Ask the Plant Doctor – September 2010

Each month V.D. Kaviraj will answer questions about plants and plant problems. Kaviraj is one of the foremost pioneers of Agro-homeopathy and author of the book, Homeopathy for Farm and Garden.

Send your questions with pictures when possible (JPG or GIF format) to [email protected] with the subject “Plant Doctor”.

Note: When I refer to treating plants with homeopathic remedies, this is the standard dosing procedure: Put 20 drops of a 6X potency in a litre of water. Succuss the bottle 50 times. Put this litre in the watering can, fill it up with 19 litres of tap water and stir. If the watering can is smaller, the amount of remedy put in must be proportionally smaller. Thus a 10 litre can needs only ½ litre and just 10 drops of the remedy. Apply the contents of the watering can to the roots of the plants to be treated.

VD Kaviraj has just returned from teaching agrohomeopathy in Bharat, India. He is working with university professors who have a model farm on the campus. Many also come to his student who has been running her own clinic for about eight months.

Dear Dr. Kaviraj,

Recently I discovered your website. I am reading your articles with much interest and did several treatments with good results. I have a tremendous problem: A beautiful Laurier tree, in front of our house, was trimmed by the gardner 3 weeks ago and now all the new offspring are full of insects and drying up. This tree had never problems during 30 years we are living here. How can I help this tree?

Some months ago I bought an electronic vibro-potentizer from Bruce Copen in England, so I can make every potency I need for the treatments. Is your book available in other languages than English?

Henriette Bonda

Dear Henrietta,

This is woolly aphid, (wolluis). To treat it, make Coccinella 6x on your machine and give the remedy as I describe at the top of this column.

My book is in English, but a better version exists in German, if you can read that. Available from www.narayana-verlag.de

Hi Dr. Kaviraj,

As you are aware, there is a huge threat to the Ash trees in the Midwest of the United States which is the Emerald Ash Borer. Currently there is only one proven remedy which of course is a pharmaceutical agent which is expensive and a short-term solution. What suggestions do you have for this?   Thank you for your great work.

Patrick

Hi Patrick,

Borers and other insects that are not on the surface can be counteracted by Thuja, always in the 6X potency, as described at the top of this column. Of course the Agribusinesses have nothing but chemical poisons, which is probably one of the reasons for other problems, such as fungi in chestnuts and maple dieback in Europe. Here some photos of the results of Thuja on trees infested with gallwasp, so that you can see what Thuja can do.

Before treatment showing Gallwasps

Healthy trees after treatment with Thuja

Dear Plant Doctor,

Could you help me understand what disease my soybeans are suffering from, and whether they’re still edible? The pods look like photos I’ve seen of pod and stem blight, but I don’t see any of the black fruiting bodies that are described. The leaves and stems seem mostly normal (a little purplish speckling on some leaves),
it’s just that the pods are turning brown, and the seeds inside look fine. It does look like the tops of the plants have fallen off, and some stems are brown, but no black spots. Thank you so much for your time!
Sincerely,
Jennifer Eckard

Dear Jennifer,

That disease looks like something that plagued the soy in Australia 10 years back, when I was there. To me it appears like Silicea is the remedy.

On the other hand, when soy ripens, the pods turn brown and dry up and the seeds inside stay green. I would not eat soy though, because humans miss the enzyme to digest soy. In Ayurveda it is said to be food for pigs and it has always been an animal feed till some smartass said it was fit for humans and prevents osteoporosis. This myth has been perpetuated by Agribusiness and now they mix it in bread and make so-called soy-milk out of it.

The Chinese know it is not a human food unless fermented with lactic acid and turned into bean curd known as tofu. Then humans can digest it, but the nutritional value is minimal, because the proteins are not fully assimilated.

Dear Kaviraj,

Thank you for your wonderful work. Can you recommend any remedies for Alfalfa Mosaic Virus?

Thank you

Celia Dalton

Dear Celia,

Alfalfa mosaic can be combated by Salicylic acid. Tests done at several agricultural research centres have shown that such is the best remedy.

Kaviraj