The plant-energy cost of synthetic fertilizers is large; fermented plant juices provide plant-available energy at low/no cost
The energy responsible for the food we eat, the oxygen we breathe, the topsoil we plant in, and the fossil-fuel energy that runs our economy originates in plant leaves via photosynthesis. From leaves, this energy flows throughout the plant and into the soil, distributing needed resources to the entire plant-soil ecosystem.
Energy flow disruptions alter conditions within the plant-soil ecosystem, allowing pathogens and insects to take hold. Natural and human interventions — drought, high radiation, extreme temperatures, fertilizers, “-cides,” plowing, harvest — all disrupt these energy flows. Plants expend considerable amounts of photosynthetic energy to counter these interventions and to maintain plant-friendly conditions in their leaves, stems, roots and soils. This most efficient system of energy distribution establishes the world we live in.
Figure 1 defines ranges of electric potential (Eh) and acidity (pH) where plant parts, bacteria, fungi and virus species, as well as insects, thrive. (For a deeper explanation of this chart, see my article in Acres U.S.A. from December 2024, “The Soil Electric.”) Notice that conditions that are optimal for healthy plants are not acceptable conditions for insects and pathogens. This is the science behind the notion that healthy plants will not succumb to insect or pathogen pressures. Pathogens and insects simply don’t exist at healthy plant conditions! This is one reason plants expend energy to maintain these conditions.
The Plant-Energy Costs of Synthetic Fertilizers
Subtle interventions may have significant effects. Significant interventions may have detrimental effects. Fertilizers fit this model well. Figure 1 shows that oxidizing activities like tilling, the use of chemical fertilizers, and -cides move healthy plant conditions up and to the right — toward conditions that support fungi, bacteria, viruses and insects. Note the movement of xylem and phloem sap from healthy conditions to susceptible ranges when oxidized in the figure. Oxidized soils do not support Eh and pH conditions required for healthy plants. As more chemicals and -cides are applied to help keep plants alive and pest free, conditions move further up and to the right. This cycle does not produce healthy plants and continues to damage soils.
Often overlooked in discussions about fertilization are the plant-energy costs of applying them. Plants absorb elemental compounds that are water-soluble. Phase diagrams, or Pourbaix diagrams, which originated in the 1950s, define the range of electric potential and acidity needed for these water-soluble compounds to exist.
For example, Figure 2 shows the Pourbaix Diagram for manganese. The shaded area labeled Mn2+(aq) defines the electric potential (Eh) and acidity (pH) conditions required for manganese in its water-soluble form to exist. This is the form of manganese that plants can use. In general, balanced soils, as shown in Figure 2, have Eh and pH values that support this plant-available form of manganese (Mn2+(aq)), while oxidized soils have Eh and pH values that do not support these forms.
This is an example of why an element may be in your soil according to a soil test, but not in the plant! The element in the soil is not in a plant-available form. Figures 1 and 2 highlight two very important agricultural characteristics: life-sustaining conditions and mineral availability are both dependent on electric potential and acidity conditions.
The mineral compounds in chemical fertilizers are not in plant-usable forms or proportions and may significantly alter local Eh and pH conditions, creating toxic environments at the leaves and/or in the soil when applied. Plants jump into action expending energy to maintain existing plant-friendly Eh and pH conditions, to prevent toxins from entering sap flows, and to convert compounds into the water-soluble forms plants can use.
An estimation of the plant energy needed to transform fertilizers into forms plants can use may be gleaned from phase diagrams like Figure 2. Converting compounds is a drain on the ecosystem, at the expense of growing leaves that increase the solar collecting area (photosynthesis), and ultimately the food we eat, the oxygen we breathe, the topsoil we plant in, and the fossil-fuel energy that runs our economy.
Plant-Energy Fertilizers
Nature demonstrates that the best way to nurture a tomato seed is with a tomato fruit. A ripe tomato not harvested in autumn falls to the ground. Its seeds will be nourished by the decaying fruit the following spring, providing foundational nutrition and biological conditions for those seeds at the most influential time of the plant’s development.
