plant sap pH 6.4

Graeme: I’d like to ask you some questions about your sap pH technique. One of the reasons that we travelled all the way to Spokane from Queensland in Australia was because I consider this finding of yours to be a major breakthrough. Our research department has been working with the sap pH concept for the past twelve months and we’ve yet to find an exception to your rule that acidic sap creates a pre-disposition toward disease. If a zucchini in the trial plots has powdery mildew, it’ll always have a sap pH below 6.4. We promote your concept on a wide scale in Australia.

Bruce: Because all cells in all living organisms have an ideal level of each of these elements, there had to be a relationship between the vibratory frequency and the pH of the plant sap because the presence or absence of these elements determines pH. When we found the link, it covered my rear to a certain extent because I was able to get away from talking vibratory frequency and begin talking pH, which everyone was familiar with. It’s not a big step to move from soil pH to plant pH as a valid analysis tool. In essence, I discovered that there was a direct correlation between the hydrogen content in the cell and plant health. At the ideal of 6.4, the hydrogen content of plant fluids is approximately 12%. If you calculate out all of the frequencies attributed to each element - add up their individual frequencies - you’ll come to the ideal frequency of a living plant. If there is more than 12% hydrogen and the plant sap is acidic, it will mean that you have displaced one of those elements and usually it turns out to be calcium or potassium. This displacement alters the vibratory frequency of that plant. So this is how I got into the pH concept in the first place.

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Plant Tissue pH = Energy
By Bruce Tainio

While laboratory soil and tissue tests are good and necessary tools, we often don’t receive the results for several days, or even up to two weeks in some cases. On a growing crop, that can be too late. With this in mind, we developed a diagnosis of plant health based on liquid pH values of plant tissue sap, which has been used in our biological program at Tainio Technology & Technique since 1989.

Simple to use and 100 percent accurate, a quick plant tissue pH test is an instant snapshot of the state of health of any plant and can tell us the following information:

1. Enzymatic breakdown of carbohydrates (sugars) for proper growth and vitality of the plant.
2. Risk potential for insect damage.
3. Risk potential for foliage disease attack.
4. Nutritional balance in the growing crop.
5. Quality of nutrition in the fresh fruit or vegetable crop to be harvested.
6. Shelf storage potential of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The table below is a general guideline to determine what tissue pH means. With this scale we can predict the probability of insect and disease resistance or susceptibility.

The dictionary defines pH as “a number equal to the logarithm of the reciprocal of hydrogen ion concentration within a solution.” That’s a mouthful, but more simply put, pH represents the percentage of hydrogen ions in a solution. In our case, the solution is the liquid of the plant cell, or the sap.

It is important to know that a change in the pH level of a solution of just one unit equals a tenfold change in the hydrogen ion concentration. If the pH is increased or decreased by two units, the hydrogen ion concentration changes by a hundredfold! Thus we can see why what appears to be only a slight shift in pH can spell disaster for the farmer.

A neutral pH of 7 within the cell fluid means it contains 100 percent saturation of cations other than hydrogen (in other words, the sap contains no free hydrogen ions). At a plant’s ideal cellular fluid pH of 6.4, the saturation of cations other than hydrogen is about 88 percent. At 88 percent saturation – principally of calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium – the ionization and activity of these elements generates an electrical frequency of between 7.5 and 32 Hertz, which is one of the “healthy” frequency ranges of all living cells.

To decrease cellular pH to 6.0 is to lower the saturation of the above four principle elements to 80 percent, thus lowering the plant’s frequency to a level of lower resistance to bacterial, fungal and viral plant pathogens.

Studies have shown that insects are attracted to a tree or plant by the tree or plant’s frequency. If the saturation of Ca, Mg, K and Na increases to over 88 percent saturation, the frequency from these ions in the cell are increased, and consequently, insects are attracted to the higher-than-normal cell frequency.

The same process occurs in animal and human cells. Hydrogen accumulation in the cell tissue means the saturation of Ca, Mg, K and Na is decreasing, thus causing the frequency to decline. This low frequency leaves the cell an easy target for disease.

