The Use of Homeopathy in Agriculture and Its Plant Biostimulation Effect on the Strawberry Cropping System
Faedo L, Verdi R, Rayns F, Kretzschmar A, Wright J, Boff P
Agriculture is facing a dramatic paradigm in its production model, where the necessity for sustainable farming methods is required to substitute the use of pesticides in agriculture. The strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa), one of the world’s most important berries is facing serious issues related to the application of high volumes of pesticides, compromising food and environmental security. Homeopathy and dynamized high dilutions (DHDs) have been showing promising results in plant-based research, particularly regarding plant bio-stimulation. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the potential of Homeopathy in plant-based research to explore the plant bio-stimulation effect of DHDs and increase the potential for using this ecological method in strawberry cropping systems.
The experiment was performed at the Agroveterinarian Science Centre, in Lages, Brazil, in 2019 and 2021, in a controlled environment following a Randomized Block Design and double-blind treatment application. The experiment tested the dynamized high dilutions of Sulphur 12CH, Phosphorus 12CH, Kali 12CH, Calcarea 12CH, Silicea 12CH, Natrum 12CH, and Mercurius 12CH, using deionized water 12CH and deionized water as control. The treatments were applied every 15 days. The agronomical attributes assessed in this study were crop production, fruit quality, plant disease, plant growth and architecture, leaf chlorophyll content, and root system development.
Data were analyzed by ANOVA and when significant (≤0.05) by Dunnett’s test. The DHDs of Calcarea and Sulphur increased root system development. Plants treated with DHDs of Sulphur and Silicea were less affected by Mycosphaerella. The DHDs of Sulphur, Phosphorus, and Kali increased plant growth and crop yield. The DHDs of Natrum and Mercurius were not effective as plant bio-stimulators. The results of this study evidence the potential role of dynamized high dilutions as plant bio-stimulators and the contribution of Homeopathy to the mitigation of the use of pesticides in strawberry cropping systems.
Keywords: Agroecology, homeopathy, sustainability, plant-vitality