The word ‘organic farming’ has become one of those buzzwords you are hearing everywhere. No wonder! It is tragic that in today’s era of rapid agricultural production, the use of chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides has brought disastrous effects on public health and our beautiful mother earth is contaminated with all left over chemicals. Organic Farming comes to our rescue. Organic Gardening and Farming is based on using natural methods like the use of natural fertilizers and natural pesticides for plant growth and pest control and a complete NO to synthetic or chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Having said that, Let us preview two special books on organic farming using unique ultra-low cost methods which are really effective in horticulture. These books are even available in eBook editions at amazon.
The First book: JADAM Organic Farming – The Ultra-Low Cost Agriculture – second edition published in 2016.
The second book: JADAM Organic Pest and Disease Control with Powerful DIY Solutions to 167 common pests and diseases, published quite recently in June 2021 and probably I am the first to review this book.
About the Author: Dr. Youngsang Cho, from South Korea with over 30 years expertise in organic farming with a Master’s Degree in Horticulture and PHD in Plant pathology. He learnt agricultural technology from his father, Hankyu Cho, who was a founder of Korea Natural Farming (KNF). He started his agricultural research since 1991 and developed several low cost innovative technologies in organic farming and plant pest and disease control. These books are translated into 20 different languages and available worldwide.
Let’s First Preview:
JADAM ORGANIC FARMING – The way to Ultra-Low-Cost Agriculture.
This is the second edition of this book published in the year 2016 and the first edition was published way back in 2013. This book has about 379 pages.
The thing which I like most in this book: are these Four Aims of JADAM Farming Technology: SIMPLE – principles are simple and not complicated, EASY: Easy to make and use, SCIENTIFIC: that’s based on scientific research and results and lastly EFFECTIVE: these are highly effective and ultra-low-cost.
Now let’s check out Contents of this book:
So many interesting chapters starting from basic principles, Soil managment tips, Natural pesticides for all types of pests and much more. We will quickly flip through few pages and see how useful this book is.
- Some new concepts of symbiosis with grass or weeds looks interesting to me. This is explained in detail and scientifically.
- The Current State of our Soil – contaminated by chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
- Leaf Mold Soil, Seed and Seedling Treatment using leaf mold soil.
- No-Till Soil Management method using landscape fabric.
- The Main Chapter on Making Organic Fertilizers – which has topics like Natural Mineral Water, DIY Advanced Irrigation System, DIY electric Power Distribution Board,
- Making of JADAM Microorganism Solution (JMS), JADAM liquid Fertilizer, using boiled potatoes, Grass, Food Waste, Human Excreta, Fish meal and a lot of other stuff, like how we discussed on the Waste Decomposer technology by National Centre for Organic Farming, Indian Agriculture, in one of my episodes. Everything explained with beautiful photographs and illustrations.
- Natural Pesticides. Jadam DIY Water Softener, Then Jadam Wetting Agent, Jadam Sulphur, Jadam Herb Solution and much more.
Let’s quickly Preview the second book by the same author:
Jadam Organic Pest and Disease Control with Powerful DIY Organic Pest Control solutions with proven effectiveness. This book is published recently in June 2021. This book has about 506 pages.
We will quickly look through table of contents: some basic principles, then natural solutions to various types of pests like Mites, Aphids, whiteflies, Thrips, scales, bugs, Moths and other pests and insects. Then about the beneficial insects – that’s biological pest control. Then a detailed chapters on various plant diseases like blackspot disease, mildew, blight, mosaic virus, Damping off and many more and controlling with JADAM natural pesticides. The effect of JADAM natural pesticide has been proven by the National Agricultural Research Institute. This book is beautifully explained with nice clear photographs and illustrations on various pests and diseases.
These books will certainly help bring a revolution in organic agriculture if implemented worldwide without the need of commercial pesticides and can reduce the cost of pesticides by more than 95%. I am certainly going to try some of these methods mentioned in these books and implement them.
If you have any questions about Organic farming, you are most welcome to visit jadam website and ask them through ‘Sharing JADAM’. Another good thing is JADAM has not patented any of its knowledge and technologies but shared it all through seminars, books, and their website. These books are available worldwide at Amazon both as kindle editions and hard copies.