Oftentimes we see both insect and disease problems occurring at the same time. This can happen when insects attack due to a high plant tissue pH, and the tissue becomes weakened in the localized areas of attack. Next, localized, rapid energy loss (a drop in pH) occurs at the insect-damaged spots, resulting in tissue disease attack of those areas on the plant.

When a pH shift of a half point (0.5) or more from the ideal 6.4 occurs in the cellular liquid, a laboratory tissue test should be taken to determine exact imbalances and which materials should be applied.

Tissue pH Rule of Thumb
Low pH + Moderate Brix = Calcium Deficiency
Low pH + Low Brix = Potassium Deficiency
6.4 pH + High Brix = Balance

In the interim, for a quick adjustment to bring up the pH, calcium can be foliar applied in small amounts per acre. To quickly bring down a pH that is too high, on the other hand, small amounts of phosphate can be applied to the foliage. These types of quick fixes are usually only temporary, however, and should only be used while awaiting a complete tissue test analysis.

Like most busy people, we have neither the time nor the patience to puree the two pounds of plant tissue it takes to get enough for a conventional pH meter readings; so we use the Cardy Twin drop pH tester, made by Horiba. With this pH meter, a reading can be taken out in the field in less than one minute. We just take a few leaves, roll them up into a tight ball, and squeeze out a few drops of sap using a garlic press. Be sure and use a good quality stainless-steel press, as a cheaply made garlic press will break.

Generally, the more mature leaves on the plant will give the most accurate picture of the plant’s health, level of resistance or susceptibility to problems. Since the plant spends most of its energy supporting new growth, the pH of new leaves will not reflect the pH of the rest of the plant as a whole.

pH & SUGAR

An indirect method of determining the energy levels of a plant is to measure the carbohydrate (sugar) levels in the cell liquid. For this test, a refractometer is used to determine the level of sucrose in the cellular fluid. This reading is referred to as the brix scale.

Within a given species of plant, the crop with the higher refractive index will have a higher sugar content, a higher mineral content, a higher protein content and a greater density. This adds up to sweeter-tasting, more nutritious food with a lower nitrate and water content and better storage characteristics. Such produce will generate more alcohol from fermented sugars and be more resistant to insects, reducing the need for insecticides. Crops with higher sugar contents will also have a lower freezing point and therefore be less prone to frost damage. Soil fertility needs can also be ascertained from this reading.

The brix levels should not be taken as an exact measurement of a plant’s vitality, but rather as a guideline. Stored sugar is not a cellular energy source until its carbon-hydrogen-oxygen molecular links are enzymatically broken apart. If this line breaks or energy release occurs faster than the cell can use it, then that energy is lost into the air. This condition usually occurs when the liquid pH of the cell is below 6.4 and most often indicates low Ca and high K.

The reverse can also occur – if the links between the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen molecules of a sugar are broken too slowly due to low enzyme activity, the plant becomes starved for the energy it needs for growth. This is usually caused by low manganese or zinc, or from high nitrogen/high tissue pH levels, coupled with drought stress.

As a general rule, we can say that when a plant has a low tissue pH and a moderate brix level, there is usually a calcium deficiency involved. On the other hand, a low pH with a low brix level usually indicates a potassium deficiency. The ultimate goal is to achieve a pH of 6.4 with a high brix level.

Plant tissue pH management is a relatively small but invaluable investment of your time and budget, which cannot only help you prevent disease or insect attacks, it can stop them in their tracks even once they have gotten started. This means better yields, bigger profits and most importantly, less need for chemicals.

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Bruce Tainio is a more recent scientist to enter the picture. His thoughts on major minerals appear to be different from Reams. I think he is both a good scientist as well as being somewhat clairvoyant, similar to Steiner and Reams. However, he does promote mineralization a la Albrecht and uses CEC tests and not Reams tests. This presents a problem for growers who listen to those seemingly opposing views. They become confused and are unsure or just follow one camp and ignore the other. I know this, because I get calls from growers seeking clarification!

