First leaves
Episode 3: Plant health fundamentals
“One thing to take home today: photosynthetic efficiency and manganese.”
Lift the hood: the plant’s hidden engine, mobile and immobile minerals, and why a run of sap tests is a moving picture.
The big idea
Under the bonnet.
You know your tractor down to the horsepower. Steve wants growers to know their crop the same way.
Lift the hood
Growers can tell you every figure on their tractor. Then they’ll put a program on the crop without asking what it does. This episode lifts the hood on the plant itself: photosynthesis, the engine that pays for everything else.
And one part of it Steve wants every grower to remember: manganese, the hidden engine that keeps photosynthesis running.
A moving picture
One sap test is a snapshot. A run of them across the season shows which way the plant is heading, often early enough to do something about it.
Then there’s where to look. Some minerals move around the plant and some stay put, so a shortage shows up on old leaves or on new growth depending on which one it is.
What’s inside
Four parts, about an hour.
Watch it in one sitting, or a part between jobs. Each one flows into the next.
After this one, you’ll…
- know what keeps photosynthesis running, and where manganese fits
- tell mobile from immobile minerals by where a shortage shows
- read sap tests as a trend, not a single number
- 0–15 min
Under the hood
A Ferrari with no engine in it.
- 15–30 min
The hidden engine
Photosynthetic efficiency, and where manganese comes in.
- 30–45 min
Mobile and immobile
Which minerals move, and where on the plant to look.
- 45–60 min
A moving picture
What sap tests show across a season that one number can’t.
Take it further
Where this episode leads.
The course is the start. Each episode opens onto Steve’s talks, the learning hub, and his work on farms.
From the Plant’s Perspective
One plant, eight episodes.
Hear when episode one is out.
One note when it’s ready, and nothing else.