Insect Pests
Insects and mite pests are part of nature. All organisms in nature have a role. In modern agriculture it is difficult to see what the positive role of these pests could be. These animals are natures recyclers. They are programmed to flourish on plants which are displaying signs of imbalance.
Nature recycles plants which are high in nitrogen or low in calcium to prevent animals from eating this incomplete food source. In modern agriculture we have developed products which control these pests. A more holistic approach is to rectify the underlying nutritional disorders therefore reducing the appeal of the plant to natures recycling impulse.
This has been demonstrated successfully within the banana industry in particular. TGS clients have very few problems with Red Spider Mite compared with adjacent farms. While we do not have the same level of data here as we do for plant disease, we believe this improvement is due to lower synthetic nitrogen use and higher calcium to magnesium ratios than industry average.