Mixing Korean Natural Farming and Biodynamics

Below is my quick interpretation of how we can combine Korean Natural Farming and Biodynamics . I don’t know much about JADAM yet other than Jadam Microbial Solution so dear members, if you see similar inputs on JADAM please comment below. I used botanical names of the plants so that there is no geographical confusion on names of those plants.

BD500 is a fermented cow manure and applied to soil in liquid form. The important thing is the manure should be coming from a pasture grazing ruminant. Any grain fed, intensively farmed ruminant manure is ethically should not be supported. BD500 being a microbiological liquid solution, it would complement JMS (Jadam Microbial Solution), FAA (Fish Amino Acids) and sprayed on soil to increase the population of micro-biology.

BD501 is the same thing as BD500 with an addition of silica powder. JMS (Jadam Microbial Solution) or FPJ (Fermented Plant Juice) prepared with silica rich plants like Equisetum arvense would complement BD501. You can even use silica-gel sachets in packaging but you need to powder it first.

BD502 is prepared inside a deer stomach stuffed with Achilea millifolium. It is used to activate compost piles and consists of potassium, silica and selenium minerals. BD502 can complement (IMOs) Indigenous Micro Organisms and WS-CaPo (Water Soluble Calcium Phosphate).

BD503 is prepared using a stuffed small intestine with Matricaria chamomilla. It is rich in nitrogen and calcium. It is also used to activate compost piles. FPJ (Fermented Plant Juice) with Matricaria chamomilla and WS-Ca (Water Soluble Calcium) would complement BD503 nicely.

BD504 is made using stinging nettles and it is very active with bacteria. It has potassium, calcium, sulfur and iron. JMS (Jadam Microbial Solution), BMW (Bacterial Mineral Water), WS-Ca (Water Soluble Calcium), WS-CaPo (Water Soluble Calcium Phosphate) and FPJ (Fermented Plant Juice) with stinging nettles or comfrey and Indigenous Micro Organisms (IMOs) can complement BD504.

BD505 is made using a cow skull stuffed with bark of Quercus robur and soaked in water. Quercus robur bark soaked in makgeolli and buried in sugar (technically FPJ) and FAA (Fish Amino Acids) would complement BD505.

BD506 uses Taraxacum officinale stuffed into cow’s mesentery and used on compost piles. FPJ (Fermented Plant Juice) made with Taraxacum officinale mixed with FAA (Fish Amino Acids) especially if fish guts used mostly would complement BD506. Or maybe we can prepare a hydrolysate (Gill Carrandang style) using cow’s intestines but FBI may swoop the area when the stench is reported by the neighbours and you will have a lot of explaining to do about your unconventional farming methods.

BD507 uses Valeriana officinalis soaked in purified water. This sounds like FPJ (Fermented Plant Juice) with valerian. Used as a compost activator.

BD508 uses silica rich Equisetum arvense in dried form. Dry herb than boiled in water to extract silica. It is then fermented naturally till it smells like sulphur. An FPJ (Fermented Plant Juice) using Equisetum arvense added to JMS (Jadam Microbial Solution) and WS-PA (Water Soluble Phosphoric Acid) would complement BD508 and applied to leaves in the mornings. BD508 also claims to control fungal diseases and OHN (Oriental Herbal Nutrients) would probably complement BD508 on that end.

You can download my slides explaining all the Korean Natural Farming inputs here

hau Gurkan, sorry, but you have some things wrong about the dynamic preparations.

The dynamic preparations are all meant to be used in a compost heap, not directly applied to soil. Where the KNF and JADAM substances are liquid and solids, meant to be put directly into the soil.

They are also most non liquid, BD500 is a solid mass of cow manure not a liquid, as are many of the other preparations. If you were to create a liquid, you would steep the BD500 prep. after it had been buried for the specific time period prescribed.

If you are following the directions for making these preparations, you are going to be waiting for months before you are ready to start the compost heap to reap the true benefits of the preparations.

If you have not already, do check out my thread on the dynamic preparations and my thread on how I make them for my compost heaps.

Redhawk

Hau Doctor, yes I studied your biodynamics prep suggestions deeply and even translated them to Turkish.

You are right about BD500 being solid. When I said "in liquid form" I meant preparing a compost tea with it but I didn't go into the details of it and it reads like it is a liquid fertilizer but actually not.

Hey Gurkan, I really like where you're heads at this seems like a perfect compliment. The two major missteps I notice in your understanding is that 501 isn't just 500 with silica added it is pure silica in a cow horn instead of manure and it is aged over a different period of the year. Also 502 is aged in a stag (male deer [some say a goat, or antelope, or ibex, etc will work]) bladder, not the stomach. Beyond that I like where your heads at. Have you experimented with this at all?

stephen lowe wrote:Have you experimented with this at all?

