Due to how plant diseases spread and colonize, it’s always better to work preventatively. It’s just like taking a daily multivitamin or chewing a few elderberry gummies when you feel a cold coming– you’re proactively creating an environment where a pathogen cannot thrive. This is why Arber Bio Protectant is so revolutionary– it’s the only product of its kind that allows you to get proactive against battling your garden’s greatest foe.

When it comes to plant diseases, like with most things, the best defense is well-formed offense.

Plant Disease and I are well-acquainted

You know that feeling when you’re watching your plants practically disintegrate before your eyes and you can’t figure out why, let alone how to stop it? You don’t see any pests, and your plants have been fertilized with the good stuff. And still– leaves are developing spots, turning colors, and dropping daily. Then the panic sets in.

(2023– Healthy pepper plants left defoliated after bacterial leaf spot, before and after)

Yep, we’ve all been there.

Garden pests like insects cause problems because they munch on our harvests, but they’re easy for me to manage with Arber Bio Insecticide and predatory insects. Outside of a relatively light mealybug situation last year and a cutworm/armyworm situation in June, pests haven’t really “bugged” me (pun intended). 

But you know what garden pest is often overlooked but can cause far more damage? Pathogens. I’m far more concerned with fending off disease than bugs. Why? Because South Louisiana is hot and shrouded in humidity most of the year. You know what folks say when a bunch of people get sick– “It must be something in the air.” Well, that’s the same thing for plants. The heat & humidity means excess warm water on and around plants’ leaves, creating the perfect environment for airborne pathogens to thrive.

And thrive they will if you and your plants can’t fight back. I learned that lesson the hard way. Gardens and landscaping plants here are always threatened by fast-acting diseases that can slow growth or prove fatal. Even more, unlike an infestation, a pathogen can be difficult to fight once it sets up shop in your plant’s leaves. And, if it finds its way into your plant’s stem— you may as well pack it up.

Bio Protectant treats plants as early as possible

Most plant disease treatments, albeit reactionary, can’t begin until the plant has grown almost to maturity because delicate seedlings and transplants can’t tolerate much while they’re trying to establish themselves in your garden. Here in Louisiana, we start planting our spring gardens in March, but plant diseases start circulating in May. The window for performing any preventative care is small, rendering most efforts ineffective. For example, a popular disease prevention treatment for tomatoes is to plant them with aspirin because, theoretically,  the salicylic acid in aspirin triggers a stress-induced response in tomato plants when it breaks down. If I plant my tomatoes in late March with aspirin in the planting hole, it’s unlikely that the tomato plant is mature enough to tolerate the other chemicals found in aspirin that are toxic for tomato plants AND build its defenses before airborne plant diseases find it. 

Also, it’s important to note that this theory has been debunked. 

Because plant diseases begin to circulate so early in my growing season, preventative measures need to be taken as early as possible to make a difference in my garden. Arber Bio Protectant is gentle enough to be introduced at the seedling stage of my plants’ lifecycle. When I pour a few capfuls of Bio Protectant into my self-watering seedling tray, the active compounds are waiting and ready in my seed starting medium to immediately strengthen my plant’s defenses against pathogens as soon as the seedling pushes out its first root. Speaking of, the Bio Protectant even fends off the pathogen that causes dampening off in the seedling tray. 

When I use the Bio Protectant, my plants are fortified against pathogens before they’re planted in my garden– you can’t get any earlier preventative measures than that! 

Bio Protectant supports wellness all season 

Blight, bacterial leaf spot, wilt, and powdery mildew are the heavy hitters that start making the rounds in May but really rev up in June, also known as “Plant Disease Month” here. After planting out my seedlings, I continue building my plants’ defenses throughout their growing season with my easy wellness regimen so that they are strong enough to stand up to these plant diseases. Every 2 weeks, I pour 1oz of Bio Protectant into a gallon of water for a foliar spray then use whatever is left as a soil drench. 

Now I know what you’re thinking because, at one point, I thought the same thing, too. “I don’t feel like spraying that often. Are preventative measures really that important? How do I know it’s even working?  Everything looks great; I’m sure my plants are fine. Yes, plant diseases are circulating but that doesn’t mean they’re going to hit my garden.” Let me tell you— what I witnessed this year with my own eyes put those thoughts to rest. 

At the end of May, I went outside to find that the crape myrtle tree that sits right behind my grow bag garden on one side of my porch and a potted dahlia that I had forgotten to treat that sits on the other side of my porch across from my raised beds were inundated with powdery mildew. My raised beds, grow bags, and transplants on my porch were completely untouched. Even my squash and cucumber plants, which are notorious for catching powder mildew at the drop of a hat, were in pristine condition and setting fruit! 

(Squash plant with powdery mildew, Fall 2023; recovered squash plant with fruit after Bio Protectant treatment)

Powdery mildew spreads by spores carried in the wind, so it would have had to pass over my gardens to reach those now diseased plants. But because I had been consistently treating my garden with Bio Protectant, powdery mildew spores weren’t able to land and set up shop on my plants when they visited my home.

(No powdery mildew on cucumber plant through rainy summer 2024 thanks to Bio Protectant treatments)

And by the way, I treated that potted dahlia with Bio Protectant and Bio Fungicide, and she fully recovered. The best thing about all of Arber’s Biological Concentrates is that they work as a proactive AND a reactive treatment, which is good to know on those days when life happens and you can’t stick to your preventative care regimen.

Bio Protectant increases soil health

Because you’ve been consistently drenching your garden soil with the Bio Protectant all season in your plant wellness routine, you’ve also been increasing beneficial bioactivity in your soil and going to work on soil-borne pathogens.

Why is this a good thing? Increased bioactivity, the presence of good microorganisms responsible for breaking down organic matter into nutrients that feed your plants, fosters a stronger relationship between the roots of whatever you plant next season and your soil– bioactivity tells roots that your soil is where nutrients are faster. Think of it like your soil is hosting a big party. The shy new kid on the block, the roots of your next plant, walk into the room but is standing on the wall. The bioactivity gives the roots a glass of punch and invites them to join The Electric Slide.

The Harvest

I think shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach to gardening can be challenging at first because we carry this romantic notion that we should be able just to plant a seed and then harvest the crops. After all, that’s what gardeners did in the days of yore. I’m here to tell you– this wasn’t true. In the past, organic gardeners were forced to take 2 paths to make it through their growing season: a) follow the advice of inconsistent experiments centered on “old wives’ tales” and cross our fingers that it works or b) accept “that’s just how it is here” and limit they you grow. 

But it’s a good thing that this romantic notion has been dispelled because now, we have another path open to us because of Bio Protectant– gardens that can thrive in spite of less than optimal environmental conditions. Arber has harnessed powerful compounds from the world around us to reduce limitations that have restricted organic gardeners in the past. Sure, we might have to take a few extra steps, but we’re now more likely to achieve gardening success with bountiful harvests because of preventative care with products like Arber Bio Protectant.