How to Grow More Vegetables : And Fruits, Nuts ... - Shroomery

insect problems. Eventually, trace minerals were added to the
chemical larder to round out the plants’ diet. After breaking
down nutrients into their component parts for plant food,
people found it necessary to recombine them in mixtures
approximating a balanced diet. This attempt might have been
more successful if the fertilizers had not caused chemical
changes in the soil that damaged its structure, killed beneficial
microbiotic life, and greatly reduced its ability to make nutrients
already in the air and soil available to the plants.
Rudolf Steiner returned to the more gentle, diverse, and
balanced diets of organic fertilizers as a cure for the ills
brought on by synthetic chemical fertilization. He stressed the
holistic growing environment for plants: their rate of growth,
the synergistic balance of their environments and nutrients,
their proximity to other plants, and their various companion
relationships. He initiated a movement to scientifically explore
the relationship that plants have with each other. From
centuries of farmer experience and from tests, it has been
determined that certain flowers, herbs, weeds, and other plants
can minimize insect attacks on plants. Many plants also benefit
one another. Strawberries and green beans produce better
when grown together. In contrast, onions stunt the growth of
green beans. Tomatoes are narcissists; they prefer to be grown
alone in compost made from tomato plants.
The biodynamic method also brought back raised planting
beds. Two thousand years ago, the Greeks noticed that plant
life thrives in landslides. The loose soil allows air, moisture,
warmth, nutrients, 1 and roots to properly penetrate the soil.
1. Alan Chadwick used to call these nutriments, the things that “nourish or promote growth
and repair the natural wastage of organic life.” He used the term to distinguish them from
nutrients, which are merely “nourishing substances or ingredients.” He did this in particular to
note the importance of multinutrient organic fertilizers, which break down over a period of time
and nourish microbial life growth. In contrast, chemical fertilizers generally break down rapidly
and cause inefficient decomposition of organic matter. This organic matter is the microbial life’s
food source. In this book, nutrient has both meanings.
Artificial fertilization.
Natural fertilization.
French gardeners at lettuce beds in the
early 1900s.
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY 3