Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Seeking Relief Through Arnica

Heike Brauer/iStockphoto

BEFORE the C.F.D.A. Fashion Awards in June, the New York-based fashion designer Phillip Lim, who’d been traveling frequently and working hard, was feeling a bit puffy. “I heard of models and other designers taking arnica before big events or photo shoots, so I thought I’d try it out,” he said recently, referring to the homeopathic supplement arnica montana. “It’s supposed to slim you down because it flushes you out. And it clears up your skin.”

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Derived from yellow mountain daisies, arnica comes in many forms, including gels and pellets.

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But using too much of it can be toxic.

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Wende Zomnir of Urban Decay uses arnica to prevent soreness.

Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The New Yorker

The designer Phillip Lim tried arnica when he was feeling puffy.

Mr. Lim tried a three-day oral regimen of arnica before walking the red carpet, and was pleased with the results. “I did feel like my skin glowed afterwards,” he said.

Available in pellets, topical gels, creams and even massage oil, arnica is the latest of many herbal remedies to invigorate, if not intoxicate, the fashion crowd. Linda Fargo, the fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman, counts the pellet form as one of her fashion week survival must-haves, and the stylist Isabel Dupré has long been a fan.

“I know it for its healing quality,” Ms. Dupre said. “It’s an old family remedy.”

Wende Zomnir, the executive creative director of Urban Decay cosmetics, who uses arnica in several forms instead of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, said: “I think it’s amazing. I take it myself, give it to my kids and hand it out at the Crossfit gym I work out at. I use it after a tough workout to prevent muscle soreness, if myself or my kids have gotten bumped around and might be bruised, or if I’ve strained a muscle.”

Derived from a yellow mountain daisy that grows in Europe and is also known as leopard’s bane, arnica has traditionally been used to treat bruising. It reputedly increases circulation by stimulating white blood cell activity, thereby decreasing the amount of healing time and reducing inflammation. If taken internally, it must be diluted with water; arnica contains the toxin helenalin and is poisonous if consumed in large quantities. Dr. Macrene Alexiades-Armenakas, a Manhattan dermatologist and an assistant clinical professor at Yale, said that, “taken orally, arnica has been reported to cause irritation and toxicity for both the gastrointestinal system and the kidneys.”

Still, even before the style set took it up, sports figures were showing interest in the substance. Pierre Barrieu, a former head fitness coach for the United States Men’s National Soccer Team, had been treating players with arnica pellets and topical formulations since 2002.

“Basically, it was to relieve the effects of blows and bruises (i.e., preventswelling and bleeding) when applied in a timely manner,” he wrote in an e-mail. “It’s best to apply as early as possible after the traumatic event. We also used it to accelerate the recovery, because arnica decreases the inflammation. And finally, it was used to prevent cramps.”

Orthopedic surgeons have also “prescribed” arnica, which is sold in places like Duane Reade and Whole Foods, as a pre- and post-operative measure. And some dermatologists have recommended it after plastic surgery and injectables like Botox and Restylane.

When the fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg was injured in a ski accident in January, she tweeted during recovery: “Arnica gel is the best thing you can do for bruises. ... I cannot say it enough ...,” prompting rumors that the accident was a foil for plastic surgery (which she quickly batted away).

In the hands of natural-beauty buffs, arnica has recently become something of a medicine-cabinet and vanity catch-all. According to Sprayology, a company featured on Teen Vogue’s Web site that sells vitamin and homeopathic mouth sprays, arnica treats confusion and feelings of vertigo. That’s the claim, anyway, for including the herb in its “Brain Power” formulation.

On online forums, especially of the ayurvedic and homeopathic variety, arnica oil has been touted as a remedy for alopecia, or hair loss.

Ms. Zomnir of Urban Decay used it for pain and soreness after natural delivery. “My midwife gave me arnica after the births of my boys,” she said. “I had them both at home, so no drugs available. Arnica did the trick.”

Still others say it clears up acne and other skin inflammations. Nelsons Pure and Clear Acne Gel lists arnica as one of four active ingredients. In an Elle magazine interview, the model Gisele Bundchen touted Nelson’s gel as a gentle way to clear up blemishes. And at the Upper East Side Kiehl’s flagship and spa, which opened on July 19, jars of arnica flowers line the treatment rooms so aestheticians can customize services on the spot. It’s visually attractive from a naturist’s standpoint, but not the most contemporary method.

