This brine with all the other minerals is a clear liquid and is a fertiliser for plants and soil biology. Healthy soil biology consists of a wide diversity of organisms – over 50,000 can be found in a single spoonful of compost. It stands to reason that this large diversity requires a diverse range of minerals to function well. Sea Minerals is one of the few, if not the only, natural source that provides this wide range of minerals. Please note that Sea minerals are complementary to all biology-friendly plant nutrition and are not a replacement.

For many minerals in Sea Minerals, we know their functions in plant growth. The precise interactions between these minerals and the 50,000+ soil species are not fully understood, but the benefits are easy to see. Plants show improved growth, with bigger and darker-green leaves that have a healthy shine – the latter indicating high resistance to insects and diseases. When the soil biology is not healthy, the growth of plants stays below its optimum, and they do not yet have their resistance against diseases and insects. They need to be protected with industrial chemicals, which further reduce the soil biology.

The Plant Health Pyramid developed by John Kempf shows that once all essential minerals for the first two stages of plant health are available, some of the complex compounds needed for the final two stages are produced by the soil biology, provided it is healthy. Following the lead from others, we found significant improvements in the health and yields of field crops, orchards and pasture after applying Sea Minerals, see the summary of case studies.

For large areas, It can be bought in bulk and applied when irrigating through fertigation. It is profitable from the first application at the recommended rate of 40L/ha.

For smaller areas, it can be bought under many names in small amounts and applied with a watering can.

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It highlights that a plant needs minerals from the soil and complex compounds from the soil biology to be healthy. In this context, healthy means to have natural and almost complete resistance to diseases and insects. Those same minerals and compounds are vital for human health.

Levels 1 and 2 of the Plant Health Pyramid rely mainly on mineral nutrition, which is relatively straightforward to manage using tools like sap analysis to identify and apply the needed nutrients. By contrast, Levels 3 and 4 highlight why fostering healthy soil biology is critical for resilient, nutrient-dense crops. Here, the focus shifts from simply adding minerals to supporting the microbial community that feeds and protects plants.

In practice, Levels 3 and 4 move us from just growing plants to growing the living system that sustains them. For more on nurturing this symbiotic soil life, check out our introduction to Soil Biology.

Four levels of plant health

The plant health pyramid consists of four levels. Each level requires a set of inputs needed to get certain outcomes and represents essential key processes for good plant health. Any shortcoming in the lower levels reduces the processes in the higher levels.

Unfortunately, most commercial growers and most crops are not even at level one of plant health care on the plant health pyramid – John Kempf

Even when commercially grown plants don’t reach level one, they can still grow and produce by relying on artificial chemicals. However, these worsen the problem over time by killing the microbiology in the soil and on the plant, and so diminish the processes in the top levels. This increases the amounts of chemicals that need to be used and severely reduces the plant’s nutritional value to us. And that has serious health consequences for us.

Level 1. Complete photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is the process in which the plant uses the blue and red rays from the sun to combine carbon dioxide from the air with water and minerals from the soil to make sugars. Photosynthesis requires magnesium, iron, manganese, nitrogen and phosphorus.

It is complete when each of these are sufficiently available and there is enough water, sunlight and carbon dioxide for the plant to make enough diverse sugars to grow itself and for exchange with the soil biology. The plant then becomes resistant to soil-borne fungi, increases its leaf size and leaf thickness, and can look quite different from what we are used to.

Level 2. Complete protein synthesis

The simple sugars from level one are then combined in the leaves with minerals and each other through a process called Protein synthesis into very large molecules. This process creates 10s of thousands different protein molecules needed for its DNA and other functions that include protecting itself against insects and diseases. In addition to the above-mentioned minerals, protein synthesis requires a wide range of minerals in small amounts such as cobalt, nickel, molybdenum, selenium, zinc, manganese, copper and many more.

When complete protein synthesis is reached, plants become resistant to insects with a simple digestive system while they are larvae and to sap sucking species by disturbing their digestive systems.