There is no need to take sides. Steiner, Reams, & Callahan are all right about the concept of energy. Plants grow from energy, not fertilize, as Reams taught. Albrecht and the others are right about mineralization and mineral balance as applied to most soils. Sometimes, in very high CEC soils, it is more economical to concentrate on biological activation and application of in row or foliar nutrients rather than trying to balance the entire field. If you use both CEC and LaMotte tests as we do here at CSI, you get a broader, better picture and you can make better decisions as to how to proceed.

The biggest difference between Reams and Tainio is the handling of potassium {K}. Reams taught that by emphasizing calcium and phosphorous over nitrogen and potassium in the soil, you would get higher brix crops and better weed control. The basis for the emphasis was on soil availability. However, Tainio found that plants need large amounts of K to express all their potential, including higher brix. His emphasis is on amounts of K in plant tissues. He wants his growers to have CEC levels of K on the upper side of the suggested Albrecht range as well as have them moderate their N usage. He uses the tissue ratio of N:K as his indicator of good balance. When the ppm of N is higher than K, it means you can’t get high brix, manganese can become excessive to the exclusion of zinc, and you won’t achieve the right pH for optimum plant health and resistance. Tainio discovered that pH is reflective of the overall frequency of the plant with 6.4 being optimum. This is in line with Reams when he worked with soil and human health. He wanted his client’s soil and his patient’s urine and saliva pH’s to be close to 6.4.

Tainio foliar feeds K when necessary to correct problems or force a plant to do abnormal things such as having fruit buds and set occur on the trunks and inside branches rather than on the ends as is typical. His foliar feeds can also contain other major and minor minerals.

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Homemade Pest Control - Maintain Robust Plant Nutrition

Without a homemade pest control strategy, why do sapping insects attack a plant?

In a word, “They are invited”.

Just as predators prey on weak and sickly animals, God has created sapping insects to remove malnourished and inferior plants from the system. How do insects know if a plant is malnourished? Through the infrared frequency they emit.

According to research done by Bruce Tainio of Tainio Technologies, a plant that has the full spectrum of micronutrients and the right balance of calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium and hydrogen has a pH of 6.4 in the juice of the leaf. At this pH, the plant emits an infrared color at the frequency of 660 on a nanometer. When sapping insects sense this infrared color, they don’t see the plant as food, and just walk away; homemade pest control without pesticides.

Bruce Tainio tells of a test they did on potatoes to demonstrate this. They used a foliar application to bring half of the field into nutritional balance. Then they released 2,000 potato bugs on each half of the field. On the first half of the field, the potato bugs didn’t even see the plants as food, and left. On the second half that was nutritionally out of balance, they ate ravenously. That is, until a foliar application (organic fertilizer as homemade pest control) was applied to the second half of the field, and the plants on that side were brought up to nutritional balance. Then the potato bugs stopped eating those as well.

Therefore, the key to stop sapping insect problems is to achieve a 6.4 pH in the juice of the leaf. Low pH is generally caused by a shortage of calcium or potassium, which the plant needs for cellular construction. When this happens, the plant compensates by using more Hydrogen. This increased use of hydrogen causes a lower pH in the plant, and a higher infrared frequency. As the infrared frequency reaches 720, insects receive the message from the plant that it is a sick, nutrient deficient plant, and it is dinner time. Using an insecticide is like putting on a band aide and covering up the problem instead of addressing the problem, which is a nutritionally inferior plant.

Here is a quick and fairly easy way to eliminate most sapping insect problems. First, apply a full spectrum of micronutrients in a foliar application. Concentrated sea minerals that are low in sodium work well for this. Low sodium means you can apply much more without burning the plant, and micronutrients from the sea are nicely balanced, without too much of any one mineral. In many instances, just applying the sea minerals alone may eliminate many sapping insect problems, since sea minerals not only have a full buffet of trace minerals, but are also high in potassium and magnesium.

