# Applied Biodynamics — Issue 050 (Fall 2005) **By JPI Admin** · 2025-12-31 _Applied Biodynamics_ Issue 050 (Fall 2005) joins Florence Rewinski’s documented place-based perceptual practice with JPI’s precise historical directions for BD 500, BD 501, and BD 508 and reports on the buildings, harvests, and community support sustaining preparation work. [**Download Issue 050 PDF**](https://go.jpibd.org/ab-050) ## Working with elemental and ancestral forces Florence Rewinski joined a New York City workshop led by Marko Pogačnik and Orland Bishop. The group worked at Strawberry Fields, old elm groves, glacial stones, the World War I memorial, the Balto statue, and Cleopatra’s Needle. Each place invited a particular form of attention: compassion for the earth, relationship with ancestral and animal forces, awareness of water, or healing intention for the city. The report’s strength is its immediacy. Rewinski records posture, visualization, location, distractions, emotional response, and the quality she perceived at different sites. The exercises build a disciplined sensitivity to place—an ability directly aligned with biodynamic stewardship, where the practitioner learns to meet land, organisms, history, and atmosphere as a living whole. A repeatable version can use a fixed route and observation form. Define the site and intention before beginning, keep the duration and posture consistent, record sensory and inner impressions before and after, and have each participant write independently before group discussion. Repeating the practice by season can reveal how perception of place develops over time. ## BD 500 horn manure: soil, roots, and humus The issue’s directions place [BD 500 horn manure](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500) within a compost-centered fertility program. The historical recipe uses one unit—one-quarter cup—in three to five gallons of lukewarm, clean water for up to one acre. Standard BD 500 is stirred for one full hour and applied in the latter part of the day, ideally near sunset, to moist soil with a downward, coarse-droplet spray. The directions emphasize spring and fall, clean vessels and spray equipment, prompt use after stirring, and application around soil preparation, sowing, or transplanting. Light raking or shallow cultivation can follow. “Prepared” 500 and JPI’s historical pre-potentized 500X are described as variants with different compositions and stirring times; the archive preserves these distinctions while JPI’s current [BD 500 instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-500) provide today’s application guidance. ## BD 501 horn silica: leaf vitality and light [BD 501 horn silica](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501) follows BD 500 after roots are established. The issue uses one-half teaspoon in two and one-half to three gallons of lukewarm water for one acre, stirred for one hour and sprayed soon afterward. Application is at sunrise while dew remains, using a fine upward mist that creates a light, fog-like atmosphere around foliage. The directions connect BD 501 with regulated leaf growth, plant vitality, and the formative activity of light. Timing is matched to plant development, weather, flowering, and the need for additional light activity. See JPI’s current [BD 501 application instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-501) for an accessible working guide. ## BD 508 horsetail: fresh and fermented preparations The [BD 508 horsetail](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-508) directions provide two complete methods for wet, damp, or fungus-prone conditions. - **Fresh tea:** simmer one unit—ten ounces by volume or one and one-half ounces by weight—in one quart of water for twenty minutes; strain and add two gallons of clean water. Stir for twenty minutes and apply to as much as one acre. - **Fermented tea:** simmer the same unit in one gallon of water for one hour, cool, and ferment under a loose lid for ten to fourteen days. Strain and store cool and dark. Dilute one part fermented tea with nine parts water; five gallons treats up to one and one-half acres, and one unit can supply two such batches. Fresh tea is presented primarily as a foliar application, while fermented tea is especially useful on soil. Both are stirred for twenty minutes and applied as a fine mist, with two-week intervals as the baseline and closer attention when plants are under stress. The directions connect BD 508 with fungal balance, the water element, and [lunar forces](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-cosmos). ## The preparations work as a whole The issue emphasizes using all nine preparations together. BD 502–507 enliven compost; BD 500 and BD 501 establish the complementary soil-and-light rhythm; and BD 508 supports water and fungal balance. It also describes [Pfeiffer Biodynamic Compost Starter](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-compost), [Barrel Compound](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc), and [Pfeiffer Field & Garden Spray](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-spray) as practical ways to broaden preparation activity in compost, soil, cover crops, and stressed fields. ## Buildings, community harvests, and visible results JPI reports completion of the first phase of a building expansion that added office and meeting space. The appeal makes the connection clear: preparation making, research, education, coordination, and practitioner service all require sound working infrastructure. The issue also celebrates a striking field result. Gardeners at Evergreen Elm entered twenty-nine biodynamically grown vegetables in the 2005 McKean County Fair; twenty-eight won ribbons—eighteen blue, eight red, and two white. Longtime practitioner L. A. Rotheraine credited Pfeiffer Field Spray and the gardeners’ enthusiasm as important contributors to the season. A final thank-you records the nationwide collection of dandelion and horsetail for JPI’s preparations and documents the summer harvest of a beautifully finished [BD 502 yarrow preparation](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-502). Together these notes show the movement as a living network of observation, skilled making, shared resources, and practical achievement. ## Key Topics Covered Place-based exercises for elemental, ancestral, animal, water, and urban-landscape awareness. A repeatable format for independent perceptual records that preserves inner experience without treating it as agronomic proof. Historical mixing, stirring, timing, storage, and coarse-droplet application directions for BD 500. Fine-mist morning application of BD 501 and fresh or fermented BD 508 recipes, coverage, timing, and handling. The nine preparations presented as a balanced whole rather than interchangeable single inputs. Infrastructure, preparation harvests, community support, and a county-fair result of twenty-eight ribbons from twenty-nine vegetable entries as context rather than causal evidence. ## Repeatable Practice 1. For perceptual work, use a fixed route, stated intention, consistent duration and posture, and independent before-and-after notes before group discussion; repeat by season. 2. For each spray, record preparation and batch, dose, water source and volume, vessel, stirring method and duration, dilution, application time, weather, equipment, treated area, and storage interval. 3. Retain water-only or standard-practice comparisons and measure soil moisture, rooting, growth, disease, yield, and quality on fixed dates. 4. When comparing fair or market outcomes, document cultivar, harvest maturity, grading criteria, field management, preparation use, and judge or buyer scoring without attributing awards to one input. ## Explore Related Resources - [BD 500 Horn Manure](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-500) - [BD 501 Horn Silica](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-501) - [BD 508 Horsetail](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-508) and [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-508) - [Complete Set of Biodynamic Compost Preparations](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-502-507-set) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-502-507) - [Pfeiffer Biodynamic Compost Starter](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-compost) and [overview](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-pfeiffer-compost) - [Barrel Compound](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bc) - [Pfeiffer Field & Garden Spray](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-spray) and [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-pfeiffer-spray) - [Support JPI](https://www.jpibiodynamics.org/pages/donate) ## Articles - Working with Elemental and Ancestral Forces: A Weekend of Healing and Transformation in New York City (F. Rewinski)  - Brief Directions for the Use of Biodynamic Sprays 500, 501 and 508  - JPI Building Fund  - Prizes Go to Biodynamic Vegetables at County Fair  - Preparation Harvest Acknowledgments and 2005–2006 Notices  ## Citation Source: _Applied Biodynamics_, Issue No. 50, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Fall 2005. **Tags:** Applied Biodynamics Archive, BD 500, BD 501, BD 508 --- > Source: [The Josephine Porter Institute](https://www.jpibiodynamics.org/blogs/applied-biodynamics/applied-biodynamics-issue-050-fall-2005)