Book Links:
(Sales are good around the world, so stocks are often out of stock.This book stock will be filled right away. E-books are also being prepared.)
– JADAM Organic PEST CONTROL BOOK: (https://amzn.to/3wkYGf7
– JADAM Organic Farming Book: https://amzn.to/3jqEgOf
– Jadam Website: https://en.jadam.kr
The pesticides approved in organic farming are largely the natural ones, though a limited amount of synthetic substances are permitted.
Let’s list these synthetic and natural pesticides used in organic farming and learn how to use them one by one.
1. BORIC ACID AND BORAX: This powder is commonly used to play carom has many uses in gardening. It’s mainly used to treat soil pests and insects like millipedes and also for ant control. Just sprinkle the boric acid over the areas of infestation and do not water for at least 24 hours. It acts as a contact poison and also as a stomach poison when the pests ingest this powder.
2. COPPER SULPHATE: This is used both as a fertilizer as well as a fungicide. As an anti-fungal, it can be used in the prevention and treatment of fungal diseases like the Powdery mildew, Leaf rust, black spot rose disease and any other serious fungal disease. This is the most effective anti-fungal in organic gardening.
How to Use it? Mix 20 grams of copper sulfate into 1 litre of water in a spray bottle and spray it on the affected plant. You can repeat this process after 1 week. Prepare only the required solution for the day and do not store it for next use.
3. TRICHODERMA VIRIDE: This is a certified bio-fungicide and is normally present in soil which controls other pathogenic fungi and prevents root rot and other harmful soil fungi. So, this can be used in the treatment of soil fungi, root rot, damping off in seedlings and also to treat fungus affected seeds or to prevent fungal infestation of seeds.
How to use it? For Preventing Canker and stem rot after pruning, make a solution by adding 10 gms in 100 ml water and apply this on the injured stem after pruning to prevent fungal disease.
To Prevent Seed Fungus, add 10 gms powder to 1 kilogram of seeds and mix well.
For plants that are wilting and you suspect a fungal disease in soil and root rot, mix 10 gms per litre of water and drench the plant and soil. Repeat after a week if necessary.
To Mix it in your potting mix, add about 10 gms to a potting mix volume of a 12 inch container and then repot your plant. This is particularly beneficial when you transplant your seedlings into fresh potting mix.
4. BAKING SODA: This is pure sodium bicarbonate which is mainly for cooking purpose and readily available in your kitchen. To use it as a fungicide, you can mix 2 to 3 teaspoons of baking soda in 1 litre of water and mix well and spray on the affected parts. If you want to make it more effective and a universal pesticide, you can add 1 teaspoon of oil like neem oil to this solution plus some 10 drops of liquid soap and spray on the plant. You can also use any vegetable oil, but best is neem oil and also clove oil or eucalyptus oil. Repeat this spray every week till your problem is solved. Apart from this there are about 10 uses of baking soda in gardening. You can check a detailed post on baking soda in garden.
5. DIATOMACEOUS EARTH: This magical organic powder has many uses in gardening like ant control, slug and snail control, preventing animals and rodents in your garden and mainly as an organic pesticide effective against all types of pests like aphids, mites, thrips, mealy bugs, caterpillars and even soil pests and insects. The mechanism of action is it’s a contact poison which kills pests by extreme dehydration. You can check a detailed post on DE powder.
How to use Diatomaceous earth on plants?
First of all Water your plants for the day. Then dust the plants with an applicator or just sprinkle the powder on your plants. To avoid killing beneficial pollinators like bees and butterflies, do not sprinkle on flowers.
6. HYDROGEN PEROXIDE: Though it a chemical with formula H2O2, which is similar to that of water, but with an extra oxygen atom. This concept is the key for using hydrogen peroxide in gardening. Well, to use it as an effective pesticide and antifungal, add 1 cup that’s about 250 ml of 6% hydrogen peroxide per litre of water or 2 cups of 3% h2o2 per litre of water. Load it in a spray bottle and spray on the plants. To control Fungus gnats and soil pests, you can water the plant with the same solution. Apart from this, hydrogen peroxide has many other miraculous uses like to save a dying plant, as a fertilizer and many other beneficial uses. You can check a detailed post on hydrogen peroxide in gardening.
