Mineral Fertilization

[Barndog56]

Last year my orchard had a very bad outbreak of apple scab, as can be seen from this Honeycrisp tree.


I watched a lot of youtube videos to learn what I could to prevent scab, finally finding this video.

It explains that Scab feeds on the amino acid arginine, found in apple leaves, and that arginine is only found in leaves when a tree does not have enough cobalt to process arginine further. The video states that several orchards which used a cobalt fertilizer were subsequently scab free.

So I watched more of the company who produced the video, Advancing Echo Agriculture. I purchased a couple of there products, including one with cobalt, and have been spraying on my trees this year.

Here's a picture of my Honeycrisp tree today, with no fungicides applied.


I'll post some more info on what else I'm using and how it seems to be working in a couple of days.

 

[trampledbyturtles]

Awesome stuff, always rather prevent than try to cure when it may already be to late.

 

[Freeborn]

That is impressive, nice to see a natural solution.

Can you provide a link to their products?

 

[Mortenson]

https://www.advancingecoag.com/regenerative-agriculture-products

Seems like very expensive, liquid fertilizers, in my opinion. Maybe they'd work well on hobby farms, but on a large scale I think you might go broke fertilizing with those products and expecting to never have to use pesticides again. I did spend 45 minutes on the man's website.

 

[Barndog56]

I purchased a gallon of Photomag to combat the apple scab. It contains magnesium, sulfur, boron, cobalt, and molybdenum. It is designed to increase the rate of photosynthesis, by providing the minerals needed. Increased photosynthesis makes plants healthier, improving their immune system. The healthier plants become the easier it is for them to fight off insects and disease.

I've been spraying it on the newly grafted apples in my nursery. There has been no sign of scab on any of the 25 varieties, even though some are listed as susceptible. I have noticed CAR on 4 varieties, but each was only slightly affected.

I expect the infection would have been more serious without the spray.

As my trees have become healthier they've also been less attractive to insects. Last year rose chafer beetles had a buffet in my orchard, forcing me to use Sevin to take care of them. They showed up in even larger numbers this year. But I waited to see what would happen. This year they avoided my trees and ended up feasting mostly on lambsquarter and clover.

Chestnut tree last year.

And this year.

 

[Barndog56]

https://www.advancingecoag.com/regenerative-agriculture-products

Seems like very expensive, liquid fertilizers, in my opinion. Maybe they'd work well on hobby farms, but on a large scale I think you might go broke fertilizing with those products and expecting to never have to use pesticides again. I did spend 45 minutes on the man's website.

I spent about $60 with the shipping for sprays that cover my 80 orchard trees and a 1,000 square foot garden. The two gallons will last the full year. As a result I haven't had to purchase fungicide or insecticide and it looks like production in my garden will be greatly increased.

As to full size farm costs, I've seen a few of their youtube videos discussing the consulting they've done with individual farms. In a few they've brought up the costs, which turned out to be less than was previously spent on fertilizer and pesticides, and increased productivity.

In the long run I'll be finding soil ammendments which include the minerals my soil requires. This will surely be less expensive and time consuming. But in this case I was looking for something quick acting, which is the biggest benefit of foliar sprays.

 

[chickenlittle]

I'd suggest not treating some as a control experiment.

 

[Barndog56]

I'd suggest not treating some as a control experiment.

I didn't leave a control section as I was confident this would help, and I didn't want anything unsprayed and falling behind. Some of their videos explaining field trials used a control.

In my garden I used the above mentioned spray, in addition to one called Accelerate. It contains phosphates, calcium, and manganese, as well as some seaweed or kelp, can't remember exactly. It's designed to help with reproduction, meaning more flower blossoms, higher percentage of fruit set, and larger fruit. I use it just before and throughout flowering for each plant variety.

Here are my snow peas at second picking, 40" tall.


I'm not a huge fan of peas, but these are so good I can eat them raw.


Typically my tomatos have yellowing on the bottom sets of leaves. That happens when the plant doesn't get enough minerals. It robs them from the bottom leaves to put them in the new ones. With the spraying this year I have no yellowing at all, and a ton of flowers and fruit.

 

[Barndog56]

Getting a ton of rock dust from the local quarry in a couple weeks, will only cost $8. Then will do a soil test from Logan Labs in Ohio in the spring to see what additional minerals I need.