Applied Biodynamics — Issue 085 (Summer 2014)

Applied Biodynamics No. 85 is a complete silica issue: Dennis Klocek develops silica as substance, formative process, and planetary gesture; Harald Hoven gives a precise BD 501 Horn Silica making-and-use protocol; and JPI’s spring workshop shows that protocol becoming shared skill through direct practice.

In “Silica and Its Planetary Forces of Potential,” Hunter Francis interviews Klocek on the distinction between elemental silicon, silicon dioxide, silicate minerals, and the wider silica process. Silica appears throughout the Earth’s crust, entering feldspars, clays, and mineral weathering. In Klocek’s polarity, calcium carries substances toward centered manifestation while silica carries potential form toward the periphery. Clay platelets and their cation-exchange surfaces show this silica activity at the soil–root interface, where mineral structure helps hold and exchange plant nutrients.

Klocek connects that mineral picture to the cow horn as a boundary organ and to the flour-fine quartz used in BD 501. The horn, silica, summer burial, rhythm, and grower’s attention work together as one formative preparation. Its agricultural task is to strengthen light, form, ripening, flavor, seed, and storage qualities. The practical key is calibration: match the material, crop stage, time of day, and prevailing light so that silica supports the plant’s next developmental step.

In “Making and Using BD 501 (Horn Silica),” Francis records Harald Hoven’s method at Raphael Garden. Begin with local clear quartz or a selected silica-bearing mineral reserved exclusively for silica horns. Crush it in a sturdy metal vessel, sieve out sugar-sized particles, reduce them further with a stone or ceramic mortar and pestle, and finish between glass plates more than one-quarter inch thick until the powder is as fine as powdered sugar. A bottom plate of about three by three feet and a handled top plate of about six by six inches make the circular grinding efficient.

Mix approximately three-quarters cup of original crystal volume per horn with pure rain or clean surface water to form a thick, non-running paste. Fill the horn upright, rest it for twenty-four hours, pour off accumulated water without disturbing the silica, and let it stand another half day. Close the opening with one-half to one inch of burial-site soil. Lay the horn on its side about one foot deep in open, sunny, workable ground away from tree roots. Hoven filled on the Saturday after Easter, buried on Monday, and lifted at Michaelmas.

After lifting, remove the soil plug, sift the preparation, and store it in a glass jar on a sunny windowsill; it may also remain in its horn in sunlight. Either form stores for years. For three acres, Hoven stirred about three-quarters teaspoon in ten gallons of lukewarm pure water for one hour, alternating vortices. He began before sunrise and sprayed shortly after dawn, commonly once a month in summer, when fruit was beginning to form—after flowering in fruit trees, with vineyards sometimes receiving it before flowering. He often directed the nozzle upward to create a fine atmospheric mist around the crop.

Material choice further refines the protocol. Clear quartz carries a strong light gesture; smoky quartz and orthoclase offered a softer expression for intense midsummer conditions, and amethyst was being explored in vineyards. Hoven combined fermented BD 508 Horsetail with the wider silica regimen, used double sprays in grain practice, and treated harvested winter squash for seed and onions for storage. JPI’s current BD 501 instructions provide a concise companion to this archived method.

In “JPI Hosts Spring Preparation Workshop,” Pat Frazier reports on twenty participants making BD 501, BD 502 Yarrow, and Barrel Compound. They crushed and wet-ground quartz, filled and dried horns, prepared and buried a Barrel Compound pit, applied an afternoon compound spray, and made a sunrise 501 spray over young buckwheat, the barn grounds, and the river edge. A Spikenard Honeybee Sanctuary tour and a four-element land-observation exercise connected preparation technique with bee health and future farm design.

“Farming for Health” previews a seventy-educator Biodynamic Conference linking agriculture, food, and human health, while “JPI Welcomes Joseph Brinkley and Christopher Hammon to the Board” records new legal, vineyard, and educational capacity. Together, the issue presents BD 501 as a science of relationship: mineral preparation, exact method, crop observation, and community teaching aligned to produce clear, repeatable light and ripening work.

Articles

• Silica and Its Planetary Forces of Potential — Hunter Francis interviews Dennis Klocek
• Making and Using BD 501 (Horn Silica) — Hunter Francis
• Farming for Health: 2014 Biodynamic Conference
• JPI Hosts Spring Preparation Workshop — Pat Frazier
• JPI Welcomes Joseph Brinkley and Christopher Hammon to the Board

Key Topics Covered

• Silicon, silica, silicates, and formative mineral processes
• Silica–calcium polarity in soil and plant development
• Clay platelets, cation exchange, and the soil–root interface
• Cow horn as a boundary organ for BD 501
• Local quartz selection and flour-fine glass grinding
• Three-quarter-cup horn filling and paste-settling method
• One-foot spring-to-Michaelmas burial in sunny ground
• Glass-jar or horn storage in sunlight
• Three-quarter-teaspoon dilution for a three-acre spray
• Hour-long stirring and shortly-after-dawn application
• Crop-stage and silica-source calibration
• Hands-on BD 501, BD 502, and Barrel Compound education

Related JPI resources

• Biodynamic calendar guide and cosmic rhythms guide
• BD 501 Horn Silica, guide, and instructions
• BD 508 Horsetail, guide, and instructions
• BD 502 Yarrow and guide
• Barrel Compound, guide, and instructions

Citation

Applied Biodynamics, Issue 085, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Summer 2014.

Download Issue 085 PDF