Applied Biodynamics — Issue 039 (Winter 2002–2003)
Issue 039 preserves candid Three Kings testimonies—including uncertain and null observations—and Hugh Courtney’s exact milk-and-honey spray formula with a repeatable way to test it.
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Applied Biodynamics Issue 039 (Winter 2002–2003) contains two substantial features: a collection of practitioner reports on Hugo Erbe’s Three Kings Preparation and Hugh Courtney’s historical recipe and case reports for a milk-and-honey garden spray. Both are presented through experience rather than controlled research, and several contributors are unusually direct about what they could not determine.
Three Kings: ceremony, observation, and uncertainty
The opening article explains the spiritual history JPI associated with the Three Kings Preparation—gold, frankincense, and myrrh prepared for an Epiphany application—and gathers reports from farms and gardens in Canada and the United States. Contributors describe group trituration and stirring, perimeter walks through snow, fragrance, prayer, a sense of protection or containment, changes in their own attention to the land, animal activity, crop vigor, frost survival, and other events after application.
These are personal testimonies, not proof of agronomic or ecological effects. The issue itself contains important cautions: Danièle Laberge says her group could not tell what direct effect followed; another contributor reports neither observing nor dowsing an effect; and Ben Emmett says it is hard to know how much a good season owed to the preparation. Other dramatic accounts—a groundhog leaving, a neighbor moving, recovery from illness after a homeopathic remedy, or a lake rising without rain—have major uncontrolled explanations and should not be attributed to Three Kings on timing alone.
The most repeatable result across the reports is human: the annual practice creates a scheduled winter occasion for collective attention, gratitude, farm inspection, and renewed commitment. That experiential outcome can be reported confidently. Claims about elementals, protection, weather, wildlife, crop performance, or water level remain spiritual interpretations or hypotheses requiring independent evidence.
The milk-and-honey spray
Hugh Courtney traces the spray to a 1969 crape myrtle covered with a sooty black substance. He used a hose-end dispenser with diluted milk; ladybird larvae appeared, the black material disappeared, and the tree recovered. He later added honey and reports seeing more beneficial insects after some applications. Courtney also states that he had not systematically followed up his recommendations and had “no real data” on consistency or effectiveness. The causal sequence is therefore unresolved: the pest or disease was not identified, natural-enemy activity was not measured beforehand, and there was no comparison tree.
The issue’s historical formula is one part milk to nine parts water, with optional honey at about one part per 100 parts of total spray. Warm water helps dissolve the honey. The mixture is stirred for 20 minutes and applied as a medium-to-fine mist. Because milk, honey, weather, crop species, and disease organisms can interact differently, a contemporary trial should begin on a small area and include water-only, milk-only, and milk-plus-honey comparisons alongside the farm’s normal management. Confirm the pest or disease first and check for leaf injury or residue.
What to measure
Mark plants before treatment and photograph the same leaves or branches. Record formulation, milk type, water, batch size, stirring, coverage, time, temperature, humidity, and rainfall. Count the target pest, estimate diseased leaf area, record beneficial insects separately, and rescore at fixed intervals. Replicate treatments across several plants or plots and repeat the test. This turns a compelling rescue story into evidence that another grower can evaluate.
Key Topics Covered
Three Kings preparation-making, group stirring, perimeter walking, spiritual intention, and practitioner testimony.
Favorable, uncertain, and null observations and the importance of preserving all three.
Hugh Courtney’s milk-and-honey spray formula, application history, and reports of beneficial-insect changes.
Plant stress, insect populations, disease, weather, management, and alternative explanations.
Controls, fixed observation dates, insect identification, photographs, crop measures, and repeatable reporting.
Repeatable Practice
- For Three Kings work, map the boundary and record materials, batch, dilution, stirring, route, timing, weather, participants, and qualitative impressions.
- For milk-and-honey spray, record milk type, honey source, dilution, water, spray volume, coverage, date, weather, crop, and plant condition.
- Randomize replicated untreated, water-only, milk-only, honey-only, and combined treatments where scale permits.
- Count identified beneficial and pest insects, disease, plant growth, yield, and damage on fixed dates, with photographs and full reporting of null or adverse results.
Explore Related Resources
- Three Kings preparation and application guide
- Three Kings Preparation
- Barrel Compound and its application instructions
- BD 500 Horn Manure and the BD 500 instructions
- BD 501 Horn Silica
Articles
- The Three Kings Preparation—Sharing the Experience
- The Milk and Honey Spray—Another Interesting Tool (H. J. Courtney)
- JPI’s 2003 Preparation-Making Seminar Notice
- Ten-Year Applied Biodynamics Back-Issue List
Citation
Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue No. 39, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Winter 2002–2003.
