Ask the Plant Doctor – December 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 mail@hpathy.com 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.

Dear Kaviraj,
This year I tried Helix Tosta as a deterrent for slugs and snails. I potted up 3 small Hosta plants and placed them close to each other on a gravel path. I watered 2 of them with Dr. Kavraj’s Helix Tosta 6X at the beginning of the season – around May this year. The 3rd I gave nothing to. I then subjected them all to my usual neglectful care but they all looked great for the first 6 weeks or so. In fact I wondered if I had no slugs in my garden. Then in late summer after a wet spell, I realised that one had been eaten completely. One was rather shaky, and the 3rd was doing rather well considering. In the pictures – taken in Autumn (they had looked better than this a couple of weeks earlier) you can see the evidence. The one that has no leaves is the one I gave nothing to. The other two had Helix Tosta. Next year I will repeat the dose midsummer and give it to all my plants.
Thanks very much
Katrina Graham MARH

Dear Katrina,

That is a very nice result. Did you also succuss the bottle 50 times? I like to know, because without it, the result is less – 50%. With succussion the result would be in the 90% range.

Dear sir,
I had given silicea 6x to pomegranate plants, but observed aggravation of oil spots (xanthomonas) on new plants also (see photos). This disease affects export quality. Can you please give me some advice for this problem?

Thank you

Sandeep Pawar

Dear Sandeep,

You can try Salicylic acid, or Carbo veg. Make sure you water the remedy on the roots and to give 50 succussions. You can try one lot with the Sal.ac. and the other with Carb.veg. Then you can see which is better under your particular circumstances. Spraying with Silicea is best when the plant begins to flower, as it strengthens the fruit afterwards.

Dear Kaviraj,

This summer we had extensive leaf damage in our bean plants from Mexican bean beetles. We’d like to avoid that problem next summer. Can you suggest a remedy for that?

Thank you!

Alicea Miller

Hi Alicea,

That can be avoided completely when using the remedy Solanum tuberosum. This is made from the bean’s best companion – the potato. Another remedy that will be good is Zea mays, the corn, because the American Indians grew these three together as the 3 sisters. They had round beds and grew the corn on the third of the sunny side, the beans to the third on the eastern side and the potatoes on the third facing west. That way the beans could climb up the corn and deter birds and insects, and both the corn and the beans would shade the potatoes, which like shade to grow best.