WE don’t need pesticides to grow healthy, nutritious and delicious food. Scientific research has established that healthy plants repel pests. “Insects only feed upon food that is considered unfit, nutritionally poor, dead or dying,” says entomologist Dr Thomas M. Dykstra. They cannot digest fully healthy plants. Their digestive systems cannot process the sugars locked up at certain stages of plant health.

Assessing a plant’s health level is simple. A small tool called Brix refractometer is required to measure the sugars in plant leaves. Even a layperson can use it easily. If it shows a leaf Brix level of six to eight per cent, aphids and scale insects lose interest in that plant. Sucking insects will not harm a plant with a leaf Brix ranging from seven to nine. Chewing insects can tolerate relatively complex sugars in the plant but they stop eating the plants when their Brix level reaches levels between nine and 11. Higher than 12, the leaves are difficult to chew and indigestible, and inedible for insects like grasshoppers. Between 12 and 20, plants are healthy and free of pest attacks. The food grown is nutrient-dense and fit for human consumption.

It is important to understand how nature helps plants achieve a level........

© Dawn