Second, balance out the Nitrogen, Potassium and Calcium in the plant. To do this, first send leaf tissue samples to a laboratory. Don’t pick old leaves or young leaves, but in between. Put them in a paper bag (a bag that can breathe, so they won’t mold) and send them off for analysis. Use your own lab, or you can send them to Midwest lab in Omaha, NE. Ask them to do a plant test complete. When you get the lab results back, look for are the percentages of Nitrogen, Potassium and Calcium. These three should be roughly the same percentage. If one or two are low, feed these nutrients to the crop in a foliar application to help bring the three into balance. In our experience, low leaf pH isn’t usually a shortage of nitrogen, but a shortage of calcium and potassium. For foliar applications, potassium sulfate works well for applying potassium, and calcium sulfate is the calcium of choice. Within days of this application, sapping insects may walk away!

For long-term homemade pest control, you will want to balance the nutrients in the soil. First, you want a good amount of humus in the soil. You can build humus up through adding organic matter and encouraging good microbial activity. Humus is like a sponge that allows the soil to hold more water and nutrients. Second, send soil samples off to the lab, then work on building up the following nutrients to these percentages: 70% calcium, 15% magnesium, 7.5% potassium, and 2% sodium. Avoid heavy applications of nitrogen, as the plant picks nitrogen up much easier than it does potassium and calcium. The plant can substitute nitrogen for potassium and calcium even when the soil has the proper balance of Ca, Mg, K, and Na.

It may take a few years to get the proper balance of nutrients in the soil, but foliar applications as described above can help you to quickly balance out nutrients in the plant while you work on your soil. What is a possible result of this balance of nutrients? Sapping insects just walk away.

Maintaining balanced plant nutrition is your only long term homemade pest control.

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A Systems Approach to Complete Plant Nutrition
by Rebecca Brown

When John Kempf read about micronizing minerals several years ago in an Acres U.S.A. article, something sparked. Having been trained in soils and as a whole farm consultant along with many hours invested in the garden, field and library, Kempf was highly intrigued with the concept of micronization, grinding material to an extremely fine dust, thus making it highly plant available. His natural investigatory nature lead him to discover that there was no supplier of organic micronized mineral programs in the United States. When Kempf set out to build his own micronizing facility, he was told that he could not do so for less than a quarter of a million dollars. Undeterred, three months later he did it for a fraction of that amount.

“We as farmers are responsible for the health profile of this nation. As farmers we can do more to keep people healthy than all the doctors and hospitals combined. Human health is an agricultural issue,” Kempf asserts — and from this guiding philosophy Advancing Eco Agriculture was first conceived, and with the cooperative efforts of Jerry Brunetti and Lawrence Mayhew the business was born.

Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA) based in Middlefield, Ohio, comprises the three partners, who coincidentally all had an independent interest in micronization prior to meeting each other. Kempf, Brunetti and Mayhew believe in the principle that balanced soils and vibrant soil microbe populations are key to producing nutritious foods, which in turn provide complete nutrition to keep animals and people optimally healthy. Their mission is to empower farmers with the knowledge of how to continuously enhance soil fertility and microbe vitality to allow for the production of highly nutritious food that is free from chemical contamination.

BUILDING BLOCKS OF NUTRITION

“Insects are nature’s garbage collectors, and diseases the clean-up crew,” attests Kempf. Like paramedics and hazmat crews, pests and disease are generally only found in “emergency situations” where sick plants have been malnourished. The job of pests and disease is to get rid of these sick plants so that no one eats them and so that they don’t reproduce. Pests and disease are nature’s message that a crop is unhealthy. Rather than addressing the limitations to plant health, people instead often use pesticides and simply kill the messenger. As a consequence we end up eating unhealthy skeletons-of-a-food that are heavily decorated with chemicals and have up to 75 percent less nutrients than pre-industrialized agriculture counterparts.

