PROBLEM ANALYSIS
UNDERSTANDING THE CAUSES
Fresh fruit that is thrown away in the market or low-taste coffee and cocoa that is sold at inferior prices are all directly linked to low internal fruit quality. Low quality fruit mostly comes from low-quality plants that lack nutrients and are in weak, unbalanced soils. Understanding where weak fruit comes from let’s do a short problem-analysis.
Problem analysis of fruit quality
The internal quality of the fruit is a main cause of almost all symptoms of decay or loss of quality. The better the internal quality, the longer the shelf-life, the more resilient to temperature changes & fungus and the better the taste. Dry matter content and brix are 2 very useful indicators to measure internal quality
Plants with growth or health problems in general cannot produce high quality fruit. This is partly caused by weather conditions but the causes we can influence are often linked to plant-intoxication through pesticides or excess nutrients as well as a deficiency of other nutrients as well as soil conditions.
Having one or more of the minimum 12 macro and micro-nutrients at very low levels in the soil or fertilization is a big limitation in plant health. On the other hand so are excesses; high Nitrogen or Potassium levels for instance can cause pests & diseases and weak plant-cells (low shelf life o taste). An excess of one nutrient can reduce another, causing nutrient deficiencies as a result.
Even having the 12 main nutrients plus trace-elements in the soil within their respective range or balance, does not necessarily mean that the plant can absorb them. This can be caused by problems at the root-system that affect nutrient uptake or limitations in the soil that reduce availability of nutrients.
Nutrients in the soil can be blocked, fixed or washed out and become less or not available. Some of the main factors in the soil that limit nutrient availability are pH/acidity, limited or bad microbiology, low organic matter, compaction and humidity.
The roots are the start of the nutrient uptake of the plant, especially the root-hairs. Having no or little new root-hairs means no or little absorbtion of nutrients. Limiting factors are toxic levels of aluminum or sodium in the soil, bad microbiology, low organic matter, compaction or simply bad planting or seedlings.
Arriving at the core-cause we can identify a few key-areas that promote or limit healthy agriculture. We already mentioned acidity, mineral balance, nutrient- & water retention capacity, microbiology, compaction and soil coverage.
Having done this Problem-Cause Analysis we can summarize the main root-causes to 5 areas we can work on, the 5M’s of SoilBalance. If we focus on these 5 M’s or areas of impact, we improve most of the above mentioned causes and symptoms. On the next page we present these 5 root-causes. 5 Causes.
