permaculture

[Victor Guest <vic@daena.eepo.com.au>]

ORIGINALLY From Milly@ap.net Sat, 11 Jul 1998 10:15:24 WST remote from eepo
To: sobl@iinet.net.au, ddd@iinet.net.au, sue_owen@compsys.com.au,
        mark@castle.net.au, pbrandis@ozemail.com.au, kylisa@dynamite.com.au,
        landcare@iinet.net.au, atsc@ffp.csiro.au, vic@daena.eepo.com.au,
        jrc@anbg.gov.au

Keeping Your Flowers and Trees Growing and Blooming Longer

When plants age, they stop growing and flowering, and their leaves stop 
making protein and 
chlorophyll. Eventually the leaves turn yellow and fall off, and the plants 
become susceptible to 
fungal (rust) infections and insect attack. Plant aging or senescence is a 
biochemical process that is 
highly susceptible to environmental conditions.  It can easily be stopped by 
plant hormones, either 
made by the plants themselves or by soil microorganisms. If your roses stop 
flowering after two 
months, your plants are either aging prematurely, or they are not receiving 
enough light. The aging 
process of plants can be slowed dramatically by gardeners who understand why 
plants "shut down" 
biochemically. Plants can grow in a bucket of rocks if they are fed chemical 
fertilizers that contain 
water-soluble minerals. Unfortunately for plants, most minerals in the soil 
are not water-soluble. This 
means that most plant growth is controlled by soil microorganisms that break 
down organic matter 
into simple molecules that the plants can use. Although plants can make their 
own vitamins and 
amino acids, they can also take them up from the soil if microorganisms 
"pre-process" them first. 
Becoming a successful gardener does not require a degree in botany or 
horticulture, but it does 
require some knowledge of plant nutrition and how plants grow in response to 
their natural 
environment. This knowledge is freely available, but it is generally "locked 
up" in the scientific 
literature in a form that is not readily understandable to the average 
person. I know all about 
"science speak". My name is Dr. Stephen Martin and I am Chief Scientist of 
Wyoming DnaVaccine, 
LLC. I am responsible for the design and development of vaccines against the 
HIV, and hepatitis 
B/C viruses, animal and human herpes viruses, and the TB bacterium 
(http://www.wyomdnavaccine.com). In an effort to keep sane, I adopted organic 
gardening as my 
passion about 6 years ago. Since that time, I have become very knowledgeable 
about plant 
nutrition and the physiology of plant cell growth regulation. I intend to 
share that knowledge, 
translated into understandable English, with others. I am starting a WEB site 
in about two months 
called Milly's Gourmet Organics. Milly is my 76 year-old mother, an avid 
gardener, and my business 
partner in this enterprise. The site will include useful information about 
all commercial and non-
commercial fertilizers and how they can or cannot affect plant growth. Of 
particular interest will be a 
discussion of "Potting Soil" and why most commercial brands, in and of 
themselves, provide very 
few nutrients for plants. The site will also include recipes that I developed 
for making "bug juice", a 
non-odorous concoction of soil bacteria and easily obtained household items 
such as cornstarch, 
fruit and yeast that will make your plants grow and flower beyond your 
wildest expectations. If you 
want to be put on the mailing list, please send your request to milly@ap.net. 
In the interim, please 
bear with me. I have an interesting story to tell.

In my mother's garden, the soil is 50% clay. When she moved to her present 
house, the lawn was 
sparse, and obviously dying. We ripped it up. It wasn't worth saving. We 
planted roses and 
numerous other plants, but they never did well. The soil conditions are 
barely suitable for the growth 
of even the hardiest of plants. About five years ago, a friend gave me a few 
pounds of high-grade 
fish meal for making soups and stocks. On a whim, I put one tablespoon of the 
meal in one gallon of 
water and fed it to my mother's sickly rose bushes. The results were apparent 
within weeks. Milly's 
roses started growing and budding to an extent that is difficult to believe. 
The roses now bloom 8 
months of the year, the leaves are lush green, and there is very little rust 
even though my mother 
lives on the edge of a fog belt. Surprisingly, there have been no aphid 
infestations since the fish 
meal was first fed to the roses. I treated her sick apple and pear trees in 
the same manner. Both 
trees were sparsely foliated with little fruit, the leaves were yellow and 
covered with rust, and the fruit 
was small, spotted with fungus and worm-ridden. My mother was going to have 
both trees removed. 
One year later, after applying 4 gallons of the fish meal slurry to the base 
of the trees, both trees are 
lush green with foliage and have more fruit that any ten families could 
possibly use. There is no rust, 
and the fruit is completely worm-free. A plumb tree that was planted 5 years 
ago as a small bare root 
sapling is now over 12 feet tall, and has so many plumbs that the limbs of 
the tree sag under the 
weight. The lower limbs touch the ground. It took me awhile to find out why 
fish meal, per se, is such 
a good fertilizer at such low concentrations. The answer turned out to be 
more complicated than I 
originally thought.

