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| That is not me in the back yard, just some Amish farmer stealing my secrets of Creation gardening. The Wormhaven Gardening Book - free PDF, share it with anyone. |
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-amish-farmer-replacing-pesticides-with-nutrition/380825/?single_page=true
“In the Second World War,” Samuel Zook began, “my ancestors were conscientious objectors because we don’t believe in combat.” The Amish farmer paused a moment to inspect a mottled leaf on one of his tomato plants before continuing. “If you really stop and think about it, though, when we go out spraying our crops with pesticides, that’s really what we’re doing. It’s chemical warfare, bottom line.”
Eight years ago, it was a war that Zook appeared to be losing. The crops on his 66-acre farm were riddled with funguses and pests that chemical treatments did little to reduce. The now-39-year-old talked haltingly about the despair he felt at the prospect of losing a homestead passed down through five generations of his family. Disillusioned by standard agriculture methods, Zook searched fervently for an alternative. He found what he was looking for in the writings of an 18-year-old Amish farmer from Ohio, a man named John Kempf.
Kempf is the unlikely founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture, a consulting firm established in 2006 to promote science-intensive organic agriculture. The entrepreneur’s story is almost identical to Zook’s. A series of crop failures on his own farm drove the 8th grade-educated Kempf to school himself in the sciences. For two years, he pored over research in biology, chemistry, and agronomy in pursuit of a way to save his fields. The breakthrough came from the study of plant immune systems which, in healthy plants, produce an array of compounds that are toxic to intruders. “The immune response in plants is dependent on well-balanced nutrition,” Kempf concluded, “in much the same way as our own immune system.” Modern agriculture uses fertilizer specifically to increase yields, he added, with little awareness of the nutritional needs of other organic functions. Through plant sap analysis, Kempf has been able to discover deficiencies in important trace minerals which he can then introduce into the soil. With plants able to defend themselves, pesticides can be avoided, allowing the natural predators of pests to flourish.
According to Kempf, the methods he developed through experimentation on his Ohio farm are now being used across North and South America, Hawaii, Europe, and Africa. The entrepreneur promises clients higher-quality crops, bigger yields, better taste, and produce that carries a lucrative “organic” label. Kempf, however, considers his process as an important improvement upon standard organic farming methods. “Organic certification is a negative-process certification,” he explained, “You can do nothing to your field and become certified. In contrast, we focus on actively restoring the balance found in natural systems.”
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GJ - In case you missed it in the caption, here is your free copy of The Wormhaven Gardening Book. I may rewrite it with the newest information in it.
Table of Contents
The summaries parallel the material here, in Teaming with Microbes -
In the human world, we send in the National Guard, to hold the line against criminals . But in soil, the levels of inorganic fertilizer being used, or the constant applications of toxic pesticide sprayed, mean the National Guard of the soil has been killed, too. We have to purposefully restore the beneficial biology that has been lost. Where will the new recruits come from? You have to add them—bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, earthworms, microarthropods— back to your soil. Roots of plants feed these beneficials, but to make sure that the beneficials get reestablished, care packages may need to be delivered.
Soil Foodweb , Inc., helps people rapidly reestablish the biology that creates the foothold for health to come back into these systems; and this book describes these hardworking members of the front line of defense for your plants . Where do they live? Who are their families? How do you send in lunch packs, not toxics, to help the recruits along?
Win back your soil’s health. Put nothing on your soil if you don’t know what it will do to the life under your feet . If there is “no information” about how something impacts the life in your soil, or if the material has never been tested to determine what it does to the organisms in your soil, don’t use the material. If you have already purchased the product, test it yourself.
Lewis, Wayne; Lowenfels, Jeff; (2010-09-10). Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition (Kindle Locations 50-60). Timber Press. Kindle Edition.
The article on the Amish farmer shows a poor grasp of the concepts, but a good idea about the results.
Modern agriculture, promoted by the federal government, has turned agricultural land into a toxic chemical waste dump. Gardening centers promote the same ideas and warn against natural methods of the past.
As I wrote before, I avoided chemicals at the start because they cost so much. The gardener who talks up natural methods will generate donations of useful material, whether from horses, rabbits, or newspapers. Many projects have been funded by free materials. I needed a lot of newspapers for mulching the fence line, and I got them.
They get roses in return, so no one is short-changed.
Our helper said, "I worry about how we are going to do all this, but you read all the time. The bush bloomed, just like you said." He was referring to the second bloom of the crepe myrtle bush. Now it is producing seed and going dormant, so it will be a feeder and shelter for birds a storage locker for insect larvae.
The Amish article focuses on adding certain minerals to fix plant problems, certainly a good idea on a farm where the soil was once soaked in toxins.
My approach has always been to create healthy soil, the foundation for healthy plants. If plants have everything they need, insect damage and plant disease will be minimal.
The Rodale Press organic gardening books were my introduction to Creation gardening. The soil food web material is my second stage of education, far more detailed about life at the microscopic level. I am in a continuous state of wonder about the interaction of fungi, bacteria, protozoa, and nematodes.
Here is a summary of damage I saw while gardening without chemicals:
- Cutworms on the borage, so I tossed the plant away. Roses were not affected.
- Some chewing on the sunflowers, which was trivial once they grew more.
- Some bugs in several gourds. All the rest were perfect.
- A little eating on the white rose blooms, but no other roses.
- A bit of black spot (a fungus) on two roses.
Pole beans and tomatoes were prolific. Roses were - and are - the talk of the town.
