Analytical perception and kinesthetic engagement in evaluation of copper chloride crystallization patterns of wheat, grape juice and rocket samples from conventional, organic and biodynamic cultivation

Background When a dihydrate cupric chloride solution is crystallized in a petri dish in the presence of extracts of food products, dendritic crystal patterns emerge. The degree of growth, ripening and decomposition of the product is reflected in these patterns as salient unities (gestalts) of phenomenological features. In the present study we evaluated wheat, grape, and rocket (arugula) samples grown under different farming systems, fertilization treatments or horn silica application. The hypothesis of the present study was: samples are more precisely differentiated with a kinesthetic engagement in the perception of the gestalt decomposition than with ranking solely based on analytical criteria . Results In six out of seven panel tests with three different agricultural products grown with different methods, the following rankings for accelerated decomposability were derived: For wheat: biodynamic < organic < conventional (mineral fertilization and manure) < mineral (mineral fertilization only) For grapes: biodynamic < organic < conventional (mineral fertilization and compost) For rocket (arugula): biodynamic < organic < mineral For rocket (arugula): with horn silica < without horn silica application. Analytical assessment was compared with kinesthetic priming of the evaluation panel. In six out of seven tests kinesthetic assessments (i) yielded more highly significant differences in ranking between the cultivation methods; (ii) clearly improved matching of the samples in a confusion matrix to the ranking of the cultivation methods; and (iii) generated lower RMSE values. Conclusions Kinesthetic engagement in gestalt evaluation proved superior to an evaluation based on analytical perception. Highly significant differences between biodynamic and organic variants and also between treatments with and without horn silica application were found in six out of seven tests. In five of the six tests the only difference between organic and biodynamic variants was the application of the biodynamic preparations. The results indicate increased resistance to deterioration of the biodynamic variants, in terms of lower degradation in the crystallization images. This prompts additional research to establish whether the crystallization method can serve as a universal test to monitor the stress resistance of plants. Graphical Abstract