How can farmers produce food that is healthy and can resist disease and insect attack without the use of synthetic chemicals? It all comes down to having fully functional photosynthesis, which is a prerequisite for complete nutrition. Photosynthesis requires the full spectrum of minerals (along with sun, air and water), which are governed by microorganisms in the soil and on the leaf. Sugars that are produced by photosynthesis are the plant’s primary source of energy for growth and reproduction. They are the base of all plant components such as lignins, pectins, proteins, phyto-alexins, etc. These sugars are also used to create long-chain compounds including carbohydrates, fats, oils and proteins.

The first step of many in protein formation is that the sugars from photosynthesis and nitrogen (from the air and soil) connect together to form short-chained amino acids. Enzyme catalysts are needed for the reaction that connects the links making up this short-chained amino acid. The amino acids are then linked together by enzymes to form peptides. Those peptides are then linked together via enzymes to form what is now a very long-chained compound, called a complete protein.

Each sequential step in this process of protein synthesis requires an enzyme. Each enzyme in turn requires a cofactor to activate it. These cofactors are most frequently trace minerals such as zinc, manganese, cobalt, molybdenum, copper, etc., but can be vitamins or plant hormones. If the cofactor is missing or in short supply, the enzyme is incapable of functioning, incomplete proteins and free/excess/soluble nitrogen are formed, and/or protein breakdown (proteolysis)
takes place.

Kempf ’s philosophy for healthy crop production is to encourage formation of complete proteins, which allow plants to be naturally resistant to disease and insect attack. Complete proteins cannot be digested by crop pests because they lack the enzymes to do so. Insects feed on incomplete proteins (amino acids and peptides) and excess nitrogen. This same principle applies to other long-chain molecules — carbohydrates, fats, and oils. Disease takes hold when the plant immune system is not fully functional often due to proteolysis, soluble nitrogen, or a lack of nutrients or minerals.

Complete long-chained compounds are made by a plant grown in microbially active soil that can supply a complex suite of vitamins and minerals to the plant. “For optimum health plants should uptake their nutrients as microbial metabolites” (microbe by-products) according to Kempf.

There are several techniques AEA uses to assess the mineral levels in a plant. They include an initial soil and tissue test, on-farm observation, Brix readings, and plant sap pH readings. Brix readings have the ability to measure the amount of minerals in a plant, but can give false readings. To insure accuracy, readings must be taken at the same time of day, on sunny days, and when the plant is not stressed. Plant sap pH readings measure the balance of minerals as based on the work of Bruce Tainio. As seen on the accompanying chart, ideal plant sap pH is 6.4. “As the pH varies above or below this ideal level, we have imbalance of minerals and an increased susceptibility to disease or insect attack,” explains Kempf.

Knowing that nutrient availability and microbe activity are big factors in determining plant health, Advancing Eco Agriculture has developed a systems-based approach designed to provide complete plant nutrition with a combination of remineralizing the soil, spoon feeding nutrients, and providing microbial stimulation with a specialty in micronization and biological chelation of liquid substances that complement a balanced dry fertilizer program. A balanced fertilizer is one that provides soluble and slow-release nutrients that encourage a correct proportion and level of plant available elements in the soil, according to Dr. Albrecht’s teachings.

FOLIAR FEEDING

Foliar feeding is sometimes referred to as a band-aid approach or short-cut — a helpful short-term practice to provide nutrients to the plant (via spraying the leaves of a crop with a liquid assortment of nutrient sources) when the soil is not yet balanced and mineralized. While AEA agrees that this concept is largely accurate, and that the soil must also be addressed, they do see a good response from foliar feeding even on healthy soil. They have noticed that using a smaller amount of material less frequently on plants in good soil gives results equal to using larger amounts more often on plants in poor soil. However, Kempf sees an even bigger response to foliar sprays on plants in healthy soil when more material is applied more frequently. The approach a farmer takes on this program is a matter of balancing goals, budget and their timeline.

“Foliars are not always necessary on every farm, but they have a great ability to make the plant stronger so it can exude stronger acids into the soil system, which draws more nutrients from the soil and creates an even healthier plant,” states Kempf. Foliars can be powerful enough to even get plants to deplete a soil, as they accelerate the rate of the plant’s pull of nutrients from the soil. One technique based on this concept is to foliar spray a cover crop prior to incorporating it, as this hastens soil regeneration and cycling of nutrients.

