The Plant Doctors July 2015

Our plant doctors Radko Tichavshy, Mark Moodie and Pawan Singhania weigh in on your plant problems.

                                                                        

Radko TIchavsky           Mark Moodie            Pawan Singhania

Radko Tichavsky is a Czech born Mexican Agrohomeopath. He is a co-founder and director of Instituto Comenius in Mexico and author of Handbook of Agrohomeopathy, 2007 (Spanish) and Homeopathy for Plants, 2009 (Spanish) and creator and teacher of Holohomeopathy. http://icomenius.edu.mx/index1034.php?lang=esp   El 04/12/2014, a las 15:36, Radko Tichavsky [email protected]

Mark Moodie hosts the website Considera which provides a growing M.M and Repertory for plants and discusses resources for biodynamics and Agrohomeopathy The website allows the world community to contribute their experiences in planting.

Agrohomeopathy Course!

Radko Tichavskyi is now offering a one semester virtual course in Agrohomeopathy (in English). You can learn how to define and analyze holons and how to repertorize the specific homeopathic treatment beyond just disease or pest names. You can find out more here:   www.icomenius.edu.mx

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Mark Moodie hosts the website Considera which provides a growing M.M and Repertory for plants and discusses resources for biodynamics and Agrohomeopathy The website allows the world community to contribute their experiences in planting.

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Hi sir,

I need some advice about my poor orange tree! Oranges drop suddenly by splitting after heavy rains. Before the rain there is extreme summer days, temperature about 46 degrees. Also, fruit scab and distorted size. The rind splits when water and sugars are transported from the roots of the tree to the ripening fruit and the rind is unable to expand quickly enough to accommodate the added volume.

• Splitting seems to be caused by a combination of factors including extreme fluctuations in temperature, humidity, soil moisture and fertilizer levels
• Splitting varies seasonally and is usually greatest where crop load is heavy
• Split usually starts at the blossom end of the fruit (which is the weakest point in the rind)
• Split can be short and shallow or deep and wide, exposing the segments of the juice vesicles (Fig. 1,2-4)
• Fruit on young trees is more prone to fruit-splitting, than fruit on older trees

Thank you,

Laeeq Ur Rahman  

 

Radko Tichavsky:

Dear Laeeq,

The split of orange affects younger trees because their root system is not big enough to absorb large amounts of water. It is important not fertilize trees during the rainy season (the most contraindicated are the fertilizers with high nitrogen content in this case). Carbo vegetabilis 6 CH and Berberis vulgaris 12 CH may be sprayed previous and during the rainy season, mixed with water and little vegetalble oil as carrier (olive oil for example). Other useful remedies for the symptom of split in oranges are: Chenopodium 12 CH, Lupinus 6 CH  Symphytum 6 CH Ipomoea purga 12 CH and Pyrus communis 12 CH also Teucrium 6 CH and Verbena officinalis 6 CH and Acidum nitricum 30 CH. If you have few trees produced near you home, you can add a little coffee grounds on the soil.

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Greetings Plant Doctors,

A little bug called the Black Vine Weevil (see pic) is eating the leaves of several different plants in our garden. The weevils are just under one inch long and flightless. The larvae are smaller and attack the roots. What can be done? We live in Iowa, U.S. which has cold winters and moderate rainfall.

Thank you

Damian Adamiak

 

Radko Tichavsky:

 

Dear Damian,

You can use beneficial fungus Beauveria bassiana or Metarhizium anisopliae in the soil to reduce the infestation, then apply a nosode made from soil at 6 CH potency (you have to prepare it from your specific soil), and then apply Azadirachta indica 12 CH on the soil. July is the moment of emergence of adults but also of egg laying and emerging of weevil larvae.

You can also prepare the nosode of adults and larvae and apply it at the 12c potency on the soil.  Nosode of pre-pupas and adults is a very powerful remedy. It attracts beneficial nematodes like Steinernema and Heterorhabditis spp. (natural enemies of Otiorhynchus sulfates called “weevil”) from your holon. If you want to maximize your nosode action, you can prepare “live nosode”. This is prepared completely in physiological saline, which you can buy at any pharmacy and only the last potentization is prepared in alcohol of 30% . Than dilute it in water in 1:20 proportion and apply over the soil.

 

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Hello Plant Doctor,

I have Peony (Paeónia) flowers. Green beetles eat its leaves. What homeopathic preparations can I use?

Evgeniya  

 

Radko Tichavsky:

Dear Evgenyia,

It is difficult to make a diagnosis without the photo, but you can try Tagetes erecta 6 CH (homeopathic remedy from the Marigold flower) and spray it over the plant and also on the soil. Increase irrigation and spray “soil tea” over the insects and plants. Soil Tea: Put some soil in a cloth bag and then submerge the bag in water until it turns a brown color) Also apply Calcarea carbonica 6 CH sprayed over the plant.

 

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Dear Plant Doctor

Thank you for your brilliant column. I have been following it already for two years, and try to practice homeopathy in my garden. I had a bit of knowledge of “human” homeopathy, but agrohomeopathy for me is most of the times more difficult.

