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Would you believe this field has millions of potato beetles and larvae?

I can barely believe it either.

These are extremely promising early results from our trials on using foliar-applied nutrition in conjunction with xylem/phloem sap analysis to get our plants to fight the beetles for us.

Let me back up a bit. Since switching to organic production, we relied on organic-approved pesticides for potato beetles. The problem is that in principle, there is not much difference between conventional and organic, if the idea is to grow a crop and spray something on it. The result is the same, just with a different tool. Effectively we were running an evolution trial, and the potato beetles became less and less affected by the organic control. I saw this coming three years ago, and last year, our potato plants were completely stripped, and between no rain/weed pressure/beetles, our yield was down 50%.

There were two choices.

Either, we get a different hammer and in several years hit the same wall again the exact same way.

Or, we choose to get off the hamster wheel.

Two years ago I began trialing this method of crop management. But the learning curve was steep with this one. Not only did it require learning a new way of getting nutrients into the plants and how to apply those nutrients, it involved a new way of thinking about it.

The basic idea is that if the plants have what they need, they can provide immunity and defense responses and fight pests and diseases.

It makes sense…if you have scurvy (and I hope you don’t have scurvy) and you go to a doctor, the doctor does not douse you with chemicals and fungicides to rid you of scurvy. The doctor gives you a vitamin C pill or tells you to eat fruit. That single missing element is all your body requires to reverse the course. Something similar can be induced in plants, after all, they have not evolved to be the single most successful organism in earth’s life history without defense mechanisms triggered by predation.

The problem? Our crop systems and fertilizer choices. So the beetles show up to devour a plant…and they do so with such ease, because the plants are not functioning at full capacity and require our assistance to play the role of defense. So in go the chemicals (and the recent announcement by the Canadian PM to ease regulations for even more ridiculous chemicals is not helping facilitate the changes we need).

The first two years of results were failures. I didn’t mix the nutrients right, I didn’t set the plants up right, I applied the foliars at the wrong time, I started applying foliars too late, and I didn’t understand the test results I was getting back.

But I guess I didn’t go to University for nothing, with my background in plant physiology and botany and ecology, I studied up over the winter and took all those failures into consideration to try again.

This year we changed our base fertilizer program based on our soil analysis and took sap samples as early as I could possibly do so. And it was at this stage when I thought this idea was far fetched and maybe it wouldn’t work. Really the beetles on “Field B” were so bad, every single plant had multiple beetles on it, all 5 acres of them. We had to stop this beetle army, or else we have to get back on the hamster wheel.

The first sap test was taken June 15th.

The sap test showed undetectable levels of Molybdenum. This is the #1 key for us…this element is required to metabolize Nitrogen. Without it, Nitrates pile up in the potato plant, and the beetles looooove them some nitrate-filled leaves.

The #2 key was Calcium and Boron, Calcium for strengthening cell walls and structures, which is difficult for our plants to pull out of our soil, and because of plant physiology and biochemisty, Calcium requires Boron to become mobile in the plant.

The #3 key was Jasmonic Acid, which is a plant hormone that is released when a plant starts getting eaten. In a healthy plant, it will make the leaves “taste bad” to the bugs and slow them down, while also calling in beneficial insects as a signal that there’s food for them here.

And the #4 key was a source of sugar, namely molasses and soy hydrolysate, which give the plant immediate energy source to continue growing and metabolizing, even while being eaten, and even while diverting energy to plant defense triggered by #3.

Then we had to hold our breath for two weeks.

The first sign of positive success was this…I noticed brown tissue surrounding some of the eggs. It turns out that the plant is intentionally committing cell suicide, depriving the young larvae of any ability to start eating when they need it most (as soon as they hatch).

Crossing fingers!

We took another sap sample on June 29th, but unfortunately, FedEx tracking shows it is still, as of July 4th, sitting at the Winnipeg airport. Which means we don’t get the test data we want, so we had to go on the fly based on observation and inference alone.

Honestly, there are millions of larvae in this field!

But the plants are winning. The beetles are not on the older leaves, at all. They are completely undamaged. The beetles sit at the top of the plants on the newest leaves, which have not received a new foliar application. So we doubled down with a similar foliar recipie as the first one, adding a new signal to produce extra tubers for us while the plants are strong.

What I’m seeing is something I’ve just never seen before. I’m used to beetles stripping the plants completely, and harvesting the scraps the plant managed to produce. I’m used to seeing devoured fields. And at this point, seeing beetles of this size, on plants that don’t appear to have any consequential damage at all, is mind-blowing.

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This is representative of some 40% of the field.

Only 5% of our 8 acres of potatoes appear to be “stripped” but that isn’t even accurate…they still have some leaves and stuff on them, they aren’t completely gone. Last year, some 90% of our plants looked worse than this.

I have to stress that these plants are right beside each other.

Evidently, something is working. Apparently the sugar sources from molasses and soy hydrolysate are something that the beetles just don’t like. It screws with their system. Add to that the Jasmonic Acid treatment, and the beetles don’t die…I think this is am important distinction here….in this management method, the beetles don’t face death. They slow down, they are blocked, and the plant can out-grow the damage they cause, and force the beetles to relocate themselves to more susceptible parts of the plant. Perhaps even 10, 20, or 30% (I will never know for sure) of the beetles didn’t even hatch because of the aforementioned cell suicide.

So, with one more foliar to go, maybe we’ll see even these 5% “stripped” plants turn around! This will be interesting to watch.

Another 30-40% of the field is completely untouched. Which is wild to me, because in June when these were germinating, every single plant had beetles on it, and I got the same fear response I got from previous years.

I don’t want to say this is 100% yet, I don’t want to jinx it. But based on what I’m seeing, it’s really unbelieveable. I mean I’m seeing it with my own eyes and I’m still not really believing it.

These are the best potato plants I’ve seen in probably my entire farming career since starting back on the farm in 2017.

If the second foliar worked, by next week we’ll see even more lush growth, flowers opening up, and when we harvest, if the tuber set initiation application worked, we will see the number of potatoes per plant increase. We are used to averaging 4-8 Norlands per plant, maybe 10 on a good year, so we will see.

Another test will get shipped on Tuesday and all willing FedEx can actually get it to the lab this time, and I will share those results here, and likely make a full YouTube video on this topic alone. It’s a scary transition to get off the hamster wheel, and I’m sure sharing my results will help other farmers. Plant physiology is difficult to wrap your head around, but the truth is, plants are highly complex biological organisms, they are intelligent, they are interwoven with symbiotic organisms at the cellular level, they plug directly into their environment at the molecular level, and they can be influenced by our actions. It is the way agriculture must go, away from chemical inputs and genetic manipulation to enable more chemical inputs because we’d rather make a bigger hammer than use empathy to understand the plant as it already is.

If I’ve seen it happening with my first year going all-in on this method, I can’t imagine what I can learn in the next five years.

Here’s our “Field A,” getting the 2nd foliar application yesterday. The plants are unbelieveable, and Marty was even driving over potato leaves, as the plants extend themselves for more light and the canopy takes over the valleys between the hills.

All biology, no chemicals.

The scent of seaweed extracts, molasses and soy hydrolysate leaves the entire field smelling absolutely delicious.

One more test, and one more application to go!

I have a new YouTube video out as of today, July 4th, with a full farm update.

Graham

hanks for reading complimentary blueberry juice

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