“Arnica has evolved,” said Dr. Alexiades-Armenakas. “Even though it has a long history, it’s never been terribly effective. Fast forward to the present, and we’ve had a good amount of labs analyze the active ingredients in arnica. They’ve identified a number of ingredients that account for anti-bruising, and among them are caffeine derivatives.”

Dr. Alexiades-Armenakas has included these derivatives along with cacao extract in her 37 Extreme Actives facial cream, sold at Neiman Marcus for $295 for a 1.7-ounce pot. “The idea is to combat puffiness because caffeine has a constrictive ability on blood vessels and lymphatic vessels,” she said.

Dr. Charles Passler, a Manhattan chiropractor and nutritionist who has worked with the Estée Lauder model Carolyn Murphy and with Dylan Lauren, recommends both oral and topical forms of arnica, mainly for bruising and inflammation. “As far as using arnica as a tool for changing body composition, I’m not aware of it,” he said. For temporary de-bloating, though, Dr. Passler conceded, “It will help decrease any puffiness in the body caused by inflammation.”

Despite her use of arnica in a topical product, Dr. Alexiades-Armenakas remains concerned about long-term oral use. “I would be O.K. if they did it for a few days for a photo shoot once a month,” she said of the fashionable pill-poppers. “But if they’re having a photo shoot every week, and they’re regularly on it, I would be very worried. Especially for models, they’re very thin, and it’s easier to get toxicity.”


Preliminary Responses from the Helix Tosta Survey

A Few Early Reports:

1. Fantastic – I love it – I am about to continue to water more of my veges. What else do you have in the gardening section? I am an (domestic) organic grower.

2. All plants sprayed with your product wilted and died. (Ed: We not sure what happened with this particular person. No one else has ever reported this response from Helix tosta. Perhaps a contaminated spray bottle?).

3. As I have seen a snail and a slug on lettuces I cannot say it has been 100%, however I am stunned that there are almost no snails or slugs compared to before. Some plants like eggplants and capsicums are being munched. however I suspect caterpillars.

4. This is a fascinatingly effective treatment to repel snails and slugs and has been well worth applying.

5. I have not had to reapply despite HEAVY rain periods since I sprayed it. Well done, you appear to have solved a problem for me. Now if you could solve the rest I’d appreciate it (he he.) Love theHomeopathy for the Garden book I purchased from you. Thanks for the free Helix tosta sample.

6. Plants have NOT been eaten since treatment with Helix tosta. In one patch I had a variety of things including marigolds. After about 3 weeks something nibbled a little of the marigold leaves but didnt touch anything else. Also had a number of pots of basil. Sprayed all but one. The one that was not sprayed no longer exists. The others, you can find snails sitting on outside of the pots but basil is going strong.

But There’s More to Come

It has been exciting watching the results from the Helix tosta survey trickle in. So far, well over half of respondents have said that Helix tosta produced an ‘excellent’ result with many others classifying the result as ‘good’.

BUT, three quarters of those surveyed have not yet responded – and of the quarter who have, many have said they have either not yet had a chance to use Helix tosta, or that it had only just been applied so it was too early to tell.

So, after waiting a little longer, we have now resent the survey to gather more information.

If you did NOT have time to use Helix tosta before the first survey went out, now’s your chance to tell everyone whether or not the remedy worked with your garden or crop. Please test your vial of Helix tosta as quickly as possible so you can fill in the survey. We will be presenting all those results we receive in the next newsletter and on this website.

What’s Happening with Michelle?

Michelle reported that after more than three months of snail-free rhubarb, snails once again started to eat her plants and leave their droppings all over the leaves. This time, instead of spraying Helix tosta onto the leaves as was done the first time, she watered it into the roots so she could compare results between the different applications. Within a day or so her plants were snail free once more. (Michelle’s earlier story can be read in the Snails and Slugs Pack their Bags and Leave With Homeopathy article.


Snails and Slugs Pack their Bags and Leave with Homeopathy


Gardeners can safely repel slugs and snails from their plants in no time at all with homeopathy.

