Those who know me a little know that I am a big fan of Christine Jones, and I assume that someday we may welcome her to our shores. Meanwhile, I am trying to catch up with my knowledge backlog. I took an organic farmer and Phyto-license course (believe it or not, but from the license to kill I learned a lot) and now I’m taking another wine farmer course. On the agenda is another real permaculture series with Geoff Lawnton. The man who turns deserts into green spaces. Closer to home, I am blessed with green pioneers Bart Backaert, Wim Peeters and a few more like-minded people I meet and encounter thanks to those courses. Wonderful to learn from everyone.
Now in viticulture education, the quest for disease prevention and “Integrated Pest Management” is a hot topic because as a viticulturist, diseases and pests are a daily battle to preserve your precious planting stock. But I hear bitterly little in training as to why these “sticks” are so susceptible to illness. Of course, soil plays a role, but James White explains that plants actually cultivate bacteria to feed the microbes to attract the microbes. Depending on what the plant needs, they may send different signals.
Plants in the wild do not need fertilization. So you might wonder why we do what we do and what these external “fertilization techniques” bring about. Plants are smarter than we think.
