My attitude to life is: anything that makes the world happy makes you happy (in the actual sky- touching, heart- leaping sense of being one with the world). Anything that is bad for any species is bad for humans as well. Anything that kills a mosquito kills a human as easily. Conversely anything that is good is good for all.
In the list of bad I put dams, plastic, pesticides, uncontrolled building, meat eating, milk drinking, zoos, leather, any form of animal based food or industry, cutting of trees…. I could add illiteracy, arrogance, intellectual laziness, and greed to this as attitudes. As you destroy so shall you be destroyed. By sickness, bad weather, poverty, bad governance, calamities. Anything that is gentle, joyful and truly scientifically attuned to nature is good. You will be rewarded with good weather, good crops, lack of hunger, much less sickness, clean water, good governance.
Which one do you choose? Because I am always in search of the better alternative, I come across amazing people and inventions that, should we adopt them, would make us so much better and happier.
Yesterday, looking for homeopathic medicines for animals on the Net, I came across someone who does homeopathic medicines for plants. What fun! This week I am going to give you some ways on how to use agro-homeopathy, the word and system invented by Shri V.D.Kaviraj. Kaviraj is a Dutch homeopath (though he looks Indian) and one of the foremost pioneers of Agro-homeopathy and author of the book, Homeopathy for Farm and Garden.
Note: When treating plants with homeopathic remedies, this is the standard dosing procedure: Put 20 drops of a 6X potency in a litre of water. Succuss the bottle 50 times. Put this litre in the watering can, fill it up with 19 litres of tap water and stir. If the watering can is smaller, the amount of remedy put in must be proportionally smaller. Thus a 10 litre can needs only ½ litre and just 10 drops of the remedy. Apply the contents of the watering can to the roots of the plants to be treated. Succussing, it means shaking it by pounding it against the palm of your hand or a hard bound book 50 times.
I am taking this straight off his site on the Net so if you use the remedies, let me know if they work. * to perk up a transplanted rose put Aconite* When plants flower, they use up a lot of phosphor, because they need it. So if the flowers start drooping and the leaves turn yellow use Ferrum phosphoricum.
*To make tomatoes and pepper seeds germinate better and make the young plants strong. Do not put them too close to each other, because they may infect each other with blight, both late and early. Use Ocimum basilicum for the tomatoes, single dose and with the peppers, use Chamomilla. *To stop a fungus disease called stemrot in soya bean Silicea is the best remedy. Soak the seeds in Silicea to prevent it and use Equisetum and Chamomilla in the compost. Keep Carbo veg at hand, just in case Silicea fails.
Q: A year back I used Silicea for fungal disease of the Moringa olefera (drumstick) plant. It flowered thrice, but not a single pod has grown. Is there a remedy for this problem? A: Silicea should be used only once. You may try Phosphorus to see if any fruits may still develop.
Q: My mango tree is flowering after 20 years of being barren but the fruits are falling when pea size. There are thousands of insects who move sideways very fast which are sapping all the florets so that they dry out and fall. A: If the insects move sideways, they are mites. They also cause very fine and not extensive webbing between branches and leaves. Amblyseius mckenzii is the remedy, available from www.considera.co.uk or from www.narayanaverlag.de. As to your mango tree, this is a matter of feeding the tree. Get a bunch of old cowdung cakes and spread around the base of the tree. Water the tree every day and the nutrients in the dung will feed the tree. You can also give a dose of Phosphorus.
Q: I bought a dumb cane plant. The leaves have started to wither; brown and yellow in colour and with some spotting. I sprayed this plant once, two weeks ago with a herbicide, but haven’t noticed any improvement. What I have noticed is similar degeneration on a healthy, long-established plant I already owned. Is there any way to save them? A: NEVER use an herbicide (plant killer) on a plant you want to keep. The best solution now is to give a dose of Carbo vegetabilis or perhaps Cantharis, but DON’T USE BOTH ON THE SAME PLANT. Treat one plant with Carbo and the other with Cantharis and see which works better.
Q: My potted plant is inside the house. The leaves are turning yellow and indeed it looks like it is dying. I have the heater on as it is winter. A: Use Kali carbonicum 6C. Put a bowl of water on the heater/radiator and make sure the plants are well away from the radiator.
Q: I have a bunch of bamboo plants in the house in a glass pot and I change the water after 5-7 days. One of the plants was yellowing, so I checked and found that the 1st layer was rotten. I removed it with a knife . Almost all leaves of all plants are yellowing during winter. During summer, the tips of the leaves get dry. Please suggest medicine for yellowing and drying. I have kept them for the past 04 years. A: First, re-plant them in larger pots. If the pots are too small, the earth is all gone and thus they dry out faster. Then, also give Ferrum phos. In the Chikku plant during rainy season, Phytopthera really creates havoc. Can you please suggest the remedy? A: The best remedy is Silicea. If that does not work, try Carbo veg.
Q: In spite of much hard work, we developed blossom end rot on our tomatoes. Is there a way to prevent that? A: These symptoms indicate there is not enough calcium, so that the fruit cannot properly form. The best remedy is Calcarea carbonica.
Q: Last year, the peaches on our trees developed soft brown spots which got powdery later on, and then the fruit rotted. This is something called brown rot. Is there a solution to this? A: There are several options for brown rot. Manganum aceticum is one. The disease may be caused by a lack of manganese. Molybdenum is another element that may be deficient and Molybdenum as a remedy can also help. Allium cepa can also do it, when there are no nutrient deficiencies. You can send in your queries at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Maneka Gandhi
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