THE MICROBE CONTROVERSY

There seems to be a difference of opinion among those involved in biological agriculture regarding the roles, abilities and limitations of soil microbes.

Kempf believes that the environment determines the degree of expression of genetic potential. Thus, if you dump certain strains of soil organisms into a non-conducive environment where they are few in numbers or absent, those strains will not survive. In addition, introducing microbes without a lasting food source or proper aeration leaves those microorganisms without a chance in competing with resident microbes.

Part of the bio-fortification program, then, is to create a tremendously microbially active rhizosphere (root zone) so that fertilizers will be completely converted to a biologically active form within a short time after application, making the fertilizer input plant available without being water soluble.

AEA’s preference for a microbe (and plant) food source is primarily based on a quality, balanced dry fertilizer program. Their requirements of a dry fertilizer are that they must be microbe-friendly. The soil microbes must be able to digest the fertilizer and make it into a plant available form. But what sets AEA apart is the highly available, full-support plant and soil products they offer, especially their micronization process.

MICRONIZATION & HUMIC SUBSTANCES

When a solid material can pass through a 400-mesh sieve (the finest mesh size commonly available), it has the ability to flow like water. This 400-mesh size is equivalent to 37 microns (one micron equals one-thousandth of a meter, thinner than a human hair). AEA takes solid materials and grinds them down to five microns or less. Some materials are ground below micron size into nanometer size (one millionth of a meter).

Dry and natural fertilizers are comprised of low-water solubility materials, and the rate at which they are absorbed into the plant is governed by microbial activity and digestion of the material. Humic substances are used in order to provide the conditions for these microbe interactions to occur and accelerate. Humic substances (basically highly concentrated humus) are “the core of the microbe system to make nutrients highly bio-available to plants,” says Lawrence Mayhew. This occurs via a natural process called chelation, which involves a nutrient (from fertilizer) bonding with a carbon molecule, which drastically increases in bioavailability (absorption rate) by plant or animal. Mayhew notes, “It is interesting that humic substances are not only necessary to microbial activity, but are also the end result of it — humic substances are the substrate on which microbial activity takes place.”

Consider this loose analogy: a hockey game with numerous pucks. Microbes are the hockey players, and they move nutrients (the pucks) around to each other trying to get them into the plant (the net). All this happens on ice, equivalent to the humic substances in the soil. Take the ice away, and the process is severely hindered. Humic substances also act like the referee — more on that in a bit.

Understanding the importance of humates led AEA to micronize the humic substance called leonardite (Dr. Leonard at the University of North Dakota named the mineral) as a base in many of their products. Chunks of leonardite are hauled in from North Dakota and micronized. This increases its surface area and allows it to be dispersible (evenly distributed) in water, thanks to the use of an organic suspension agent that Brunetti engineered. Once leonardite is dispersible it can travel and move in the soil system.

These attributes of micronized and suspended leonardite are what allow Kempf, Brunetti and Mayhew to work with ingredients that had never before been combined into a single product in the United States. Various sources of nutrients, trace minerals and ultra-trace minerals are micronized and infused into the suspended leonardite to create many of the micronized products that AEA has developed.

The suspended leonardite easily blends with all other plant nutrient products, makes nutrients highly plant available, and even holds in the soil negatively charged ions (anions, such as nitrates, phosphates, borates, sulfate, selenates, molybdates, etc.) that would otherwise be leached out of the soil. Suspended leonardite allows the plant nutrient products to be adaptable to any program, be it foliar sprays, drip irrigation, or soil application. Humic substances also allow for up to 25 percent reduction of purchased nitrogen, and they make fertilizer inputs more effective and available.

MICRONIZATION & MYCORRHIZAE

Humic substances complex with anions in the rhizosphere. Once complexed, more of the anions, especially phosphorus, remain in the soil solution layer between microbes and minerals rather than leaching away. In this root zone the chemical reactions are governed entirely by microbe interactions, with humic substances acting as the referee (remember the hockey analogy). The more humic substances present, the more biological activity, and thus the more nutrients are made available to the crop.

