Building a soil biological system is the simplest and easiest way to eliminate the use of fungicides and insecticides. As discussed in Reducing Production Costs, it is about feeding the soil and the plant with biological products, and as a benefit, building natural sugars within a plant (Brix level) to produce as high as possible Brix level for that crop.
Each crop/plant has different readings, for example, potatoes usually have a Brix level of between 3 and 8, carrots 4 to 18 Brix, and pineapple 12 to 22 Brix. The standard for blueberries is 7 to 15 Brix. However, a number of our blueberry growers often obtain a reading of 23 Brix. Let’s examine the conditions for an insect attack. The chemistry of the plant determines insect attack as well as the plant’s Brix readings, therefore, a better-balanced soil (as discussed in Improve Crop yield and Crop Quality) will assist in insect repulsion, but a high natural sugar reading, or Brix, is the best deterrent and the natural way to protect your crop.
Plant-sucking insects lack a pancreas to process sugars. Therefore, if an insect were to feed on high-sugar plants, the natural sugars could ferment into alcohol, poisoning the insect from within. Hence, most insects would target crops with lower sugar content. Plants with naturally high sugar levels exhibit greater resistance to insect attacks.
To understand plant pathogenic fungal disease, let us examine what conditions it thrives in and change the conditions and environment to eliminate this effect. Plant pathogenic fungal disease (e.g. rust, algae, mould and fungus) breaks out in a crop when the conditions are right. These conditions generally are low natural sugar content within the plant, low nutrient transfer, and low electrical conductivity. These conditions have to be counteracted in the early stages of growing a crop, when the pathogenic conditions break out it is too late to implement natural growing principles.Any questions email soil@soilcharge.com.au
