[source](Crop HEALTH Transitions- By John Kempf.pdf)
In February 2013 at the Soil Conference offered by NOFA/Mass and the Bio-Nutrient Association, John Kempf spoke of the plant health pyramid he had developed, above.
He spoke of his Amish family’s farm (from my notes):
“In 2005 they were very frustrated that the chemicals weren’t fixing the problems and the yields were so low. They had the use of (and later purchased) 13 adjoining acres that had not had any treatments for many years. They planted cantaloupes running across the old land near a road onto the new land. There were NO pests and diseases on the new land, and the usual losses on the old. Even where the plants from the new land entwined over onto the old land plants, the new land plants were disease/pest free.
So John did a ton of research and reading and told his dad in 2006 they were going completely chemical free. By 2012 they were the top food producers measured by lb/acre in their area and had been for 4 years.”
He also spoke of a farmer (from my notes):
“Larval insects (aphids, leaf hoppers) do not have the enzymes to digest complex carbohydrates. They can’t digest it and it causes fermentation (alcohol and ammonia) in their guts. This causes the insects to explode.
An Ontario potato farmer had a patch near the edge of his field of potatoes. Early in the season there seemed to be a major infestation that had come out of the brush at the edge of the field. They counted 45 beetles/sq. ft. But almost all of them were dead.
Bugs see less healthy plants in a different spectrum than very healthy plants. They will not go to the healthy ones, almost like they can’t see them. But what had happened to the potato farmer was they broke hibernation, were very hungry (think bears) and tried to eat the potato plants anyways.”
These 2 pieces of information stuck in my mind firmly. I was fighting bugs and diseases in my organic garden and had only recently started doing a comprehensive soil test and started amending my soil according to it in 2011.
Prior to that since 1992 I just added lime “because all soil in New England is acidic” and in no set amount, or wood ash “because certain plants like potassium” in no set amount. I had no idea if my soil was deficient or too high in either calcium or potassium. I was badly surprised to discover my soil was severely unbalanced and in those 2 minerals in particular. It was going to take a long time and much work to reverse this.
Potatoes in the Small garden June 2015 – no row cover needed
I’ve grown potatoes out here for over 30 years. Throughout that period I would have Colorado potato beetles each year, sometimes worse one year than another. There are huge potato fields on the other side of town, so no shortage of insects.
Some years these larvas would strip the leaves in a couple days, right to the stalks.
Various plants under row cover in the Big garden, June 2009
For years I used row covers in an often vain attempt to keep the bugs off. After 2013 I’ve not used row covers ever. How did I manage that?
Well, slowly over the years, the gardens’ soil started to become balanced. The bug pressure lessened and I no longer needed the covers. Balancing the soil and reducing stress on plants from seed to harvest were the only changes I made.
Then in 2018 I made an amazing discovery in my potato bed.
That year the bed was on the north edge of the Big garden. I had kept watching for potato bugs, but seldom saw more than one. That was unusual. Potato bugs multiply rapidly and are voracious.
The ones I found were on the edges of the bed. But I wasn’t finding larva, just the beetles. And the damage was very minimal. I was also finding a few dead beetles in the mulch.
In May, before I planted the seed potatoes, I had put down the custom amendment mix for the Big garden.
They were planted 1’ apart but not hilled. I have never hilled because I mulch deeply.
Then I mulched as I always have, avoiding where each potato was planted so it could sprout through the mulch. And that was all I did, except the foliar spray once a week.
This was the minor damage I found on the edge of the bed. I had finally made it to Level 4 of plant health in the garden, and the plants were killing the beetles.
The newest edition of the plant health pyramid explains how plants do this. If you want to check this out, the pyramid can be found at the source here. For more information on how this works, here’s John Kempf’s webinar.
I started writing this in February 2019 after the 2018 season, and for some reason, never finished it. I wanted to reference it in a post about broccoli and could not find it online. So I sat down and listened to John Kempf’s new webinar and got this post finally written.
It’s not been a fast fix for me because I never had a lot of money to put into foliars and leaf testing. Slowly each year I acquired a 50# bag of each of the minerals my gardens required, then moved onto acquiring large containers of foliar ingredients.
I started the foliar spraying once a week in 2014. I’d found a backpack sprayer at a tag sale in 2011. But I never was able to follow through the whole season with the foliars until about 2016. I think this was part of why the plants were able to reach Level 4 in 2018, the foliar spraying had been consistent each week throughout the growing period.
So it was a long time coming, for me, 7 years. But the results are rewarding and I urge anyone serious about raising their own food in a nutrient dense way to start the process now. Depending on your resources and the condition of your soil, the process may be much shorter for you.
Here are the posts I’ve written on soil testing and making your own amendment:
Taking a Soil Test:
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@goldenoakfarm/taking-a-soil-test-december-1-2018-goldenoakfarm
Reading a Soil Test, parts 1 & 2:
https://steemit.com/gardening/@goldenoakfarm/reading-a-soil-test-part-1
https://steemit.com/gardening/@goldenoakfarm/how-to-read-a-soil-test-part-ii
Building the Amendment Mix:
https://steemit.com/gardening/@goldenoakfarm/how-to-read-a-soil-test-part-iii-building-the-amendment-mix