Level 3. Increased lipid synthesis

Lipids are fats and oils that all plants produce for their own basic needs. When plants have sufficient of these, they cover on their leaves with them, which can be seen as a glossy, waxy sheen on their surface. The lipids work as a shield against all the airborne bacterial and fungal pathogens. Many of the compounds or parts thereof needed to make lipids are made by the bacteria living on and around their roots and are exchanged for sugars made by the plants.

Level 4. Increased secondary metabolite synthesis

Further to those fats and oils, secondary metabolites refer to essential oils such as aromatic compounds, flavonoids, carotids and many more. These protect the plants from ultraviolet radiation and overgrazing and ward off diseases and insects by killing viruses, bacteria and insects outright. Many of the compounds or their components are made by beneficial microbes on the plant’s roots and leaves and exchanged for the plant’s sugars. As a result, plants become resistant to beetles, nematodes and viruses. Some compounds give plants their unique, individual taste, and many compounds are essential for human health.

Getting to levels three and four requires a robust and diverse biology. How to foster that is a main focus of this website.

A summarised extract of John Kempf’s talk that includes many other observations and ideas is in Building Crop Immunity: Understanding the Plant Heath Pyramid.

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Why Focus on Plant Health?

Modern agriculture often accepts pest and disease pressure as unavoidable, relying on chemical pesticides as the main defence. However, many crops are below even the foundational level of health, living in a state where disease and insect attacks are common. The Plant Health Pyramid offers a systematic way to reverse this by improving nutrition and biology, transforming plants from vulnerable to highly resilient.

The Role of Sap Analysis

A central tool in this approach is sap analysis. Unlike tools that give limited or indirect data, sap analysis directly measures nutrient levels inside plant sap. This allows farmers to see which nutrients are lacking or imbalanced, which directly links to specific disease and pest susceptibilities. This data-driven approach prevents guesswork and speeds up the path to healthier, more resilient crops.

The Four Levels of the Plant Health Pyramid

Level 1: Enhanced Photosynthesis

At the pyramid’s foundation is improving both the quantity and quality of photosynthesis. This means:

• Producing more non-reducing sugars and polysaccharides.
• Increasing leaf size, thickness, and chlorophyll concentration.

Healthy photosynthesis brings new energy into the system and allows plants to develop resistance to soil-borne fungal pathogens like Verticillium, Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, and Pythium. Interestingly, these organisms aren’t inherently harmful; in healthy systems, they shift from pathogens to beneficial partners, decomposing residues or even feeding the plant.

To reach this level, plants need balanced amounts of magnesium, iron, manganese, nitrogen, and phosphorus. The goal isn’t just adding more fertiliser but ensuring sufficiency based on measured need.

Level 2: Complete Protein Synthesis

Here, plants must rapidly convert all absorbed soluble nitrogen into complete proteins every day. This reduces the presence of soluble nitrogen and amino acids in the sap, which are preferred food sources for many pests.

With complete protein synthesis, plants become resistant to insects with simple digestive systems, like aphids, caterpillars, and larval pests. Achieving this requires adequate levels of magnesium, sulphur, molybdenum, and boron, along with enzyme cofactors like trace minerals that support the biochemical bonding of amino acids into proteins.

Examples show that changing plant nutrition even within 24–48 hours can kill pests like corn rootworm larvae or spider mites, without chemicals. It’s a shift in biochemistry, not an immune or insecticidal reaction.

Level 3: Increased Lipid Production

Plants now produce more lipids and plant oils, storing surplus energy as waxes and oils. These create a glossy protective barrier on leaves and stems, helping resist airborne fungal and bacterial diseases like mildews, rusts, and blights.

To reach this stage, plants need to absorb nutrients primarily through the rhizophagy cycle drawing nutrients from live bacteria and microbial metabolites in the root zone, rather than just from ions dissolved in soil water. This depends on a living, diverse soil microbiome, which is why most hydroponic systems rarely achieve this level.

Level 4: Elevated Secondary Metabolites

At the highest level, plants produce large amounts of secondary metabolites (phytoalexins, terpenoids, carotenoids, essential oils). These compounds:

• Actively defend against complex pests like beetles and nematodes.
• Even prevent viruses from expressing themselves.

This stage represents active immunity, triggered by specific microbes in the plant’s microbiome activating the SAR (Systemic Acquired Resistance) and ISR (Induced Systemic Resistance) pathways. These microbes act much like probiotics do for human health.