1. This year I followed Christine Maute’s recomendations for growing tomato seedlings, which is using alternately Calcium Carbonicum D6 and Magnesium Phosphorus D6 for one week and then repeating after one week. My tomatoes are perfect (until now) but it happened that I gave the same remedies to cucumber and pumpkin seedlings They reacted very badly. When they came out, they were excellent quality, but then with third, fourth leaf, they started to become yellow, then the older leaves had the part of them dried out, with just the veins left. After fourth time of remedies I stopped, but they didnt get really better. What have I done wrong? All of them were grown in standard soil for vegetables (Holland standard), they grew on the same window sill (maybe there were too much sun for cucumbers and pumpkin?) and all of them were good watered.
2. Could you please write an article about holons? I would be very happy to read Radko’s book in English. Is there any hope?
3. Are there any rules for potencies in agrohomeopathy? I usually use 30c potency, because I have this kind of remedies at home.
4. I have problems with raspberries. January of this year I planted them. They were not in pots but “naked root” plants. In April and May a few times the raspberries were under the water (wind blown from the lake). Later I noticed that two of the raspberry plants had dried out leaves that fell off and now there are just few branches and nothing else (but the plant itself still has a bit of life). The rest of raspberries have quite pale green/yellowish leaves, do not really grow and looks like they struggle to survive. I gave some partly composted leaves, some more peat and some preparation of soil microorganisms. Temperatures are quite mild (never really hot or cold). As I have a very small garden, raspberries grow next to Thuja occidentalis hedge and there is big oak (I do not know the variety) quite close too. The place is generally sunny with late morning, midday and a bit of evening sun. After my repertorisation, I decided at first to use Lycopodium. I used once 30c. Then after a month I used once Silicea and that’s all, but there is no great improvement (no further decline as well).

 

Now a bit of my success stories!

I have very good experience with Helix tosta. I have to use it every year, but at least now I have some peas and strawberries.

Last year I used Gelsemium on my blackberry. It had yellowish pattern on leaves and didn’t really grow. This year it is full with berries and has grown enormously.

I had scaly insects on laurel “trees”. They were also puny, didn’t grow and within two years had maybe 10 new leaves each of them. I used Petroleum, once last year and one more time this year. Now I understand that you can call Laurel a tree! By the way, one of the three Laurels reacted immediately, the other two were slower (one of them is still not really in shape, at least if I compare them to two others).

I had scaly insects on indoor ivy. I tried the same Petroleum, but it didn’t help so I tried Staphysagria with big success. It has still some scaly insect, but ivy started to grow finally and there are no insects on new leaves and branches.

I had big problems with aphids. My red currant plant was completely covered in them (at least new shoots). Cimifuga helped a bit, but I lost that remedy. Then I used Coccinella without success (but it looks it helped artichoke). After one of your columns, I tried Calcium carbonicum. It didn’t helped right away but it looks like new shoots do not have so much aphids like before.

I planted tomatoes in an open field, and there were extremely cold nights, so they became bluish/purplish. I watered them with Belladonna, and after few days they became green again (the cold nights were still there).

Thank you in advance for your advice.

Best regards,

Jolanta Senele    

Radko Tichavsky:

Dear Jolanta,

I appreciate very much your comments. It denotes that you search for knowledge beyond a simple homeopathic recipe for a specific problem or a plague. One important difference between allopathy and homeopathy is the individualization that homeopathic treatment requires. The Magnesium should be good for tomato in certain pathological conditions (there are six levels in plant pathology: Calcaria, Magnesia, Kalium, Natrium, Baryta and Ammonia) and independently of this we find 5 biotypes of plants and holons: sulfuric, carbonic, phosphoric, fluoric and silica. For example in the Magnesia pathological level you can use Magnesia sulphurica, Magnesia carbonica, Magnesia phosphorica,  Magnesia fluorica  or Magnesia silica. Of course you have to know how to recognize each biotypology and each symptom of pathological level in plants and holon. This is the basis of constitutional agrohomeopathic mineral repertorization and treatment.

Further, each plant has their constitutional herbal remedy (it has a gentler but more complex action compared with the mineral constitutional remedies). It is defined by the coincidence of secondary metabolites and the experimental confirmation of the remedy in plants and crops.  There are not universal remedies for all plants and there are not remedies for specific pets in any crop. Only through repertorization can we find the simillimum that leads to success. We always treat the patient (the holon, the plant and soil) and not the disease or pest, which are are just a symptomatology of vital imbalance of the holon itself.

Most allopathic farmers and first homeopathy users on plants are happy to see the end of a plant disease (the faster, the better). But a real agrohomeopath or holohomeopath looks to strengthen the vitality of the soil and the plants, and looks for a bigger biodiversity and connections in the holon. In this way they can strengthen the holon forces to reconstitute and revitalize the holon and then the disease disappears permanently (not only by allopathic or homeopathic by deletion). It is not easy to explain it in a brief column limit, but once the agrohomeopath has awareness of this, then he or she will advance from  simple recipe prescribing to a real holo-homeopathic treatments.

