“Yet another reason to shift investments toward saltwater agriculture and halophyte plants that don’t need fertilizers or pesticides, as we report in our annual Green Transition Scoreboard 2018 (now a free download at www.ethicalmarkets.com
Hazel Henderson, Editor“
Fertilizer destroys plant microbiome’s ability to protect against disease: Healthy microbiomes on plant leaves protect against pathogens, though not on fertilized plants
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180726162736.htm
Despite enthusiasm for spraying probiotics on crops to ensure healthy microbiomes, little is known about what a healthy above-ground biome, or phyllosphere, looks like. Recent experiments show that both natural microbiomes and synthetic biomes constructed from normal populations are protective against pathogens, though sometimes low doses work better than high doses. Surprisingly, fertilizing the plant allowed pathogens to multiply on leaves despite a healthy phyllosphere.