To sustain this level, soil biology must include organisms capable of activating these pathways, often applied as tailored microbial inoculants rather than generic compost teas.

Passive vs. Active Immunity

The bottom two levels (photosynthesis and protein synthesis) rely mainly on balanced chemistry and improvements here can happen quickly. The top two levels (lipids and secondary metabolites) rely on active biology, which takes time and consistent management to build robust microbial communities.

Rethinking Pesticides

Interestingly, applying pesticides undermines this process:

• Pesticides trigger proteolysis (protein breakdown), increasing soluble nitrogen in the sap.
• This reverses plant resistance and attracts more pests.

Preventative chemical applications, therefore, often create the very problems they’re meant to prevent.

Regenerative Agriculture in Practice

Through balanced nutrition and biological management, it’s possible and demonstrated to grow crops fully resistant to common pests and diseases. This removes the need for routine pesticide use, supports better soil health, and can improve yield and quality.

Sap analysis supports this by providing clear, actionable data instead of relying on guesswork or limited tools like Brix refractometers alone.

Conclusion

The Plant Health Pyramid isn’t just a theory: it’s a practical roadmap backed by data and real-world success stories. By restoring natural plant resistance through nutrition and biology, farmers can create systems that:

• Contribute to a truly regenerative agriculture.
• Reduce chemical inputs.
• Improve yield and quality.

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Healthy Soil-Biology is Essential for Healthy Plants

Soil-Biology refers to the viruses, bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, slime moulds, protozoa, and nematodes which feed the plants and create many compounds the plants require for healthy growth.

Stones lack the large surface area needed by the soil-biology

The Soil-Biology needs surfaces to attach themselves to and countless hidey-holes for protection. Stones are solid without hidey-holes and provide a very limited surface area. A spoonful of clay when spread out has far greater surface —equivalent to the size of a tennis court. Because of this, using stones in a wicking bed is a waste of space that should instead be occupied by nutrient-rich soil, home to a vibrant soil biology.

Cloth Will Create Airlocks and Stop Wicking

Some people add cloth to cover the reservoir and stones to prevent soil from washing into the reservoir pipe. This is not an issue in properly made wicking beds, where the holes on the reservoir pipes point downwards.

The fine roots can penetrate the cloth and larger roots grow around it to reach the water. As the water level drops, this space is filled with air as it moves in to replace the water. Air does not wick water, and this creates an airlock between the cloth and the water.

The bed above the cloth ends up like a reduced regular garden bed. It has a permanent water supply at the bottom, rather than wicking soil, and the space below the cloth has no soil biology.
As the water becomes permanent, it can become a haven for mosquito larvae. In a wicking bed the reservoir pipe is surrounded by soil and there is no permanent water as it gets used within days.

In the photos below, we show a simple demonstration of the wicking effect on the left and the lack of it on the right.

The pipe with only soil (left) was able to wick water up 35cm in 24 hours (and further) but the pipe with stones and cloth (right) failed to wick. In the photo above, it is clear how the air gap caused by using cloth and stones prevents wicking.

Soil Holds More Water than Sand or Stones

A good soil mix retains more water than the same volume of stones, coarse sand, pebbles, or fine sand. To demonstrate this, one-litre samples of soil, stones, and sand were dried in the hot sun, weighed, soaked, and then measured again to determine how much water they held.

Since a gram of water is equal to one millilitre, the difference tells us how much water there is in each litre of soil. In the tables below, ‘Inert material’ refers to rocks, stones, sand, loam, and clay.

As the soils in our beds vary a lot, we first took one litre of soil from three beds, filled each container with water, drained the free water out and weighed it wet. We then spread the soil out on a table, let it dry in the sun and weighed it again in the container.

Average Soil Mix

We used the average of those three samples from the table above in the table below. We then filled four containers, with respectively stones, coarse sand, pebbles and fine sand. As with the soils, we filled them with water, drained that, spread the content out to dry in the hot sun, put it back into their containers and weighed those again.

