In this monologue, John Kempf explains that PhotoMag is a plant nutritional product—not an insecticide—that alters plant physiology to make plants less susceptible to a wide range of insect pests. The core mechanism involves accelerating the conversion of soluble nitrogen compounds (nitrate, ammonium, urea, ureides, glutamine) into peptides and complete proteins, resulting in high total nitrogen and protein levels but low concentrations of soluble nitrogen forms. This shift changes the plant’s internal environment, reducing pest susceptibility. However, the effect depends on proper mineral nutrition; elevated chloride levels (higher than total nitrogen) can negate the benefits. When the nutritional context is appropriate, PhotoMag provides systemic resistance, affecting not only foliage but also root systems (e.g., rootworm, wireworm) and eventually fruit or nuts, which change last due to their high nutritional demands. The discussion situates these effects within the second level of the Plant Health Pyramid, emphasizing the importance of nutrient balance for achieving broad-spectrum insect resistance.
Chapters
PhotoMag is not labeled as an insecticide because it isn't one. It just happens to be a plant nutritional package that changes plant physiology in some interesting ways and changes the internal environment within the plant to such a degree that it's no longer a susceptible host for a broad range, a broad range of different insects. So It's not an insecticide, but it does change plant physiology in some very important ways. And those ways, foundationally— this is a bit of an oversimplification— but you have these very soluble nitrogen compounds within the plant. I could scribble these out here, such as nitrate. You can have ammonium as well. You can have various forms of urea and ureides, and you can have, of course, glutamine. So you have some of these relatively soluble amino acids, and the effect that Photomag can have— this is not universal because there is some environmental and nutritional context that is required here— but the effect that Photomag can have if the plant is in the proper environment, proper context, it will convert these mineral forms of nitrogen and even these amino acids in it, it accelerates the conversion to peptides into complete proteins. You end up with a plant that has abundant levels of protein, has abundant levels of total nitrogen, but very small percentage of it shows up in these forms, which changes the susceptibility pattern to a variety, a broad range of different insect pests. Now the context, of course, this only happens when the plant has proper mineral nutritional support otherwise. One of the common challenges that can prevent this from being effective is if the plant has elevated levels of chloride. If you have chloride levels on sap analysis showing up higher than total nitrogen, then Photomag and this, this whole nutrient interaction that I described in the second level of the Plant Health Pyramid does not have the same degree of effectiveness or can even be completely ineffective. So there is some nutritional context that is required in order for this to work well, but when the plant has the appropriate nutritional foundation, you can achieve resistance to a broad range of different insect pests with this application. And it's not limited to just application or to just effectiveness on the leaves. You can also put on a foliar application and it will change susceptibility to, uh, rootworm larvae or wireworm in the root system. So it doesn't just produce a physiological effect in the upper parts of the plant, it also produces a physiological change in the root system. And usually the last location on the plant to change will be the fruit. So you'll have continued susceptibility if you have fruit or nuts that are susceptible to insect damage. The change occurs there last simply because those often have the highest nutritional requirements, and any imbalances that show up within the plant show up within the fruits or the nuts to the highest degree. So this is the overall pattern that we see with PhotoMAG applications when we put on applications with the specific intent of changing the plant's internal physiological condition to reduce insect susceptibility.