Thanks Doctor. There may be some holes in my understanding as I didn't personally prepared any of the biodynamics' prep because of lack of ingredients. Finding offal in Australia pretty much impossible. Also things in my head sometimes lost throughout the translation process. I read them in English and write them in Turkish then translate them to English again :-)

Korean Natural Farming preps' ingredients are easily found around though. Bones, rice, fish, potato, leaf mold and plants & fruit to prepare juices are readily available to me. This is my choice at the moment. I can probably find a kangaroo bladder but that would be too much effort :-)

I shall fix my writing on 501. I thought it is a mixture of cow manure and silica. Would that be ground silica like flour/dust? Can silica-gel sachets be used?

Thanks for fixing my errors.

my understanding is that the 501 is made of a crushed quartz powder. I don't really know what's in those silica packets so...maybe they could be used, maybe not.

silica gel and silica packets are not pure Silica (mineral) these are products used to adsorb water molecules in packaging.

The easiest to find source of silica is beach sand (find the crystal clear particles and you are looking at pure silica).

Steiner wanted us to grind quartz (second hardest mineral on planet earth) into fine particles, this is rather difficult at best and the equipment is expensive to do enough of it.

While I appreciate those who want to follow Steiner to the letter, my own experiments with the preparations has shown that my methods work and produce a similar enough material that all the difficult to find items can be eliminated unless you just have to follow his methods exactly.
I don't operate within those constraints simply because the science shows it isn't necessary to go by what a trademarked company says. (biodynamic is nothing more than a company that registered the name and only they can use it, so if you must limit yourself, be my guest).


I would locate some good cow manure from a cattle station or perhaps even a sheep station, use mason jars and give the preps a go. You might like the end results.

Redhawk

Thanks for this interesting information.. Yes 501 is ground quartz in a cow horn, buried in fertile soil for a year, as 500 is also buried. But you're right about the application of 500 being a vortex stirred mixture of the substance plus rain water, stirring is for an hour in constantly alternating directions.

I've made these preps in a communal setting in Western Cape South Africa, usually done annually. It's an amazing experience, unlike anything else I've ever done.

I've always understood that the way the BD preps work is fundamentally different from how Effective Microorganisms (EM) or Bokashi works. BD Preps are fundamentally homeopathic medicines for soil and plants that harmonize the living processes involved in plant growth. Whereas the other stuff enlivens the soil but always in the same way. It's more like putting essential elements into the soil, like feeding plants directly.

However I've come to wonder how combinations of BD preparations with other things like EM and other things like the ones you mention above, would work, would they combine well and become super duper, or just not be effective?

My son makes liquid EM. I make liquid all purpose feeds with a range of plants (for nutrients) and other substances like manure, lime and clay, plus a few insect repellent plants, and worm tea..

I also sometimes use CPP (Cowpat Pit) or Barrel Compost which is a combo of all the BD preps except 501, plus manure, nettles, ground eggshells and ground basalt. This was a more recent development in BD which claims to protect plants, animals and people from the bad effects of radiation from nuclear fusion and fission.

Anyway I'm open to experimenting with combinations of these different concoctions. Has anyone on here actually combined these things and used them, and how well did they work?

Greetings from Cape Town South Africa

I do both. Jadam and biodynamic.
I think if you are doing both, then I would suggest concentrating on doing the biodynamic prep 500 in spring and autumn, alongside  Jadam practices throughout the year, allowing a little time after the prep 500 sprinkling before you do any Jadam spraying. Maybe a week or so.
I would also suggest that since you would be only doing the one biodynamic prep you do it properly, and not just bung some cow manure in a jar and pretend that that will turn into prep 500 after a year. It will not.  
The thing about the biodynamic preps is that, like Homeopathic medicines, they have a spiritual aspect as well as a material aspect. You can think of them like medicinals, the way they are made really does matter and cannot be substituted by a quicker, cheaper or more convenient way of making them. They will  not be the same things, and the impacts of them on the land will not be the same.
You can obtain prep 500 from most national biodynamic associations, or through a local biodynamic farmer. That way you know that what you are using is the real thing.
Once you have it, there are specific ways in which it is prepared, with warmed spring water, that is applied by hand after being stirred vigorously for a full hour. During the hour long stirring, a vortex is created in the water, which is then broken as the direction of stir is reversed, and a new vortex formed.
Is is both a vigorous and meditative process, and the water feels more "silky" after it.
Again, I would earnestly suggest doing it properly. There may well be both a benefit for you, as well as for your land.
I do not think there is a conflict between the biodynamic and Jadam practices. And I do think that you could access the absolute best of both worlds in this fairly simple but genuine way.
Blessings on your journey from earlyearly winter New Zealand where I built mud pies in the garden today (low cob like refiners around two garden beds), in the hope that maybe the winter rains will leave something of the garden edgers for spring when the kumara will get going, and the Maori potatoes. A blessing on your garden too.