, knowingly or not. We don’t need herbicides as much, if at all, if we manage the soil and nutrients. Charles Albrecht’s Soil Fertility research has shown that if we manage the cation base saturation on the soil colloid, we can reduce weed pressure. If our soil has low organic matter and we work it while it’s too wet we can develop anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic conditions allow some weeds to flourish; for example foxtails will only emerge in anaerobic conditions. Good soil biology also works to consume weed seeds. A little soil management combined with some mechanical control will control weeds without chemicals. It is fact that the soil weed bank is NOT directly related to weed pressure. If you use herbicides, remember that you might be killing natural soil biology or disrupting natural balances and setting yourself up for ongoing problems. As mentioned earlier, insects don’t want to eat healthy plants. Manage the plants and avoid the insects. Insects are more of a plant nutrition problem than anything. Fungal and bacterial problems operate under similar context. Develop good plant nutrition and soil biology to control problems without having to introduce potent toxic rescue chemistries to the delicate natural balance.
Plant diseases, insects and weeds are going to happen even in a healthy soil and plant environment. Let’s face it, we won’t do everything right and at times nature won’t cooperate. It is easiest to control the weeds when they have just emerged and are most vulnerable. Our goal is to let the crop always be ahead of the weeds. If we are unable to achieve this, we can resort to heavy mechanical control capable of controlling that size of weed. One option to consider when weeds overwhelm the crop is to destroy the crop and start over. When facing the situation of a poor crop and difficult harvest we may be better off knocking it all out, using it as a green manure and starting over.
Insects and disease pose a different challenge. There is the possibility we may be better off destroying the crop as mentioned previously, but we do have some beneficial tools to try first. Keep in mind that we don’t want to add any chemical to unbalance and disrupt the system. There are natural control methods and sprays available to control insects without killing the beneficials. One option is to release beneficial insects to control the target pest provided they won’t kill other beneficials. There are some natural compounds that control target pests. Some insect control products include garlic and natural tree oils. Many synthetic insecticides are designed to kill many varieties of insects without regard to the beneficials that would keep future populations in check. The key to a successful pest control program is to control the pest while not disrupting the natural system.
Bottom line: this all comes down to making the best food possible. This Good Food is the foundation to being healthy ourselves. Some of the wise choices made growing good food also help make a healthier planet. The responsibility we undertake when growing food is immense and to disregard the consequences of poor production practices and lower quality food is dangerous. Every single person on this planet needs food. It is known fact that those who eat healthier are healthier. Those who lack essential nutrients become sick. Growing organic, nutrient-dense food makes for better plant health, better planet health and better human health. We can avoid having to consume chemical-laced foods by better managing the soil and plants. We can increase food nutrient content through soil health and nutrient management. We can improve our health by eating good nutrient-rich food. Farming is harvesting the solar energy and converting it into food for animals and humans. Nothing says we need to use synthetic chemicals, sick plants and stock, and nothing says it needs to be difficult. Reducing it to its lowest means and meeting the basic needs allow us to grow good food well. The world is ever changing and the Green Revolution has came, but is it leaving? The next agricultural revolution to produce good food may be upon us. Let’s not forget that was the original intention of nature. Let's not forget the simple truth is our existence depends on how well we take care of the soil.
“A man should farm as if to live 1,000 years, but live as though he were to die tomorrow.” –unknown
Happy organic growing!