Agro Homeopathy

The Plant Doctor – January 2021

agrohomeopathy
Written by Radko Tichavsky

The Plant Doctor, Radko Tichavsky answers questions this month’s about growing Hass Avocados, a Meyer lemon tree losing leaves, bacterial leaf blight in carrots, and Downy Mildew in lettuce. (Send your garden and crop questions to [email protected]

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), Organon de la Holohomeopatía and creator and teacher of Holohomeopathy.

He is now offering a one-semester virtual course in Holohomeopathy (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

NEW BOOK: Organon de la Holohomeopatía

Six years in the making, it is the latest book by Radko Tichavsky, researcher on the application of homeopathy in agriculture. This Spanish language book covers homeopathic interventions in agriculture from the holistic view, allowing greater certainty in repertorizations. It addresses a novel concept of metabolic similarity, not only among plants, but also among different species of the animal and plant kingdom. It studies the formation and dynamics of attractors, areas of greater vitality within the holons and coexistence units of different living organisms Holohomeopathy is a fascinating contribution to the application of homeopathy to plants.  It allows one to discover a universe of surprising relations in vital dynamism. It puts into the hands of the agricultural producer, a valuable tool for the successful handling of pests and diseases in crops of any size.  For ordering or information: [email protected]

Editor’s note:

The Plant Doctor – Radko Tichavsky was assisted this month by his students of holohomeopathy.

Dear Radko,
My query is in reference to the family project that we have been running for two years, 1.5 Hectares of Hass variety Avocados, the Mexicola pattern and about 500 trees from seed. Location: Valencia, Spain, about 20 km from the Mediterranean Sea and an altitude of 120 meters with a temperature of 4º min in winter and 36º max in summer.   The month of November we had rains that reached 325 li, and the first fortnight of December we had winds that reached 70 km / h, the trees are showing these abrupt changes and at this time there are uniform changes of hue in the leaves of some trees.  What treatment could we apply to them? At the same time the buds are already quite swollen, preparing for the flowering.  What guidelines can we follow to achieve good flowering, good fruit setting and fattening of the fruits?  I’ve sent some photos of the farm.


Thank you
Paco Sevilla

Radko Tichavsky:

Dear Paco,
The key to good tree nutrition consists of some changes to the green cover. Each plant emits in its root system biochemical signals called mVOC (microbial volatile organic compounds) that attract certain microorganisms such as specific bacteria and fungi and these provide avocado trees with the necessary nutrients. At first sight in your holon the green cover is mostly made of grasses (Poaceae) and these are strong consumers of nitrogen.

In the cold season the nitrogen consumption of the plants usually increases and it is precisely in this season when the grasses compete with the avocado trees for nitrogen, causing symptoms of malnutrition. One of the symptoms of nitrogen deficiency is precisely the yellowing and premature senescence of the leaves.

For correct nutrition it is important to apply live bionosode of vascular arbuscular fungi (VAM) Glomus sp. for example. You will find them on the surface of the soil under old Quercus sp.. A layer of first 5 cm of the soil is extracted, placed in 200 l of water adding 1 kg of very well cooked and crushed potato in a mixer, along with two liters of carbonated water.

From this mother tincture, live bionosode (in water) at potency 3 JT is prepared and applied to the soil. Additionally, it is important to add to the green cover a planting of a leguminous plant such as Crotalaria sp. or Trifolium sp. for example.

Once the cover crop is enriched by leguminous plants, prepare a live bionosode of Aloe vera (made from the gel of the leaves) at potency 3 JT and apply it equally sprayed on the soil approximately 500-1000 l per hectare.

In this way the joint work of the VAM fungi and the beneficial bacteria will take care of balancing the nutritional deficiencies that the crop now presents.  Due to the characteristics of your soil that tends to have higher pH, and in consequence of this the missing element in avocado is iron, so Ferrum sulphuricum 4 JT applied foliarly at low potency can balance this trend. As for flowering and correct fruit formation in avocado, it is important to apply Borax 9 JT.


Dr. Tichavsky,
I have had a Meyer lemon tree for several years. and it spends summers outdoors and winters indoors under plant lights.  It always loses lots of leaves when it comes indoors, but it always recovers when it goes back outside.  Last winter, the leaves started discoloring (see attached pictures) and falling off—leaving the petiole attached to the stem.  It recovered this summer, but when I brought it in this fall it immediately started dropping leaves again.  Currently, the leaves have been falling off of one area of the tree—the top of one side of the tree.  It is blooming and setting fruit and new growth is appearing on the bare stems.

Can you help me understand the situation and what you think I should do about it?

I live in Lancaster County, PA. (U.S.) In the summer it can be hot and humid with dry periods and wet periods.  Sometimes we can have several inches of rain in one storm.  I try to protect the tree from that sort of deluge by moving it if I know it is coming or covering the exposed dirt in the pot so it doesn’t get drenched.  I keep it

where it gets sun most of the day.


Thank you.
Abby Odell

Radko Tichavsky:

Dear Abby,
Losing leaves periodically is common for Citrus limon trees. Native of NE Asia, they fare better in warmer climates, blooming and setting fruits all year round. In cooler areas several leaf flushes occur a few times a year.