Farmers ‘in-the-know’ use a simple homeopathic remedy called Helix tosta (toasted snail shell) to safely defeat the snails and slugs among their crops and report that after just one treatment, these pests avoid their plants for up to four months!

Best of all, the slugs and snails will crawl past a juicy meal just to munch on an untreated plant further away. Not even heavy rain seems to reduce the effectiveness of the treatment.

While some farmers spray the remedy directly onto the plant, others have had equally good results by watering it into the soil above the roots. It’s as if the snails get the message to pack up their shells and leave – and that’s exactly what they do.

This is great news for those who are fed up with having their freshly planted seedlings nibbled to the ground – especially as Helix tosta is easy to use, available here in Australia and harmless to people and wildlife. This means no nasty burns if spilt on the skin or trips to the hospital if swallowed by a child.

The energetic effect of Helix tosta disappears soon after use, leaving only a healthier and more resilient plant that is completely safe to eat.

What is Helix Tosta?

Helix tosta is the Latin name for a homeopathic remedy made from toasted snail shell. Homeopaths have used Helix tosta for more than a century for certain respiratory problems and tuberculosis, especially if the person was coughing up blood.

The remedy has been used as a snail and slug repellent only in more recent times.

Make Your Own Snail Repellent Remedy

The following instructions will have you producing 100,000 litres of snail and slug repellent from just one small snail shell.

Amazing! Never let it be said that homoeopathy is expensive or lacks efficiency.

Instructions:

  1. First, catch your snail.
  2. Drop it quickly into a pot of boiling water to ensure a quick death then remove its body from its shell. If this is a little grisly for you, find an empty shell from one that has hopefully died of old age after a full life.
  3. Clean the shell well, place it into an electric oven or kiln, and roast it at 850°C until the shell turns into a white powder.
  4. Triturate (grind) this powder with lactose (sugar of milk) to a 3X potency, at which time it will easily dissolve into a water-alcohol solution. Then, continue to potentise the remedy to a 6X potency (tutorials 3 and 4 explain how this is done).
  5. You can either continue to use the total volume of the water-alcohol solution produced at each potency stage so you end up with your full 100,000 litres or, for more manageable quantities, just save and use 10% of the liquid from each stage to produce the next potency.
  6. For small gardens, add 10 ml of the 6X stock liquid to 10 litres of water and water into the ground or on the plants. A whole hectare can be treated by adding 500 ml of the 6X stock liquid to 500 litres of water.
  7. If for some strange reason you want even larger stock amounts simply start with more snail shells.

Does it Really Work?

When we first received our Helix tosta remedy we too wanted to see if it worked.

Not a single snail or slug could be found around Fran Sheffield’s garden (must be those kookaburras) so it fell to Michelle Keats, another Homoeopathy Plus practitioner, to trial it on her snail infested rhubarb.

This is what happened:

“When I was first asked to do this I thought, what a crazy idea! But I dropped a pill into a bottle of water and sprayed my rhubarb where the snails normally thrive, and waited to see what would happen.

The next morning there was not a snail to be seen …. until I turned the leaves over. They had all clustered on the undersides. I sprayed the leaves again but this time, on both sides.

Since then it truly has been a case of, ‘not a snail to be seen’. I have checked the rhubarb day and night and it remains completely snail free. Some have parked themselves on the wall beside my garden but none have ventured onto the plants.

I am seriously impressed. I’ve been told that this effect will last a few months, even if it rains, but I guess that is something I will have to wait and see.

Next time I am going to try watering the roots instead of spraying the leaves.”

(You can see the snail-eaten leaves of the rhubarb in this photograph sent to us by Michelle.)

Some time later in a followup report, Michelle said that after more than three months of snail-free rhubarb, snails once again started to eat her plants and leave their droppings all over the leaves.

This time, instead of spraying Helix tosta onto the leaves as was done the first time, she watered it into the roots so she could compare results between the different applications. Within a day or so her plants were snail free once more.

After Michelle’s experience with Helix tosta we were keen to know what took place when others used the remedy. We sent a survey to everyone who purchased a vial during November and December 2009. They were asked three questions.

