How to Prevent Crop Disease Without More Chemicals

What if pest and disease aren’t the real problem — but a symptom?
This conversation could change how you think about plant health forever.

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In this episode of Farm Learning, Tim Thompson sits down with agronomist Pete Briscoe to unpack a powerful emerging idea in plant science: a unified theory of pest and disease management.

Rather than targeting pests with more chemistry, this approach focuses on plant electrical balance (Eh) and pH — the conditions that determine whether pests and pathogens can attack in the first place.

You’ll learn:

Why unhealthy plants attract pests

How photosynthesis, soil biology, and microbes protect crops

Where plants are actually attacked (cell wall, xylem, phloem)

How to predict disease pressure before symptoms appear

Why regenerative systems often need less intervention, not more

This is essential viewing for growers managing crops, pasture, vineyards, orchards, or mixed farming systems.

This video explains plant disease resistance, regenerative pest management, soil biology and crop immunity, electrical balance in plants, photosynthesis efficiency, plant stress indicators, microbial disease suppression, and how pH and redox potential influence pest and pathogen pressure in agricultural systems.

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#RegenerativeAgriculture #PlantHealth #SoilBiology #PestManagement

📍 Filmed on-farm in Australia
🎙 Guest: Pete Briscoe from Green Mate (Agronomy & plant health specialist)
🧪 Topics: EH & pH testing, soil microbiology, plant immunity

00:00 Why pest & disease are always on a grower’s mind
00:26 A new “theory of everything” in plant disease
01:08 Why unhealthy plants attract pests
02:10 EH & pH explained in plain English
03:11 How photosynthesis controls disease risk
04:02 Measuring EH and pH to predict outbreaks
05:45 First attack point: the plant cell wall
07:12 The role of microbes in plant defence
09:22 Xylem health and diseases like verticillium wilt
11:04 Why chemicals disrupt natural immunity
13:12 Phloem, sugars, and virus susceptibility
14:33 How growers can help plants self-defend
15:28 Testing soil biology and structure properly
16:46 Diversity, observation, and getting out of the plant’s way
17:44 Final message: prevention through plant health