# Applied Biodynamics — Issue 021 (Fall 1997)

**By JPI Admin** · 2025-12-31

_Applied Biodynamics_ Issue 021 brings together four ways of learning: apprenticeship, disciplined field observation, laboratory measurement, and critical reading. The strongest thread is methodological. Whether the subject is teaching, preparation chemistry, or livestock behavior, contributors repeatedly ask how experience can be recorded well enough to compare and repeat.

## Gunther Hauk on training, judgment, and comparison

Nick Franceschelli’s interview with master gardening teacher Gunther Hauk presents biodynamic competence as something developed through study, apprenticeship, and repeated work. Hauk recalls learning in Germany through close contact with experienced practitioners, including work at a sloping Waldorf school garden in Stuttgart and at the Talhof associated with Friedrich Sattler and Hilde Pfeiffer.

Talhof is described as a difficult frost-prone site with late sun and early shade. Hauk uses it to illustrate how long observation, careful technique, and accumulated local knowledge can support farming under severe constraints. He also distinguishes biodynamics practiced as a marketing label from biodynamics practiced as an evolving method grounded in study, including continued work with Steiner’s [Agriculture Course](https://go.jpibd.org/book-agriculture-course).

For teaching and research, Hauk is specific: spraying can involve children when the work is well organized, while stirring requires sustained attention and suitable timing. Most importantly, he argues that credible comparison requires leaving some ground untreated. That recommendation gives readers a direct experimental standard: define the comparison area before application, treat both areas alike except for the preparation, and record the result.

## Spectroscopic analysis of BD 507 and BD 508

Don Jensen’s “Observations and Experiments” applies laboratory spectroscopy to [BD 507 valerian](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-507) and [BD 508 horsetail](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-508). The article describes the extracts closely enough to support a repeat:

-   **BD 507:** tightly pack valerian flowers in a glass jar, cover with distilled water, allow 7–10 days for fermentation to begin, strain, and bottle the extract.
-   **BD 508:** place about 10 ounces of slightly dried horsetail in a one-gallon jar, fill with heated water, and ferment or extract for 7–10 days.

A chemistry laboratory measured ten elements in milligrams per liter. Jensen highlights high potassium and lower-than-expected phosphorus in BD 507, and much more phosphorus than silicon in BD 508. He treats these findings as a first measurement rather than a final mechanism, noting that plant source, soil, preparation-making, and fermentation can change the values. The clear next step is to analyze multiple coded batches made by the same protocol, then compare elemental profiles with field observations.

[**Download Issue 021 PDF**](https://go.jpibd.org/ab-021)

**Tags:** Applied Biodynamics Archive, BD 502-507, BD 508, Research Methods

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> Source: [The Josephine Porter Institute](https://www.jpibiodynamics.org/blogs/applied-biodynamics/applied-biodynamics-issue-021-fall-1997)