Making a fermented plant juice of tomato replicates this natural process, producing a stable, mineral-rich, water-soluble extract with a wide range of nutrients in plant-available forms. Studies show that various bacteria, fungi, amino acids, enzymes and other complex compounds are also present. These should be important characteristics of any product, especially fertilizers, as they are essential for facilitating plant-energy utilization, minimizing the plant-energy cost of assimilation into usable forms, minimizing environmental impacts, enhancing photosynthesis, and overall growing efficiency.
Fermented plant juices are reported to have profound, positive effects on plants, especially when applied as foliar sprays. Analysis reveals that these juices contain all 18 of the elements we are told plants need in small amounts (https://www.nigel-palmer.com/amendment-analysis). Plotting all 18 element water-soluble compound ranges of Eh and pH the same way, as described for manganese in Figure 2, results in Eh and pH conditions very close to those of plants. As a result, the plant-energy cost of assimilating these extracts is very little or zero! This makes sense, as these compounds are derived from plants themselves.
Fertile Ratios
Not only are the forms of elements important — so are their ratios.
Element ratios have been identified in many biological systems. The “Redfield ratio” (1934) describes the elemental ratios of phytoplankton and seawater, which are similar and controlled by the phytoplankton’s release of these element ratios, making the connection between environmental conditions and the ecosystem within. William Albrecht defined optimal soil element ratios in the 1940s. Anyone who has done a soil test might use these ratios as a guide for improving their own soil.
Fully decomposed organic matter has specific ratios of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur, regardless of the materials used in decomposition. Plants have characteristic Eh and pH values in their chloroplasts, apoplast and mitochondria, as well as within their structural and metabolic systems.
Element ratios and forms are indicative of electric potential (Eh) and acidity (pH) conditions, and their variation within plants forms the energy gradients that flow throughout the plant-soil ecosystem. The importance of maintaining these ratios cannot be overstated.
An analysis of many different fermented plant juices reveals consistent ratios between elements. Consistent element ratios imply consistent mineral compound ratios based on element phase diagrams and their water-soluble forms. It is suggested, for example, that applying small amounts of tomato fermented plant juice to tomato plants as a foliar spray application has significant effect because of the tomato-centric mineral water-soluble forms and proportions, amino acids, enzymes, other complex compounds and the little or no plant energy expended for conversion. Disruptions are minimized, eliminating Eh and pH condition changes toward insect and pathogen attacks. The combination of bacteria and fungi species, appropriate nutrient ratios, and complex compounds immediately available to the plant creates ripe conditions for quorum sensing and other biological processes.
Fermented plant juices don’t just feed the plant — they provide complex building blocks that positively boost the entire ecosystem. This is why the application of small amounts has such a significant effect. Fermented plant juices offer low/no-cost, empowering ways to feed the entire ecosystem at any scale. For more on this topic, see my Acres U.S.A. article in August 2023, “The Magic of Foliar Feeding.”
Purchased chemical fertilizers and -cides include the costs of extracting raw minerals from the earth, the energy required to build and operate product manufacturing factories, plastic packaging, and product transportation. These costs are all occured before the product even makes it to a plant. Ecosystem degradation resulting from the use of these products is well documented. The plant-energy costs of converting product into plant-available forms should also be included when considering their true total costs.
Fermented plant juices improve produce quality and enhance plant protection from pathogen and insect pressure by providing nutrients and bioactive compounds plants can use directly. They support photosynthesis and other metabolic processes, have little or no plant-energy cost of assimilation, minimize disruptions that move conditions toward supporting pathogens and insects, and ultimately reduce the need for artificial inputs, promoting a more regenerative approach to agriculture.
These ideas paint a picture of an extremely complex, dynamic system of everchanging conditions as a result of external sources. It is only plant-expended energy that keeps the system in balance. These ideas provide a framework for understanding the outcome of many human and natural interventions.