You can participate in our virtual course of agrohomeopathy that runs one semester. We offer it in English now, and there you can learn how to define and analyze holons and how to repertorize the specific homeopathic treatment far beyond the simplified agrohomeopathy which is looking for a relationship between disease or pest and a remedy. You can learn about this course here: www.icomenius.edu.mx

The agrohomeopathic posology is an art that combines five basic factors mainly:

1. Potentization (decimal centesimal, 50 millesimal, Korsakov, “living nosodes”, Tichavsky and special potentizations)
2. Dosing (amount of applied remedy)
3. Frequency and time of application (including applications in relation to cosmic events)
4. Mode of application (spray or irrigation, pellets, injection, coadjuvants, live vectors etc.)
5. Potency seriation (upstream, downstream and oscillating series, multi-potency remedies, special series for example Fibonacci etc.)

A small variation in any of these five factors can produce important changes in plants, soils and the entire holon. We generally use low potencies to solve specific physical problems in plants, medium potencies as drainage remedies  and to fix some functional problems, and high potencies to cure some chronic problems in the holon. Low potency is generally used with high frequency, medium potency with medium frequency and high potency with low frequency. But I have to say, there are many exceptions, and the only way to determine the correct homeopathic intervention is through a detailed repertorization of the holon, soil and the plants.

It is needless to say that repeated application of a single remedy in the same potency often leads to the development of a medicinal pathology in plants and holons.

In your raspberries you can try Equisetum arvense 3 CH and Phosphorus 6 CH

Thank you again for sharing your experiences with agrohomeopathic treatment. In further repertorization focus your attention not only to get rid of the pathogen, which is not actually the cause but the symptom of a vital problem. Repertorization needs to go beyond just the name of the disease. With just the disease, sometimes you will succeed and sometimes not. For example using Petroleum, even if the remedy seems to remove the disease, there is a chance it will suppress rather than cure the vital disharmony. The use of Gelsemium in Blackberry also illustrates this problem. Although Gelsemium promptly resolves the physiological issue (fruit size), in Blackberry fruit size is not the only criterion to observe. For example, fruit refractometry measurements can indicate sugar and mineral content and microvoltimetry measurements may reflect more efficiently the level of vitality in plants and in the entire holon. Belladonna utilization in tomato had greatly justified, Atropa belladonna and Lycopersicum esculentum as the plants share a lot of mutually beneficial secondary metabolites.

 

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Dear Plant Doctors,

I live in Mumbai, India, and have a young papaya plant growing in a bucket on our veranda. No garden, unfortunately!  In the last 2 weeks, I’ve noticed the leaves get brown and dry around the edges and turn yellow and die rapidly. (photographs attached) What do you think is happening and what can I do about it? This wasn’t happening earlier. I’ve had the plant since 3 months now and it was growing very well. Our verandah is exposed to a lot of vehicular pollution from the main road outside. The plant is exposed to a few hours of direct sunlight daily, in the morning. We water it with about 500 ml of water once a day.

Your guidance will be much appreciated.

Dr. Firuzi Mehta

 

Radko Tichavsky:

 

Dear Dr. Mehta,

The plant in the picture has a nutritional deficiency of potassium. You can liquefy a banana peel in water and add this liquid to the soil. Also you can apply Calcarea phosphorica 6 CH sprayed 3 times for a week over the plant.

Pawan Snghania: Response: Dear Dr. Meheta,

This is a rather common problem with papaya. Your plants do not seem to be in a healthy condition and in fact, it is lacking in certain nutrition, particularly potassium.

I may suggest you to mix around 2 fistful of good quality compost or vermicompost in the container. Mix it with the top soil. Regarding watering, you need not pour 500ml every day. As you seem to be growing your plant in a bucket (and I presume it is of Plastic), such containers do not have porosity like clay pots and there may be too much water in the soil. Please use your wisdom to regulate your watering to keep your soil moist, never wet and never dry.

Meanwhile, please try the following liquid feed:

Take a earthenware pot 10 litre capacity with a cover.

Fill it up to ¾ depth with rice starch (which you may collect every day from your kitchen, if you cook rice at home. Alternately, you may make starch using Ararote – although as secondary choice).

Mix in it the following ingredients:

500 gms of mustard or groundnut oil cake

500 gms of wheat bran (if you do not get this, use 750 gms of coarse wheat flour)

500 gms of horsegram flour (besan)

200 gms of butter milk

300 gms of liquid jagarry

Allow it to ferment for 72 hours. Stir the concentrate 3-4 times daily. Cover the pot with the lid.

Dose: Dilute 100 ml of this concentrate with 400 ml of water and water your plants once a week. Once you see the improvement, apply it at 10-15 days interval.

As you have only one plant, you may not need so much concentrate, so you can therefore reduce the quantity by half. Please let me know the result.

You may contact me on my mobile: 9331024566 or email: [email protected]

Please also share your experience at Hpathy.

 

Read this fascinating interview with Radko Tichavsky:   https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-interviews/radko-tichavsky/