First, this fish meal works as a fertilizer because it is actually a human 
food product. It consists of 
fresh whole fish that are either too small to be filleted or the wrong 
species. The fish are processed 
within 8 hours of harvesting in order to preserve freshness. The rapid 
cooking process stops the 
ammonification process, and other natural degradation processes that occur 
when a fish or animal 
dies. The intense steam heat stops the enzymatic breakdown of the fish organs 
and preserves the 
integrity of the plant growth factors in the meal. These growth factors, and 
the vitamins that are 
present in high concentrations in fish organs, are heat stable. The enzymes 
that break down growth 
factors into simpler compounds are not. The potency of the fish meal as a 
fertilizer has nothing to do 
with its high protein content. If that were true, chicken manure would 
probably work just as well. It 
doesn't. Manure does not contain these molecules because they are absorbed 
out of an animal or 
bird's food in their digestive tracts.  In time, I found that the growth 
factors were actually precursors 
or biochemical building blocks for the group of plant hormones called auxins 
and cytokinins. Auxins 
control root growth and the elongation (not growth) of individual plant 
cells. Cytokinins stimulate 
plant cell growth, the synthesis of protein and chlorophyll, and induce 
budding and flowering. 
Cytokinins also stimulate the synthesis of molecules in plant leaves, stems 
and roots that protect 
plants from fungal and insect attacks. Auxins and cytokinins work together to 
stop plant aging or 
senescense. Plants can make these hormones internally, but the hormones can 
also be made by a 
wide diversity of soil bacteria and fungi. When the hormones are secreted 
into the root zone by 
microorganisms, the plants will continue to grow and senescence will be 
postponed until the 
weather becomes harsh. The fish meal does not contain preformed auxins or 
cytokinins, but it does 
contain very high concentrations of molecules that can be rapidly turned into 
these hormones by soil 
microorganisms. When I planted Milly's roses, I packed the roots in fresh 
compost. Fresh compost 
contains a large number of microorganisms that break down organic matter, but 
not all organic 
matter is equally useful as a fertilizer. When fed the fish meal, the 
microorganisms produced plant 
growth hormones, and the rest is history.  Plant compost does not contain 
these molecules because 
growth hormones are unstable and are not stored in plant tissues. They are 
naturally degraded very 
soon after they are made. High concentrations of auxins and cytokinins also 
block the activity of the 
plant enzymes that make the hormones in the plant cells. This natural 
feedback prevents plants from 
growing too vigorously. We can get around this "natural block" by inducing 
bacteria and fungi to 
make the auxins and cytokinins for the plants in the soil. After much 
experimentation, I found that 
bakers yeast, fed a diet of sugar and fish meal, also makes cytokinins. A 
recipe for a simple, yet 
potent "bug juice" fertilizer will be included in the forthcoming Milly's 
Gourmet Organics WEB site.

Milly's Gourmet Organics is a company that presently sells only MaxGro, a 
100% Certified Organic 
Fertilizer, e.g. the fish meal I've been talking about in this message.  It 
is mixed with freshly cooked 
crab shell waste in order to increase the calcium concentration (very 
important for plants), and to 
reduce the cost of the fertilizer. Also, the chitin in the crabshell 
stimulates soil organisms to secrete 
enzymes called chitinases. These enzymes degrade chitin, which is a component 
of nematode and 
flea egg shells. The presence of chitin in the fertilizer makes it a natural 
biopesticide that is non-toxic 
to birds, animals, fish, and plants. This fertilizer is 30% protein, 6% 
nitrogen, 4% phosphorus, 0.6% 
potash, and 14% calcium. One pound will make 25 to 100 gallons of a 
water-based fertilizer slurry. 
The exact concentration of fish meal needed will depend on the health of your 
plants. MaxGro is 
sold in one pound bags for $12.95 (plus $.98 cents sales tax for CA 
residents) plus $3.00 for 
shipping by priority mail. Only US orders containing checks or money orders 
can be accepted until 
the WEB site is functional in a month or so. MasterCard/Visa and 
international orders will be 
accepted when ordering through the WEB site. We are discounting MaxGro now in 
order to more 
accurately guage consumer interest. Fish meal is only available seasonally so 
we must contract in 
advance with the processing plant.  By ordering now, you are helping us more 
accurately plan for 
the future. In the future, we will also be selling dried, purified soil 
bacterial preparations that can be 
used to supplement the bacteria already in the soil. These bacteria are not 
genetically engineered, 
but they are superior in their ability to break down plant proteins, 
starches, cellulose and pectin in 
the soil. I've isolated these bugs from some of the finest compost piles on 
the West Coast. ("You 
design vaccines for a living and crawl around compost piles for a hobby?"). 
If you don't have a 
compost pile-for example if you live in an apartment or condo-you will need 
to spike the bug juice I 
described earlier with superior soil bacteria in order to improve the growth 
of your house or patio 
plants. As soon as we can afford a $250,000 fermentor, we will prepare the 
bacterial strains for sale 
to the public. 

Orders can be sent to Milly's Organics, 265 Spanish Flag, Sonoma, CA 95476. 
Email is milly@ap.net. 
Please make checks out to Milly's and allow 2 weeks after the receipt of your 
order for delivery. 

Thanks for your patience and happy gardening. Oh, one more thing. If you ever 
meet an arrogant, 
know-it-all person who is totally full of him/hershelf, remind he/she that 
plants can make all their own 
vitamins, sugars and amino acids and live on CO2, sunshine and soil minerals. 
Animals can't. So, in 
a very real biochemical sense, plants are superior organisms or "beings" to 
humans-at least some 
humans. 

Milly and Steve