  1. Did you use the remedy on plants troubled by snails or slugs?
  2. Did you spray the remedy on the leaves of the plant or water it into the soil around the roots?
  3. Was the remedy successful?

Of those who had used the remedy, 83.8% rated it as either good or excellent for repelling slugs and snails. We have placed the preliminary reports of their success and the final results of the survey in theAgrohomeopathy section of the website.

Why Use Helix Tosta?

Because it’s cheap, it’s safe – and it works.

As we have already discussed, for a small amount of electricity and preserving alcohol (we suggest vodka), trailer-loads of Helix tosta can be prepared from just one small snail shell.

Helix tosta is also safe. Unlike many other products, Helix tosta has no toxic ingredients to harm you, your plants or pets, wildlife or the environment.

How Does it Work?

Certainly not by chemicals.

When correctly chosen, homeopathic remedies stimulate an energetic response from either humans, animals, or plants that improves their resistance to pathogens and disease. This is exactly what happens when Helix tosta is used for deterring snails and slugs.

Just like us, plants in less than perfect health are attacked by parasites and disease. When a plant is strengthened by the needed homeopathic remedy (ie. Helix tosta in this instance) it is less attractive to slugs and snails – they either die out or move to greener pastures.

More than Snails

Homeopathy can be used with all living things. While many people know it treats human health problems, and some know that it treats animals, only a few know that it works just as well with plants for their pests or diseases.

Useful though this knowledge is, agrohomeopathy (homeopathy for plants) is much more than just getting rid of snails and slugs. It is used around the world to treat all manner of plant diseases, repel pests, improve soil productivity and increase crop yield – and all in an environmentally safe and supportive manner.

Because this topic is so important for the way we grow our food and other crops, and the safe preservation of our soils and the animal life that shares this planet with us, regular articles agrohomeopathy will be placed in the Agrohomeopathy section of the website.

For those new to subject, we have added an interview with Vaikunthanath Das Kaviraj, one of the foremost practitioners and educators from the agrohomeopathy movement.

The Kaviraj Interview

Kaviraj first discovered homeopathy in 1979 when he was seriously ill with dysentery in India. He says, “…after 11 weeks of it and nearly dying, homeopathy fixed me in less than 3 days”.

He then began his homeopathic studies but his work with plants didn’t begin until in Switzerland in 1986 when his friend suggested he try treating some apple trees that had developed a virulent bright red rust.

To everyone’s surprise, homeopathic Belladonna cleared the rust and left a much better-tasting apple than the trees had produced prior to then.

This experience inspired years of research in countries as far afield as Australia, Europe, and Asia. Read what Kaviraj has discovered about the effects of homeopathy with plants in The Kaviraj Interview.

More Information on Helix tosta

1. Article on our first experiments with Helix tosta and how it repels snails and slugs in gardens.

2. Instructions on how to use Helix tosta

3. Early responses from customers who took part in a survey on the effectiveness of Helix tosta as a snail and slug repellent in their gardens.

4. Final survey responses from customers on the effectiveness of Helix tosta when used in their gardens.

5. Answers to questions we received from subscribers about Helix tosta.

6. Link to the Helix tosta remedy in the Homeopathy Plus shop

7. Link to the Homeopathy for Farm and Garden book in the Homeopathy Plus shop

8. Link to the Agrohomeopathy section of the website with other articles on using homeopathy for soil, plants, and pests.

Looking for more Information?

Kaviraj’s book, Homeopathy for Farm and Garden, is available in the Homeopathy Plus Shop. It’s an ideal addition to any gardener’s bookshelf.


Agrohomeopathy: An Introduction to Healing Plants and Planet with Homeopathy

Curing sick trees with a simple dose of Belladonna, turning arid desert into moist, arable land and eliminating snails from hundreds of Perth backyards without a pellet or chemical in sight are among the successes of Dutch homeopath Vaikunthanath das Kaviraj, whose findings have the potential to transform agriculture in Australia and across the world.

It Began with an Apple Tree

Kaviraj, author of the groundbreaking book ‘Homeopathy for Farm and Garden’, turned his attention to agrohomeopathy, the use of homeopathic remedies on plants and soil, following a chance discovery in Switzerland 1986. “I was treating a family and their animals who are patients of mine”, he says. “The mother of the family asked if it was possible to use homeopathy on plants and I told her it was although I knew nothing about it. She said that being an ‘herbal wizard’ I should be able to figure something out!”

