KindHarvest summary: In this commentary, John Kempf revisits the familiar plant disease triangle: a susceptible host, a potentially pathogenic organism and a suitable environment. He argues that disease management should examine each side of the triangle more deeply before moving directly to pathogen control.
What John Kempf argues
Kempf asks what makes a plant susceptible and how nutrition, cultivar traits and plant physiology affect resistance. He also points to the soil and plant microbiome, arguing that the presence of a potentially pathogenic organism does not by itself guarantee disease expression.
His third focus is the environment. Along with weather, humidity and temperature, he asks growers to consider conditions inside the plant and soil, including pH and oxidation-reduction status, as factors that may influence infection.
How to read this source
This is an agronomic commentary by John Kempf, rather than a new controlled trial. It proposes a systems-oriented way to investigate disease and draws on research cited by the author. Individual claims should be assessed against the crop, pathogen, local conditions and the wider plant-pathology evidence.
The practical question is useful: when disease appears, investigate host susceptibility, field environment and management history alongside identifying the organism and selecting a control.
Source and credit
The original article was written by John Kempf, founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture and KindHarvest. View the original Advancing Eco Agriculture URL, or read the accessible Acres U.S.A. version. This KindHarvest Team page summarises and credits Kempf’s commentary.