# Applied Biodynamics — Issue 008 (Summer 1994) **By JPI Admin** · 2025-12-31 _Applied Bio-Dynamics_ Issue 008 (Summer 1994) is a practical summer-season issue centered on horn silica (BD 501) and horsetail (BD 508). It combines application guidance and reports from growers with three fermented-horsetail recipes, a fresh-tea recipe, an account of JPI’s 1994 Open House, an admiring profile of Australian practitioner Alex Podolinsky, and essays on taste and preserving food. ## Summer use of horn silica In “Summer in the Biodynamic Garden,” Hugh J. Courtney turns an earlier grower survey into working guidance for [BD 501 horn silica](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501). The basic instruction is one-half teaspoon stirred biodynamically in about 2½ gallons of water, enough for up to one acre, then sprayed as a fine mist over foliage. The article recommends a very early-morning application on a warm, at least partly sunny day and warns that spraying after the sun is high may scorch foliage. Courtney stresses that timing depends on the crop and the intended result. He gives crop-stage suggestions for roots, leaves, flowers, fruit, grains, forage, and greenhouse crops, and relates them to root, leaf, flower, or fruit days. The newsletter also records varied practices from 11 growers: repeated BD 501 applications on fruiting crops, [BD 508](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-508) used preventively or when fungal pressure was feared, and occasional use of [BD 505 oak bark](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-505), [BD 507 valerian](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-507), [Barrel Compost](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc), and sequential sprays. These are individual reports rather than a single standardized protocol. A footnote introduces JPI’s experimental “501(5x),” described as a potentized form stirred for 20 minutes. The article says early users reported effects comparable to or stronger than conventional BD 501, but it also acknowledges that knowledge of the preparation remained incomplete and asks readers to submit further observations. ## Preparation work demonstrated at JPI Chuck Roden’s “Open House at JPI” reports that more than 25 visitors attended the institute’s second annual Open House on April 30. Small groups rotated through a one-hour BD 501 stir; insertion of the [BD 502–507 compost preparations](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-502-507-set); spraying BD 507 over newly built piles; construction of a compost pile using [Pfeiffer Compost Starter](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-compost); fine-mist field spraying; and comparison of fresh and fermented BD 508 teas. Visitors also stirred Barrel Compost and “500X,” saw seed-soak demonstrations, and applied the mixtures to garden beds. The report is valuable as a record of JPI’s early hands-on teaching. ## The issue’s BD 508 dossier Hugh Williams’ “Horsetail Herb—_Equisetum arvense_—BD #508” presents horsetail as a silica-rich preparation for managing what biodynamic practitioners understood as excess moisture and associated fungal conditions. Williams favors a soil-directed mist and recommends repeated spring applications in some orchard, greenhouse, and farm situations. His claims and his account of a rainstorm after sequential spraying are personal observations, not experimental evidence. The issue preserves four preparation methods: - **Hugh Williams’ fermented version:** fresh or chopped dry horsetail and water at 1:10 by volume; bring to a rolling boil, simmer about one hour, then ferment in covered jars for roughly 7–14 days. The finished liquid is diluted through repeated 1:10 steps to D5 before spraying. - **Hugh Courtney’s fermented version:** 10 ounces by volume (about 1½ ounces by weight) of shredded horsetail with 90 ounces of water; boil, simmer up to 60 minutes, then ferment 10 days to two weeks. The article supplies a D0-to-D5 dilution sequence and a worked example for 120 gallons of spray. - **Lily Kolisko’s modified fermented version:** one unit of shredded horsetail—about 10 ounces by volume or 1½ ounces by weight—simmered for one hour in about one gallon of water, fermented 10–14 days, strained, and stored cool and dark. For use, the newsletter specifies one-half gallon of fermented tea plus 4½ gallons of water, stirred 20 minutes. - **Fresh tea:** one unit of horsetail cooked slowly in one quart of water for 20 minutes, strained, diluted with two gallons of water, stirred for 15 minutes, and used within