Some of the world’s best inventions were discovered almost by accident, whilst many others were inspired by designs from natural mechanisms created by plants and animals.
Indeed, the Grazers product range came into being in the late 1990’s, when a farmer in Yorkshire in the north of England mixed two natural compounds to create a foliar feed for the wheat crops and discovered that rabbits avoided eating that treated crop.
Following this serendipitous event, the Grazers range has been developed and adapted for different crop pests, all the time learning as they progressed and helping plants to better utilise their own natural defences.
Plants produce natural volatile compounds that communicate with insects and other plants, and these can be enhanced to be more effective, resulting in a decreased need for synthetic, man-made chemicals. So it is with the Grazers product, which induces a ‘plant mediated effect’ by a type of Semiochemical (or allomone) which is given off by the plant. This gives them the upper hand against their herbivorous predators.
Therefore, without the need to kill anything, herbivorous pests choose not to attack plants that have had Grazers applied, due to their enhanced natural plant defences.
This is the direction of progress in modern crop production, not usually in a serendipitous way, though using new discoveries of semiochemicals more widely, to improve our environmental performance.
It’s good to know that as we can all do something to redress the Natural Balance in our own gardens by helping our garden plants to better help themselves.
We can help: www.grazers.co.uk/