The mother wanted Kaviraj to heal her apple trees, which were covered in bright red spots resembling rust, were unusually thirsty and were producing sour-tasting fruit at a time when they should have been ripe for picking.

“The apple trees were on the south side of the farm house. They were covered in red spots and the owner said that the first one had developed the spots three days earlier after which, one by one, all of them caught it which is quite fast. It reminded me of the rapid onset of scarlet fever in children.

“Then I set about finding out if the disease displayed other features of scarlet fever. I asked ‘are they thirsty?’ and she said ‘yes, they need watering three times a day’. I always work on the principle that like a three-legged stool, a diagnosis needs three legs to stand on. I had my three legs – the speed at which the disease spread, the spots, and the thirst. They all pointed to the remedy, Belladonna.”

A few days after treating each tree with the Belladonna remedy the spots had disappeared and the apples were sweet and juicy again. “This was my eureka moment!” remembers Kaviraj. “From then on I was determined to develop agrohomeopathy further.”

Earlier Discoveries

Although he had read about the past use of homeopathy on plants, most recent experiments had been carried out by universities to prove that homeopathy has an overall effect on plants, not that different remedies can tackle specific plant diseases. Prior to that, plant homeopathy was first mentioned almost 200 years ago in the writings of Baron von Boenninghausen who was the son-in-law of Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy. Boenninghausen noted that the excess or leftover remedies he threw into his plant pots were having an effect on the plants, but he never took the research further. Charles Darwin, after his miraculous cure with homeopathy , also wrote of the startling effects that potentised remedies had on plants. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries both Rudolph Steiner and Lilly Kolisko of the anthroposophical movement experimented with various substances on plants as well, but these were not true homeopathic remedies.

Taking it Further

Awed by the possibilities of his discovery, Kaviraj set out to develop and systematically test agrohomeopathic remedies, and to campaign for them to be used in place of the chemicals that dominate agriculture today.

He was spurred by the thought of what would have happened to the apple trees were it not for the Belladonna. Apple tree rust is difficult to treat, spreads easily and kills infected trees. “They may have had to root them up and burn them” he says. “With that particular disease, once it is there it is too late to do anything with conventional agricultural sprays. The family would have had to leave the trees to be sick throughout the summer. In the winter the spots usually disappear as it is a fungal disease, so they would probably have been sprayed then with a fungicide in the hope of killing the disease.”

Kaviraj’s next major discoveries were the dramatic impact of the remedy Helix tosta on snails and slugs followed by the effect of homeopathic Silicea which enables soil to hold large amounts of water and nutrients for long periods.

The Australian Experience

In 1990 Kaviraj moved to Australia so that he could experiment on sick plants on a large scale. His snail remedy quickly took Western Australia by storm, eliminating the pest from vegetable patches across Perth within six months of becoming publicly available.

However his results with Silicea were even more significant. After just six weeks of treatment a 100 hectare area of desert retained enough water under its surface that crops were grown where they would have previously perished. The implications of this for world farming, particularly in drought-suffering parts of Australia were, and still are, enormous.

“In Australia the soil is naturally very dusty and sandy”, he says, “so when water comes into contact with the soil it tends to collect a coat of dust and simply run off the surface of the soil rather than be absorbed. Silicea changes the osmosis of the soil particles so that instead of rejecting the water, the soil absorbs it. Any seed that is in there can then germinate.”

Kaviraj says that in South Australia, where long-standing farms have been battered by a succession of droughts, it is not sandy soil but a lack of organic matter that prevents the soil from retaining water.

“A big problem with Australian farming is the lack of worms and the fact that the white ants take the organic matter under ground. Only the Eastern seaboard of Australia has a native worm but it is present in small numbers only. This means that there is often only 2 – 10mm of topsoil compared with up to a metre in other countries. As a result, the soil is depleted and exhausted and needs organic matter to ‘feed’ it.

“When I lived in Perth I had a garden of sandy soil on top of limestone”, says Kaviraj. “I threw a container of worms on the soil and covered them with straw . The worms worked their way through the straw and created organic matter, and within a short period of time, I had a metre of topsoil.”