a few days. The recipes are not fully interchangeable: they use different base quantities, fermentation periods, dilution systems, and claimed coverage. A small “capillary dynamolysis” feature compares images made from fresh and fermented teas and describes the method as visualizing hidden forces in a substance; the issue does not provide controls or validation for that interpretation. ## People, food, and institutional life Nick Franceschelli’s profile of Alex Podolinsky looks back on a 1992 workshop at Kimberton, Pennsylvania. It emphasizes Podolinsky’s soil-centered approach, attentive field observation, and experience applying biodynamics at scales ranging from market gardens to large Australian wheat farms. The piece is openly appreciative and biographical, not a detailed account of his methods. In “In Good Taste,” dietitian Betsy Cashen moves from the sensory experience of a tomato to chewing, saliva, digestion, hormones, aging, and Steiner’s ideas about differentiated tastes. The article encourages readers to cultivate taste as a way of judging food. “On the Preservation of Foods,” by Elizabeth Courtney and Candace Coffin, offers period household advice for freezing, drying, canning, and root-cellar storage of vegetables, fruit, and herbs. Readers should apply current food-safety recommendations when using any historical preservation idea. “Realizing the Mission—An Update” records JPI’s new federal nonprofit determination, early planning for a building, a developing accounting system, and summer board work. Candace Coffin’s editor’s letter ties the issue’s diverse subjects to an intended movement between practical detail and a larger ecological or spiritual picture. Steve Moore’s “About Biodynamics,” reprinted from a CSA brochure, supplies a short public-facing definition of the farming method. ## Articles in this issue - “Summer in the Biodynamic Garden” — Hugh J. Courtney - “Open House at JPI” — Chuck Roden - “Horsetail Herb—_Equisetum arvense_—BD #508” — Hugh Williams - Fermented BD 508 recipes — Hugh Williams, Hugh Courtney, and Lily Kolisko - “Recipe for Fresh Tea Version of BD #508” and a capillary-dynamolysis comparison - “Alex Podolinsky: Biodynamic Pioneer” — Nick Franceschelli - “In Good Taste” — Betsy Cashen, R.D. - “On the Preservation of Foods” — Elizabeth Courtney and Candace Coffin - “About Biodynamics” — Steve Moore - “Realizing the Mission—An Update” and “Letter from the Editor” [**Download Issue 008 PDF**](https://go.jpibd.org/ab-008) ## Citation _Applied Bio-Dynamics_, Issue 008, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Summer 1994. _Applied Bio-Dynamics_ Issue 008 (Summer 1994) is a practical summer-season issue centered on horn silica (BD 501) and horsetail (BD 508). It combines application guidance and reports from growers with three fermented-horsetail recipes, a fresh-tea recipe, an account of JPI’s 1994 Open House, an admiring profile of Australian practitioner Alex Podolinsky, and essays on taste and preserving food. ## Summer use of horn silica In “Summer in the Biodynamic Garden,” Hugh J. Courtney turns an earlier grower survey into working guidance for [BD 501 horn silica](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501). The basic instruction is one-half teaspoon stirred biodynamically in about 2½ gallons of water, enough for up to one acre, then sprayed as a fine mist over foliage. The article recommends a very early-morning application on a warm, at least partly sunny day and warns that spraying after the sun is high may scorch foliage. Courtney stresses that timing depends on the crop and the intended result. He gives crop-stage suggestions for roots, leaves, flowers, fruit, grains, forage, and greenhouse crops, and relates them to root, leaf, flower, or fruit days. The newsletter also records varied practices from 11 growers: repeated BD 501 applications on fruiting crops, [BD 508](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-508) used preventively or when fungal pressure was feared, and occasional use of [BD 505 oak bark](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-505), [BD 507 valerian](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-507), [Barrel Compost](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc), and sequential sprays. These are individual reports rather than a single standardized protocol. **Tags:** Applied Biodynamics Archive, BD 501, BD 508, Nutrition and Food Quality --- > Source: [The Josephine Porter Institute](https://www.jpibiodynamics.org/blogs/applied-biodynamics/applied-biodynamics-issue-008-summer-1994)