Trees need to balance leave nutrition with the needs of fruits and roots for sugars within the changing abiotic circumstances; it gets more complicated with abrupt changes of temperature, light, water – when trees are moved indoors/outdoors.

Plants rely on a complex system of chemical signaling to coordinate their growth and development with that of their environment (the holon). Your C. limon does well outside where it is interconnected with other plants, insects, and soil.

Even if the pot has no immediate contact with soil, bacteria and spores of beneficial fungi can be transferred to it by wind, rain, or insects. This perpetual exchange of microorganisms with its environment ensures the optimal balance of nutrients, regulation of growth, and plant’s defense strategies.

When the tree is brought indoors, the vital connections are lost. With abiotic factors changing simultaneously, it is challenged without the benefit of support of its holon. C. limon does not like: drafts (check its location, since you see a certain side of it affected), fluctuations of temperature, over- and under-watering, poorly drained soil.

Dry indoor air, material of the pot, (terra cotta better), and even its color may all contribute to the abiotic stress (black pot in front of south facing patio doors hit by the low-rising winter sun almost perpendicular to its surface might absorb more heat that the roots would like, for example). Excess salinity of soil in the pot might be a factor depending on the water used.

Now your C.limon is disconnected from the consortia of the outside soil microorganisms that normally constantly form and reshape local communities (biofilms) on soil/water interfaces and plant roots. These micro-holons exchange genetic information, nutrients and Volatile Organic Compounds. These VOC signals give us additional ground for establishing metabolic similarity between plant and microorganisms.

The holo-homeopathic strategy based on such similarity is to supply your tree with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi AMF and Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria PGPR synergistic to those AMF. That will help your tree to adjust to temperature/salinity stress, better regulate plant hormone production for fruit set and new growth; make macronutrients bioavailable (your tree’s yellowing leaves might reflect a nutrient deficiency – possibly P).

Trees rely on fungal endophytes and mycorrhizae to a larger extent than herbaceous plants, and fall/winter is time for fungal prevalence, so we start with AMF.

C.limonis known to grow well in proximity of Quercus virginianathat has in its rhizosphere soil AMF of Glomus sp. and Acaulospora sp.; rhizosphere soil of mature Quercus rubra (7 common metabolites with Citrus limon) is an optionOther potential sources of rhizoshere soil for making living bio-nozode are:

Trifolium subterraneum (Glomus, Acaulospora AMF); Trifolium pratense (Gigaspora, Acaulospora, Funneliformis AMF; 36 common metab. – could’ve been growing in your trees’ vicinity outside); Vitis cinerea helleri (Glomus); Prunella vulgaris (Glomus AMF, 19 common metab); Bromus inermis (Acaulospora, Claroidoglomus,Gigaspora AMF);  Festuca viridula (Acaulospora); Fraxinus excelsior (Funneliformis); Hypochaeris radicata (Acaulospora), Panicum miliaceum (also harbours Penicillum oxalicum, a normal endophyte of healthy Citrus limon that is shown to have antioxidant effect helping with abiotic stress), Plantago sp. (Acaulospora, Glomus).

Make a bionosode from rhizoshere soil with sugar water solution; let ferment for a day or two, dynamize to 3JT and apply to the soil in pot. As your tree starts to recover, after several weeks supplement with the bionosode of PGPRBacteria synergistic with the above AMF are also the ones that help with solubilization of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (also helps adjusting to temperature stress, siderophore producing) from the gel of Aloe vera leaf (24 common metabolites, also has Bacillus cereus, Bacillus pumilus) or Zingiber officinale (75 common metabolites) using boiled rice and the procedure described in the previous issues. You can also use Lolium perenne or Chenopodium album as a source of Bacillus cereus and Paenibacillus sp. that are also valuable PGPR species.


Dear Dr. Tichavsky,
This summer we had bacterial leaf blight in our field of carrots. I read that it is cause by Xanthomonas campestris pv. Carotae. It was a very wet summer and in general this area gets a lot of rain, about 64 inches a year.It never snows here and there are about 250 sunny days a year. The edges of the leaves turn yellow and there are brown and black spots, then the leaves curl.  We’d like to avoid this problem next spring without resorting to chemicals.
Thank you
Meredith Taylor

Radko Tichavsky:

Dear Meredith,
Carrot (Daucus carota L.) is susceptible to infection by several pathogens. Some cause more damage than others. Pectobacterium carotovorum (Jones) Waldee (syn. Erwinia carotovora) causes soft rot. Symptoms appear as a soft, watery, viscous decomposition of the primary root and the decomposition rapidly consumes the root’s core, often leaving the epidermis intact.

The fungus Alternaria dauci (J.G. Kühn) J.W. Groves & Skolko causes leaf, stem and seedling blotches caused by lesions around the roots. Fusarium solani (Martius) Sacc. can cause low scabbing spots on the primary root that extend to rotting lesions. The fungus Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn (synonym: Thanatephorus cucumeris) infects the spreading foliage causing crown rot.