Kaviraj says that to maintain good levels of organic matter, farmers should leave straw and other organic debris on the land and add worms. They can then use agrohomeopathic remedies for specific problems as they are needed.

Environmental Benefits

Instead of using sustainable approaches, many farmers turn to NPK – the industry’s most common type of agricultural fertilizer containing mainly Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. However, lack of absorbency in the soil means that this travels to the aquifers polluting the water network rather than staying in the soil.

“If farmers simply used homeopathic remedies instead, this destruction would be prevented”, believes Kaviraj. “The farming industry is one of the most environmentally harmful industries in the world. Apart from being much more expensive than homeopathic remedies and contaminating the ground water, the herbicides and fungicides they use are made from fossil fuels which lead to further pollution.

“By abandoning these products I believe we could reduce our consumption of fossil fuels by around 50 per cent and drastically reduce pollution. Not only that, by using homeopathic remedies, the plants would also be healthier. My experiments indicate that we would see a 30 per cent reduction in the amount of plants lost to disease, and plants would grow around 30 per cent bigger. If we have 30 per cent more plants growing there would be more food, alleviating world hunger and the world’s CO2 intake would increase by 30 per cent, helping to combat global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer”.

Sadly, the reluctance of agricultural authorities and drug companies in many countries, including Australia, to embrace homeopathy as a legitimate alternative to mainstream chemical agriculture has limited its spread. Farmers in some lesser developed countries such as India, however, have grasped its significance and are leading the charge.

Finally Published!

After may years of research and experimentation, Kaviraj finally published his ground breaking book on agrohomeopathy 2006. ‘Homeopathy for Farm and Garden’ is now in its second print run and along with Helix tosta and Silicea, outlines around 70 other remedies.

This book, written for the everyday gardener and farmer, is now available from the Homeopathy Plus! shop. It tackles problems including aphids, thrips, bugs and beetles, as well as fungal and viral diseases such as Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus and Anthracnose.

Its easy-to-use guide gives a list of plant symptoms with the remedies that cover those symptoms, as well as advice on how to prepare and administer the remedies. Kaviraj is now working on a much larger 21-volume work entitled ‘Agrohomeopathy’. This will be an encyclopaedia of agrohomeopathy information containing around 450 remedies.

Before the release of his book Kaviraj had published articles on his research on web sites in India, where homeopathy is widely used and accepted. One of India’s leading homeopaths, Dr Abdul Lathif, translated the book into five Indian languages and started his own business producing and selling remedies to Indian farmers.

The book has also been translated into German. Last October, Kaviraj took a three-month trip to Germany where he instructed the publisher, Narayana, on how to make the remedies. Thanks to a strong marketing campaign, Narayana is making good headway in converting organic farmers in Germany, the original birthplace of homeopathy and its founder, Hahnemann.

A Chinese translation of the book will commence later this year, with a Japanese version to follow in 2010. Russian and Bulgarian translations are also at the planning stage as well as a Portuguese translation.

Joining Others

For online collaboration in your language with others who are also interested in agrohomeopathy, visit www.considera.org

The world is waiting.

Note: A biography of Vaikunthanath das Kaviraj can be found in the Library of this website. All agrohomeopathic remedies mentioned in this article can be found in the simplex section of the shop.





Monday, May 28, 2012

Author: V.D. Kaviraj
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Dr. Kaviraj breathes life into your plants with homeopathy.

Each month V.D. Kaviraj answers questions about plants and plant problems. Kaviraj is one of the foremost pioneers of Agro-homeopathy and author of the book,Homeopathy for Farm and Garden.

The completely revised and enlarged edition with an additional 176 pages is now available: http://www.narayana-publishers.com/Homeopathy-for-Farm-and-Garden/Vaikunthanath-Das-Kaviraj/b8241

Send your questions! (with pictures when possible – JPG or GIF format) tomail@hpathy.com with the subject “Plant Doctor”.

