Before a typhoon arrives, confidence makes fruit trees stronger
The Amazing Perception of Plants
This year, after returning from a learning trip to Taitung about Shumei Natural Agriculture, I decided that the plot I had converted to organic farming last year would switch to Shumei Natural Agriculture this year. Of course, I always had a question in my heart, so I asked Brother Roger: What is the difference between our Shumei Natural Agriculture and Apple Grandpa Akinori Kimura's natural farming?
Brother Roger said: Shumei Natural Agriculture uses no protective materials at all, including the materials Akinori Kimura uses to prevent pests and diseases - vinegar. At the time I asked him whether using vinegar made pests and diseases less likely to occur. He said: A very important principle of Shumei Natural Agriculture is to believe in your crops. Although I could not yet grasp this at the time, after returning I decided not to spray pesticides, not to apply fertilizer, and not even to spray vinegar, but in my mind I thought, anyway, I will treat this plot as extra. If there is a harvest, great; if there is no harvest, so be it. At least, apart from labor, not much other material cost was put in.
While facing the natural agriculture area with the mindset that there would not be much of a harvest, I continued to learn the principles of Shumei Natural Agriculture from Teacher Chan Wu-lung at the Puyu Natural Farm in Hsinchu. After taking the first-stage course, from the teacher's sharing in class about "The Wonderful World of Plants," I gradually came to understand that plants have the ability to perceive. In the video, scientists attached electrical sensors to plants. Normally, the electrical current in the plants was steady. When the scientists burned the plants with a lighter, the electrical current in the plants produced large fluctuations, showing that plants have pain responses. In addition, in Green Bud Magazine, I also found a similar experiment, but this time more of the same plants were fitted with electrical sensors. When you burn the first plant, the remaining plants sensed the danger and all also showed huge fluctuations, showing that plants have very strong perceptive ability.
In April, at the invitation of a senior in Taitung, senior experts of Japan's Shumei Natural Agriculture came to Taiwan. Their first stop was an observation seminar with Shumei natural farmers in Taitung. During the seminar, the Japanese Shumei experts greatly praised Taiwan's Shumei Natural Agriculture producers. They believed that although Taiwan's technical side is not yet very mature and yields are not high, and although most producers come from various religions, rather than, as in Japan, all farmers practicing Shumei Natural Agriculture being members of Sekai Kyusei Kyo, more and more farmers are still being drawn to Shumei Natural Agriculture. They decided to take the spiritual essence of Taiwan's practice of Shumei Natural Agriculture back to Japan.
At the meeting, a Japanese Shumei expert raised a point that started me thinking in my own direction. He told a small local story from their area: in Japan, some members of Sekai Kyusei Kyo would go to Shumei farm households to help with farm work, but Shumei Natural Agriculture's way of preserving health places great emphasis on eating crops in season and at the right time. So if over the same period they might eat the same crops every day, the helpers developed a feeling of dislike for certain crops, and even complained in front of the plants. As a result, the following year that plant produced no food at all. Later, the farm households repeatedly pleaded with the plant, and only the following year did that plant return to a state of abundant fruit.
Perhaps many people scoff when they hear this and think it is impossible, but that day after I discussed it with the seniors in Taitung, they told me to go back and have faith in my sweet persimmons, to believe they would grow well and be very healthy. Later, after reading "The Wonderful World of Plants" and an article in Green Bud Magazine about experiments and discussion on plants' perceptive ability, I realized what a magical world plants are. So I put most of my time into the natural agriculture area, often going over to see them and talk to them, and with a thankful heart I regard the persimmon trees that, without pesticide spraying or fertilizer application, can still strive to bloom and set fruit.