Xanthomonas campestris pv. carotae (Pammel) Dowson causes leaf blight. Symptoms of the disease include lesions and blight on the umbels and flower stems; a yellow exudate may ooze from the lesions.

Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris is the causal agent of black rot of crucifers. Plants in this family are susceptible to this disease at all stages of development. Black rot occurs most frequently in moist soils and at temperatures ranging from 20 to 30°C, which are common in tropical and subtropical regions.

The symptoms are characterized by yellow V-shaped lesions that begin at the margins of the leaves and progress to the center through the vascular tissue, generally leading to leaf necrosis.

There are plants that are metabolically similar to Daucus carota, such as Vitis vinifera (leaves and fruit), Citrus sinensis (whole fruit and leaves), Panax ginseng (root), Zingiber officinale (rhizome), Ginkgo biloba (leaves), Achillea millenfolium (leaves), that help in the formation of bactericidal, fungicidal, antiviral and insecticidal metabolites among other functions within the carrot to combat various pathogens.

As a remedy you can make a Mother Tincture of any of these plants, put it in 70% alcohol in an amber bottle so it does not get the light, let it stand for a week, dynamize it to the potency 6JT and spray it on your crop.

Another option to combat Xanthomonas campestris pv. carotae is by means of antagonistic bacteria such as Bacillus cereus found in the pulp of Aloe vera, Panax ginseng, Turmeric longa, Zingiber officinale, Bacillus megaterium in Aloe vera pulp, Panax ginseng, Vitis vinifera, Turmeric longa and Bacillus subtilis in Aloe vera pulp, Panax ginseng, Vitis vinifera, Carica papaya, Zingiber officinale.

In this case you can prepare a live bionosode. Cook a medium potato, let it cool down, remove the peel and liquefy the potato with any of the plants mentioned  above, disinfecting the surface with 30% alcohol (e.g. disinfect the Aloe vera stalk and extract only the pulp or clean the root of Turmeric longa with a brush and disinfect with alcohol) with a little tap water and leave it at room temperature for a day, then dilute this liquid in a ratio of 1: 100 and make 500 vigorous succussions (if the volume is large then 500 turns with a wooden stick to the right and 500 to the left) and spray the crops.


Hello Mr. Tichavsky,
Two years ago, we constructed a green house, partly to help avoid plant diseases and pests and also to have a longer growing season. That worked quite well except for the lettuce crop, which developed Downy Mildew (Bremia Lactuae).  We live in Trenton, New Jersey (U.S.) There are about 200 sunny days a year and the summer high is 85F, while the winter low is around 22F.  Can you suggest anything for this problem?
Thank you
Myra Harris

Radko Tichavsky:

Dear Myra,
Producing under the holo-homeopathic method in the greenhouse requires extra skills and being fast acting for the grower, since by definition any greenhouse fragments the holon.

On the one hand it protects the crops from environmental pressures, pests and diseases, but on the other hand any pathogen that passes this barrier and is established in the greenhouse infects the plants at a much faster rate.

To control fungi like Bremia lactucae one of the most devastating diseases of lettuce worldwide, one can successfully use live bionosode of the fungus Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma album and Trichoderma viride.

The other strategy consists in the amplification of live bionosode from Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus thuringuensis, Bacillus pumilus Bacillus amyloliquefasciens, and on the other hand by Pseudomonas fluorescens.

For Trichoderma harzianum, we prepare live bionosode at the potency 4 JT elaborated from the roots of Populus sp. or Eucalyptus sp. applying it from when the lettuce plants are very small.

Put in 20 liters of water ¼ kg of rice very well cooked and liquefied in a blender in addition to the inoculum of the fungus and ½ liter of carbonated water. Then proceed to the dynamization that consists of each step in dilution in a proportion of 1:100 and making 500 succussions or when the large amount of liquid does not allow the succussions, these are replaced by 500 turns with a wooden stick to the left and then to the right.

If you choose as an alternative the application of the complex of Bacillus spp. you can apply live bionosode at 4 JT potency made from Aloe vera gel for example, or from the root system of Hedera helix.

If you decide to apply the strategy based on Pseudomonas fluorescens, many plants contain this gamma-proteobacteria for example Ulmus sp., Solanum tuberosum         (potato), Casanus cajan, Lupinus albus, but it is also found in many edible fungi like shiitake (Lentinus edodes), Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus eryngii, Agaricus bisporus among many others.

You can prepare live bionosode from the roots of any of the plants, and prepare a live bionosode or make the same from fresh mushrooms bought in any supermarket and apply it at 4 JT potency.

About the author

Radko Tichavsky

Radko Tichavsky was born in the Czech republic. He has lived in Mexico for more than 25 years and is one of the most important agrohomeopaths in Latin America. He is the author of the book "Manual de Agrohomeopatia", a homeopathy book on plants. Radko teaches agrohomeopathy in several countries and regularly publishes articles in special journals and internet portals. He works as a researcher and teacher at the university and has already taught agrohomeopathy to many students. He is the director of the Comenius Institute (comenius.edu.mx). More details can be found in the following interview: http://hpathy.com/homeopathic-interviews/radko-tichavsky/

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