Insects and healthy plants

[Guest guest]

Many a long year ago, when we were growing a garden we had a very nice 24'

x24' patch that had never seen a chemical. We put the daily paper between

the rows of plants so the weeds would die under the weight of public

opinion. And planted noxious flowers such as marigolds to keep the critters

at bay. Our fertilizer had all been processed through the cattle, horses or

pigs of friends and neighbors (though not organic).

One year as we stood admiring the fruits of our efforts we saw potato bugs

all over the " prickly weeds. " And not a potato in sight. Really don't know

what else to call those weeds. They were ornery things that produced a

translucent ball on the vines about the size of a marble.

My hubby headed for the house to get the bug spray. I called him back and

told him not to harm a one of those bugs as none were on the garden plants.

Only on those durn weeds.

I mentioned to the man at the garden store that sold organic fertilizers and

he said that insects will NOT eat a healthy garden plant. So those potato

bugs lived happily and well all summer in our veggie garden.

Judith Alta

Another example of this comes from the tenet that 'every form of life

has its ow n form of food' and that 'insects eat sick plants not

healthy plants' and yet, insects eat our food plants. By raising the

brix of the produce, making nutritional elements readily available to

the plant, more complex sugars are made by the plant, LONG molecules

that insects cannot digest. When these long molecules are in the sap,

the plant IS food for humans and the insects leave it alone. I got a

good lecture from Phil Callahan's assistant at ACRES this year about

this one.

-Allan