Comparison of the Five Materials

Conclusion

Our soil mix held more water than stones, which held more than pebbles or sand. Much of that water is normally held in the bodies of the soil biology. For suggestions to improve your soils and stimulate your soil biology to grow, see our guide to create and improve your own soil.

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Use 30% shade cloth, as 50% provides too much shade for most plants. Aim for at least 6 but preferably 8 hours of direct sunlight daily. Choose the location carefully, as the shade house will last for decades, and surrounding trees will continue to grow. This recommendation is based on over 20 years of experience.

Materials and Equipment

Tools

• Tape measure
• Level
• Hacksaw (to cut poly pipe)
• Star picket driver
• Screwdriver
• Heavy-duty scissors (to cut shade cloth for front and back)
• Heavy-duty stapler
• Battery disc grinder (for rocky soils)

Construction Sequence

1. Measuring and Marking

• Level the area and remove sharp objects.
• Set out an exact square: 6m long, 4m wide (no wider, or the poly pipe will sag in the middle).
• Mark 2m and 4m spots for star pickets along the long side.
• Mark the centre of each poly pipe.
• On either side of each pipe, mark at 850mm, 920mm, 970mm, and 1,000mm for bottom batten placement. This leaves a few centimetres to place cable ties around the bottom batten.
• Mark the centre of each batten, then three spots on either side, 2m apart.

2. Constructing the Frame

• Drive star pickets 300mm deep (if obstructed by rocks, cut them to 900mm above ground for uniform height).
• Place poly pipes over the star pickets and push them to soil level.
• Place a 2.2m timber upright under the centre batten of both front and back poly pipes, ensuring vertical alignment.
• Secure the poly pipe to each upright using a tie down plate, bending it over the pipe and screwing it evenly on both sides of the timber. Insert one screw into the poly pipe.
• Secure a third timber length under the batten where the door will be placed, using a tie down plate.
• Attach the centre batten with two screws at the marked locations.
• Secure remaining battens in place with two screws each at the marked locations.

3. Attaching the Shade Cloth

Cut ten or more 50mm lengths from the remaining offcut of the poly pipe, then cut these lengthwise to make clamps to temporarily hold the shade cloth while installing it.

Sides

• Cut two 6.2m lengths of shade cloth for folding around the pipe. Unfold and spread one along the length.
• Temporarily hold sections with poly pipe clamps. Staple from the top batten down with staples placed 10mm apart.
• Use cable ties to secure both shade cloths to the top batten (200mm apart)
• Trim the cable tie’s tails for a neat appearance.
• Tie the bottom edges to the bottom battens.

Back

• Cut one 4.1m length, unfold, and spread along the back.
• Clamp near the bottom to hold in place.
• Pull the cloth over the top and clamp to the top batten.
• Use three clamps on either side to distribute the shade cloth evenly.
• Once satisfied that the shade cloth is evenly spread, staple the cloth to the poly pipe and trim the excess.

Front

• Cut one 2.25m shade cloth length and unfold it.
• Cut a length wise 2.15m-wide strip for the wider side (the side without the door) and a 1.25m-wide strip from the narrow side (which includes the door).
• Staple the 2.25m strip at the bottom, middle, and top to the timber on the wide side. Use clamps to hold the cloth in place before stapling. Trim excess cloth.
• Repeat for the narrow strip on the opposite side of the door.

4. Installing the Door

• To keep the door area weed-free, install weed matting or pavers.
• Install the door so that it swings outward.
• Measure and cut shade cloth to staple above the door.

5. Weed Protection

To prevent weeds from becoming a nuisance, cover the floor area with builders’ plastic to stop the roots from germinating weed seeds taking hold. Then cover the plastic with weed mat or old/scrap carpet to protect it from sun and damage by being walked on.

Final Touches

Happy growing! You may want to consider building some wicking beds to go in your new shade house. We recommend using wire mesh and weed mat style wicking beds. Refer back to the countless ways to make wicking beds for ideas.

Celebrate with a beer.

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If you know something we don’t, we would appreciate it if you get in contact with us!

Information sourced and compiled from:

• Sea Minerals Reduce Dysbiosis, Improve Pasture Productivity and Plant Morphometrics in Pasture Dieback Affected Soils
• Teaming with nutrients – Jeff Lowenfels

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