All this activity stimulates the growth of mycorrhizal fungi, which release phosphorus that had been tied up in the organic matter and soil. Mycorrhizae also add organic matter (which is converted to humus) by releasing glomalin, a plant hormone that sequesters carbon and improves structure and health of soils.

Actually, the interaction that micronized minerals have with mycorrhizae is one that distinguishes micronized inputs from most other liquid plant food materials.

When plants are transplanted into the field, a large amount of phosphorus (P) is required to produce a large and healthy root system. This is why in conventional farming a water-soluble P fertilizer is applied in solution at the base of the plant. What this inadvertently does is triggers that plant to sense that enough P is available, so the plant stops sending sugars to the roots to feed the mycorrhizal fungi, and they don’t proliferate.

Eventually the soluble P from the conventional fertilizer becomes unavailable to the plant. It quickly gets tied up in the soil because it is an anion and bonds with trivalent cations such as aluminum and iron (which have a 3+ charge) and divalent forms of calcium (2+ charge). Once the available P has run short, most of the mycorrhizae (which would otherwise have provided the P) are gone, and the plant remains low on P. However, when P is micronized, it is provided at transplanting as a source that is plant available without being soluble, so it doesn’t kill the mycorrhizae, and the plant still gets the needed P overtime.

NUTRIENT BALANCING WITH MICRONIZED MATERIALS

Another unique attribute of micronized products is that they can make inexpensive forms of nutrients highly plant available. Often plants have nutrient imbalances such as excessive nitrogen or low or out-of-balance levels of calcium and potassium. Usually this requires an expensive source that is plant-available (chelated). Most inexpensive sources such as sulfates are not as readily available to the plant and accumulate at excessive levels in plants. “What micronization does is allow us to take individual inexpensive nutrients (for example, in the case of calcium — calcium oxide, calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, etc.) and provide a plant-available calcium with a carrier (oxide/carbonate/sulfate) that does not contribute to plant imbalances.”

Additionally, providing calcium via a foliar does not generally work well unless the calcium is chelated, which AEA does with liquid micronized leonardite. Calcium usually needs to access the plant via the roots because calcium is transported via phloem (rather than xylem, the two of which make up the “nutrient flow tubes” in plants). This means that calcium can travel from the roots to the leaves and fruit but not from the leaves to fruit or roots. That is why calcium uptake is low as a foliar unless the calcium is in a chelated form. Once chelated, then the plant doesn’t recognize it as calcium and will freely transport it via xylem from leaf to fruit or root.

BEYOND MICRONIZATION

AEA has developed other inputs that do not involve micronization but prove to be equally valuable in certain situations. SEA-CROP is a product that “never ceases to amaze me,”states Kempf.“There is just something about this trace mineral and organic substance concentrate which is derived from ocean water that dramatically increases the stress tolerance and rate of photosynthesis in plants.”

Kempf is also enamored with PhytoStim, a cold-pressed seaweed concentrate that contains very high levels of plant hormones, which stimulate plant growth and reproduction. Brunetti states that “Advancing Eco-Agriculture also has very effective micro-biological controls that address diseases, nematodes, and insects.” The frontline of those controls includes a phenolic-based mixture of plant extract phyto-alexins, a neem and essential oil complex, and iodine compounds.

COMPLEX NUTRIENTS = HEALTH

According to Dr. Richard Olree of Michigan and Minerals for the Genetic Code by Charles Walters, 64 minerals are required to form healthy, fully functional human DNA. Bruce Tainio states that plants need up to 59 minerals to produce according to their full genetic potential.

As Jerry Brunetti puts it, “The future of medicine is where it has always been — in a wide diversity of nutrient-rich foods. The future of farms is the ‘farmacy,’ and the future ‘doctors’ will be those who can provide highly nutritious, toxin-free sustenance.”

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c-ray said:

http://publiclaboratory.org/tool/spectrometer

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