7. VINEGAR: this is chemically called Acetic Acid. It’s an inexpensive product and found in most kitchens. In gardening we use 5% white vinegar or the distilled white vinegar. For the treatment of powdery mildew or spot fungus, add One cup of White Vinegar to 1 litre of water and shake well and spray it on the affected leaves. To use it as a pesticide, Add one cup white vinegar to 1 litre of water and then add some 10 drops of liquid soap and spray on the affected plants. You can check a detailed post on uses of vinegar in garden.
8. NEEM OIL: Neem oil is by far the best Organic Pesticide available worldwide. Azadirachtin and Nimbin found in neem oil are the two major compounds responsible for its antibacterial and antifungal actions. It is in fact a broad spectrum pesticide and the safest and most effective of all organic or natural pesticides. To learn about how to use it, the dosage and the patch test, You can check a detailed post on neem oil for plants.
We all know that plants need Major Primary Nutrients – that’s NPK – nitrogen phosphrous and potassium and also the Secondary or trace or micro nutrients like calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, boron, zinc, and so on. These are either derived from
- Natural sources – what we call Organic Fertilizers for example, Cow dung, vermicompost and many other stuff.
- Inorganic or Chemical Fertilizers like NPK crystals, DAP, Urea and so on.
Now I will list out the harmful negative effects or the dangers of Chemical fertilizers and Pesticides that you frequently use in farming or home gardening. You please make a decision yourself after watching this video till the end.
- Ground water
Pollution: Nitorgen fertilizers
break down into nitrates and can easily go down into the soil. These are
water-soluble and can accumulate in groundwater for decades. And if you keep
adding more nitrogen over the years, this will have a cumulative effect. Moreover,
these effects of chemical fertilizers are compounded when you mix or use a
chemical pesticide.
You know the Fertilizer Urea, produces ammonia and contributes to acid rain, groundwater contamination and ozone depletion due to release of nitrous oxide by denitrification process. If we continue this in future, this hazard may increase several fold in the coming decades.
And remember! studies have shown that Groundwater contamination has been linked to stomach cancer, goitre (thyroid enlargement), birth defects in babies, and also hypertension.
Also Aquatic life is also significantly affected by water pollution and fish and other water animals may not get adequate oxygen and they can die. These are called Dead zones.
- Air Pollution: Excessive use of chemical NPKs can release greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. These can cause respiratory problems, cardiac disease, and many cancers. A special mention about the Blue Baby Syndrome, medically called methemoglobinemia occurs in infants and one cause of this problem is attributed to chemical over use and pollution where due to reduced oxygen in blood, the baby turns blue.
- Fertilizer Burn: You can burn your favourite plants and crops if used excessively – specially leaf burn and root burn. This fertilizer burn can even kill your favourite plant in addition to the hazards it causes to the environment. This fertilizer burn will not happen when you use organic or natural fertilizers.
- Depletion of Beneficial Organic Matter, beneficial Microbes and even Minerals from the Soil – that is reduced SOIL FERTILITY: This loss of organic matter can lead to soil acidification, soil compaction and hardening and other ill effects which makes it vulnerable to soil erosions. Researchers also say that depletion of minerals from the soil can also lead to low quality foods with lesser mineral and vitamin content.
- Though chemical fertilizers will help plants grow faster; plants will not be healthy and strong as plants grown in this manner do not have enough time to mature and develop a strong root system and strong stems, or good nutritious fruits and vegetables. And also they will be less likely to survive because they will be more susceptible to pests and diseases as they lack good immune system against pest attacks.
The Bottom Line: is There is a large threat to environment, animals and human health; chemical fertilizers will ultimately end up leaking into our water bodies; ponds, streams, ground water etc. and contaminate water supply as a result of which humans as well as animals may suffer numerous short term and long term hazardous chemical effects on their health.
So, Lets together take a pledge today to stop using these chemical fertilizers and pesticides and start using organic fertilizers and pesticides to keep our mother earth safe, for the present and for the future!!!