Geraniums & Japanese Beetles

Found my first paralyzed Japanese Beetle today.  After snacking on geranium petals, Japanese Beetles become paralyzed for up to 24 hours.  Most beetles die before recovering from the paralysis.  This is great news for us as Japanese Beetles feast on grapevines along with nearly 300 plant species in almost 80 plant families.  It's amazing how they can devour the leaves on a Linden, an apple tree, a grape vine or a rose bush.  With no natural predators, efforts to control these "pests" are limited for organic and Biodynamic growers.  We use a natural pyrethrum spray but are anxious for the research to be completed at Rutgers State Univeristy and a patent to be received on the new spray.   

Ancient Wisdom & Biodynamic Today

I'm wondering if Rudolf Steiner, founder of Biodynamic, read Pliny as he prepared his series of lectures on agriculture in 1924.  This quote is on the opening page of Anthony Doerr's Four Seasons in Rome.  The sensitivity expressed by Pliny the Elder in Natural History in 77AD is exquisite.  It is this same sensitivity that is required of one who practices Biodynamic agriculture today.  We hope that someday, there will be other certified Biodynamic vineyards in the Midwest along with Famous Fossil vineyard.

 "Rain falls, clouds rise, rivers dry up, hailstorms sweep down; rays scorch, and impinging from every side on the earth in the middle of the world, then are broken and recoil and carry with them the moisture they have drunk up.  Steam falls from on high and again returns on high.  Empty winds sweep down, and then go back again with their plunder.  So many living creatures draw their breath from the upper air; but the air strives in the opposite direction, and the earth pours back breath to the sky as if to a vacuum.  Thus as nature swings to and fro like a kind ofsling, discord is kindled by the velocity of the world's motion." 

Pliny the Elder, from Natural History, 77 AD