Note: When I refer to treating plants with homeopathic remedies, this is the standard dosing procedure: Put 20 drops of a 6X potency in a litre of water. Succuss the bottle 50 times. Put this litre in the watering can,fill it up with 19 litres of tap water and stir. If the watering can is smaller, the amount of remedy put in must be proportionally smaller. Thus a 10 litre can needs only ½ litre and just 10 drops of the remedy. Apply the contents of the watering can to the roots of the plants to be treated. –V.D. Kaviraj

Dear Dr Kaviraj,

Every year our apple trees here in Melbourne are attacked by codling moth grubs which eat out the insides of the apples. Do you have any suggestions?


Thanks,

Julie

Hi Julie,

Codling moth in apples can be easily countered. The remedy Thuja will keep them out of the apples. Thuja is for “animal poisoning” and one could easily say that codling moth is just that!

——————————————————————–

Hello Doctor Kaviraj

It’s great to write to you and profit from your useful guidance.I have a Money Tree (Pachira aquatica) . I live in Montreal, Canada.I studied also Homeopathy and I and my husband are interested in Agro-Homeopathy.Please advise what we can do for this plant.You can find attached the pictures.Suddenly stopped growing up; the leaves are almost yellowish.

Thank you

Zoreh

Hi Zoreh,

First it looks like your plant could do with a much bigger pot. Transplant with fresh good earth. Then give the plant a dose of Silicea, after about 1 week in the new pot. You will see it do much better after that.

———————————————————————

Dear Kaviraj,

Here in San Diego we have a problem with the white garden snail (Theba pisana). It’s creating havoc in our garden. Is there a holistic solution that won’t involve chemicals?

Thank you

Helena Adamou

Hi Helena.

Sure we have a solution for that snail problem. It is called Helix tosta and is made from a predator snail. Water the roots of your plants and the snails and slugs will no longer touch them.

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Dear Kaviraj,

Last year the peaches on our trees developed soft brown spots which got powdery later on, and then the fruit rotted. We’ve identified this as something called brown rot. Is there a homeopathic or other natural solution to this?

Thank you

Jack Gorodetzer

Hi Jack,

There are several options for brown rot. Manganum aceticum is one. The disease may be caused by a lack of manganese. Molybdenum is another element that may be deficient and Molybdenum as a remedy can also help. Allium cepa can also do it, when there are no nutrient deficiencies.

———————————————————————

Hello Dr. Kaviraj,

I received your book as a present and I have been reading it. Not being familiar with the terminology I wondered if you could clear up some confusion on my part. When you describe a disease, there is a section called Relationship. Below that is “Compare”which I presume is the remedy for the problem. Is that correct?

Also the two terms Antidote to: and Antidoted by is not understood as it seems that it is the same thing.

One more thing that I would like to ask. Is there a remedy for too high of a ph. My well water has high alkalinity and when I water any plants in pots I must use a strong acid to negate the alkalinity.

Thank you,

David Bauer

Hi David,

“Compare”
is when there are other remedies with similar symptoms which may be better indicated. After all, comparisons are done between things. Here the comparison is other remedies with the remedy just described, and at which end we speak about its relations to other remedies, if any or, if known.

Regarding “ antidote to” and “antidoted by” : It is not the same thing. One can be in a car accident and hit another car – that is damage “to”. Then a 3rd car hits yours, now you have damage “by”. The just described remedy is doing the antidoting, and does that to another, while the one that would neutralise the just described remedy, sits on the other end of the spectrum.

Regarding too high PH: The best remedy to neutralise an alkaline soil is to use an acidic manure. Pig and chicken are the best for the purpose. If you regularly add more of these manures on the soil, it will be about neutral in 3-4 years. If you let the worms do the work, it takes a few weeks to remove a layer of 20cm of old manure from the surface. So if every few weeks you put another layer of old manure, it will go very fast. Naturally, the remedy Calcium carbonicum, being the closest similar, will also work wonders.


V.D. Kaviraj

V.D. Kaviraj is a Dutch homeopath, author, researcher and pioneer in Agrohomeopathy. He is also Vice President, World Homoeopathic Association UK Chapter. He has written textbooks on various aspects of homeopathy including "Homeopathy for Farm and Garden", which is now available in seven languages. The revised and enlarged edition with 376 pages has just been published : http://www.narayana-publishers.com/Homeopathy-for-Farm-and-Garden/Vaikunthanath-Das-Kaviraj/b8241