Applied Biodynamics — Issue 070 (Autumn 2010)
Issue 070 presents eight affirmative, farmer-centered research projects, positive seed-bath observations, twenty-five years of preparation capacity, backyard tree care, Prepared 500, and current Compost Starter practice.
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Applied Biodynamics Issue 070 (Autumn 2010) lays out an ambitious, farmer-centered program for biodynamic preparation research. Its eight projects join field partners, measurable outcomes, multi-site participation, graduate research, and practical budgets to advance work already showing value on farms and gardens.
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Support for JPI helps sustain preparation quality, farmer participation, educational work, and research that makes biodynamic practices more widely useful.
JPI’s Eight Key Research Projects
- Compare BD 500 Horn Manure and Barrel Compound—the U.S. product name for Barrel Compost—when stirred separately with a combined method that adds Barrel Compound for the final 20 minutes of the BD 500 stir. The positive goal is to retain preparation quality while saving labor and field traffic.
- Use biodynamic preparations and Pfeiffer Compost Starter in poultry houses, hog lagoons, and cattle-manure systems while tracking ammonia, mortality, leachate, soil, water, carbon, and watershed benefits.
- Build farm-specific protocols for converting chemically treated soil to biodynamically alive soil, following nutrients, microorganisms, nitrogen, plant tissue, yield, input cost, photographs, chromatography, and capillary-dynamolysis images.
- Study the Sequential Spray Technique and BD 508 through coordinated regional applications for beneficial moisture conditions.
- Develop crop-specific seed-bath protocols for germination, plant quality, yield, and corn-earworm response. The issue highlights an earlier sweet-corn use that produced a very high percentage of plants with two fully developed ears and an extremely low percentage of ears damaged by corn earworm.
- Create a four-year pest-pepper program for important weeds, insects, and animal pests, with consistent ashing, potentization, multi-site application, and outcome records.
- Compare planting-calendar results when seven, eight, or all nine preparations are used, following Maria Thun’s comprehensive nine-preparation approach.
- Compare forms of BD 501 Horn Silica, including rhythmic potentization, for plant response and practical stirring time.
Twenty-Five Years of Preparation Capacity
Issue 070 records the operational foundation behind this research. In 1985, JPI’s first full preparation year, it distributed fewer than 600 units of BD 500, more than 200 compost-preparation sets, and nearly 200 cow horns. By 1996 it served more than 1,500 practitioners, distributed nearly 4,000 spray units for more than 3,900 acres, and supplied compost preparations and Starter capable of treating 17,000–25,000 tons of compost.
By 2008, the issue reports cumulative distribution of more than 16,000 spray units, more than 8,400 compost units, and more than 5,500 cow horns. These materials equipped more than 2,500 practitioners to work across more than 30,000 acres and support production of 35,000–52,000 tons of compost.
Research in the Backyard
Cindi Courter’s response to herbicide-damaged trees provides a complete small-site action record. She mixed Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray with potting soil and several ounces of BD 508 Horsetail to form a paste, pressed it into damaged trunk slits, and molded it around nine trees. She then stirred additional Field and Garden Spray in water and treated the surrounding soil. The following afternoon she stirred Barrel Compound for 20 minutes and applied it by whisk and small pours around each drip line.
Courter records treatment materials, the nine-tree site, application order, timing, and continued observation. She also describes four years of biodynamic preparation use on the property and an annual Three Kings application, presenting the work as an active local contribution to healing the land.
Prepared 500 and Compost Starter
Hugh Courtney records Alex Podolinsky’s updated guidance that Prepared 500 can be introduced from the first year of biodynamic conversion in most cases, while regular BD 500 remains appropriate for the most severely stressed soils. Prepared 500 combines finished BD 500 with the six compost preparations and supports soil application within the wider biodynamic program.
For current Pfeiffer Compost Starter use, one 1-ounce unit treats 1–1.5 tons, or 1.5–2.25 cubic yards. Moisten the Starter into a paste, activate it for 12–16 hours or overnight, then dilute it in enough water to moisten the materials. Distribute it through each portion while building and mixing the pile; build a 4–5-foot pile with at least 50% moisture and a 15:1–25:1 carbon-to-nitrogen ratio. The current Compost Starter instructions provide the complete method.
Research Leadership and Practical Participation
The issue welcomes Cindi Courter as East Coast Editor and Ruth Kempf, PhD, as JPI Research Director. Kempf brought physical chemistry, large-scale technical oversight, biodynamic practice on a 38-acre farm, and direct community application experience. Her appointment strengthens the bridge among preparation knowledge, measurable field work, and farmer participation.
Issue 070 also proposes internships, scholarships, farmer-to-farmer advising, shared stirring equipment, expanded educational publishing, and research partnerships. Together these initiatives make the research program a practical extension of JPI’s preparation-making mission.
A Positive Research Record
- Define the beneficial result sought and record the complete preparation sequence, batch, dose, stir, application date, weather, crop stage, equipment, labor, and cost.
- Follow soil and water quality, crop growth, yield, plant tissue, pests, compost moisture and temperature, photographs, chromatography, and capillary-dynamolysis images as appropriate to each project.
- Repeat the same clear protocol across participating farms and seasons so successful methods can be shared confidently.
- Keep the grower, preparation maker, field advisor, and researcher connected throughout the work so measured results remain practical for farms and gardens.
Key Topics Covered
- Eight proposed preparation-based research projects
- Positive goals for combined BD 500 and Barrel Compound application
- Animal-waste treatment and watershed improvement
- Conversion of chemically treated soils
- Sequential spraying, seed baths, pest peppers, and planting calendars
- BD 501 variants and rhythmic potentization
- JPI’s preparation-distribution capacity
- Backyard tree-wound and soil-treatment records
- Prepared 500 guidance and current Pfeiffer Compost Starter practice
- Research leadership connecting farmers, preparation makers, and measurement
Explore Related Resources
- BD 500 Horn Manure and instructions
- Barrel Compound and instructions
- Pfeiffer Compost Starter and instructions
- Sequential Spray Kit and instructions
- Biodynamic Pest Pepper Video
- Stella Natura Planting Calendar
- BD 501 Horn Silica and instructions
- Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray and instructions
- BD 508 Horsetail and instructions
Articles in This Issue
- Looking to the Future for JPI — Hugh J. Courtney
- Social and Environmental Importance of Biodynamic Preparations-Based Research — Cindi Courter
- Positioned for Research: JPI’s Accomplishments During the Past Twenty-Five Years
- Bringing Biodynamic Research to My Own Backyard — Cindi Courter
- Urgent Update on Prepared 500 — Hugh J. Courtney
- Anecdotes and Antidotes — Biodynamics at Work — Hugh J. Courtney
- Ruth Kempf, PhD, Professional Researcher and Biodynamic Practitioner, Joins JPI Board of Directors — Hugh J. Courtney
Citation
Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue No. 70, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Autumn 2010.
