Episode 181: Plant Immunity Through Custom Foliars and Targeted Nutrition with Peter Henry

Peter Henry is a first-generation farmer who manages a diverse, seven-hectare operation in the mountainous terrain of Puerto Rico alongside a dedicated four-person workforce. He transitioned to agriculture during the pandemic after a successful career as a tech executive and startup vice president, initially purchasing the abandoned land with the intent of establishing a shade-grown specialty coffee farm. After encountering significant challenges with his initial coffee crops, Peter successfully shifted his operation toward passion fruit and a highly specialized niche market growing traditional African heirloom vegetables and tubers for buyers in the United States and Canada.   Peter focuses heavily on biological soil health and precise nutritional balance instead of conventional chemical applications. He works closely with Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA) to run on-farm trials and design sophisticated nutritional programs using AEA's data-driven inputs. By utilizing rigorous soil testing to address extreme iron and manganese imbalances, Peter designs custom foliar stacks delivered through a specialized micro-sprinkler system to proactively build plant immunity and suppress heavy tropical disease pressure.   In this episode, John and Peter discuss: How Peter manages a complex landscape by separating the farm into distinct irrigation sectors to address vastly different soil mineral profiles on opposite sides of a river . Utilizing an aggressive pre-planting soil amendment strategy that combines lime and custom humic-complexed fertilizers based on comprehensive soil tests . How the operation completely avoids synthetic nitrogen applications because excess nitrogen immediately triggers insect pressure and fungal blights across his pepper and okra crops . Peter designing an innovative micro-sprinkler trellis system to broadcast humics and biology over multiple hectares in just over an hour <!----