Applied Biodynamics — Issue 040 (Spring 2003)

Applied Biodynamics Issue 040 (Spring 2003) presents Joe Francis’s long experience with Pfeiffer Compost Starter, Hugh Courtney’s crop-by-crop seed-soak guide, the 2003 national preparation-makers’ conference, Good Friday reflections, and two books supporting spiritual and practical renewal.

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Joe Francis and the 21-day compost cycle

Patricia Smith interviews Joe Francis, who worked closely with Ehrenfried Pfeiffer from 1955 to 1961 and later managed a 300-acre East Texas ranch. Francis describes three manure-and-hay windrows, each about 50 feet long, 10 feet wide, five feet high, and roughly 50 tons. He treated them at one unit of Pfeiffer Compost Starter per ton, moistening the Starter to a paste beforehand and diluting two units in five gallons of water for each two-ton spreader load.

Francis turned the windrows at seven-day intervals and reports that the manure-and-hay mixture was transformed into compost ready to use after 21 days. He says he never lost a batch, produced compost for pastures, vegetables, and flowers, and continued the method successfully for decades.

Rich pasture, earthworms, and healthy cattle

Francis describes worn-out East Texas ranch soil becoming rich with earthworms and pasture grass resembling a golf-course green. His cattle remained healthy, required few antibiotics or hormones, and reproduced strongly; one cow was still calving every year at twenty years old. At age 85, Francis was still running the ranch and presenting the practice as something he had proved through a lifetime of work.

Biodynamic seed soaks

Courtney’s guide matches BD 500, individual compost preparations, BD 507, or Barrel Compound with many grains, cover crops, flowers, herbs, and vegetables. BD 500 receives a full one-hour stir and BD 507 a 10-to-20-minute stir. For BD 502–506, one unit may be placed in one or two pints of water, stirred vigorously for up to five minutes, left for 20–24 hours, and stirred briefly again before use.

Most seed is soaked for 10–15 minutes, drained, dried promptly, and planted within 24–48 hours. Hard-coated seed may soak longer, while peas and beans benefit from shorter handling that preserves their seed coats and germination vitality.

Courtney’s corn seed-soak result

Courtney reports a plot of corn whose seed received a combination of BD 501 and BD 506. That plot had higher yield and almost no corn-earworm damage compared with the other plots that received several different preparation treatments.

Good Friday and Easter Saturday

The issue honors Good Friday as a time of spiritual transformation and renewal in the earth. Maria Thun reports observing for thirty years that Good Friday and Easter Saturday are not favorable for sowing or transplanting, with poor germination and weak establishment. The guidance supports planning garden work around the character of this sacred interval.

Preparation makers and JPI’s essential role

Lloyd Nelson reports that nearly 40 biodynamic preparation makers met at Camphill Village Copake on February 14–16, 2003. The conference encouraged regional groups to work with local plants, animals, soils, and climate, bring neighbors together, and strengthen farm self-reliance.

Participants also affirmed JPI’s essential role in providing preparations to beginners, backyard gardeners, remote farms, growers without local groups, and large acreages, while offering hands-on education in the complete preparation-making cycle.

Books for human and garden renewal

The review of Joseph Chilton Pearce’s Evolution’s End presents the heart, intellect, bonding, and human potential as a call to awaken. Gerry Nottingham’s review of Ron Krupp’s The Woodchuck’s Guide to Gardening celebrates seasonal practice, thrift, hand tools, food skills, garden archetypes, and gardening with children.

Key Topics Covered

• Joe Francis’s historical 21-day Pfeiffer Compost Starter cycle
• Decades of successful compost, rich pasture, earthworms, and healthy cattle
• Crop-specific biodynamic seed-soak methods and planting windows
• The reported BD 501-plus-BD 506 corn result
• Good Friday and Easter Saturday as spiritually significant planting times
• Regional preparation making and JPI’s continuing national role

Explore Related Resources

• Pfeiffer Compost Starter and the Pfeiffer Compost Starter overview
• BD 500 Horn Manure and the BD 500 instructions
• BD 501 Horn Silica and the BD 501 instructions
• BD 507 Valerian and the BD 507 overview
• BD 502–507 Compost Preparation Set
• Barrel Compound and its application instructions
• Agriculture: Spiritual-Scientific Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture

Articles

• Interview with Joe Francis (P. Smith)
• Seed Soaks with the Biodynamic Preparations (H. Courtney)
• 2003 Biodynamic Preparation Conference: February 14–16, Copake, New York (L. Nelson)
• Book Review: Evolution’s End: Claiming the Potential of Our Intelligence (M. Maruska)
• Book Review: The Woodchuck’s Guide to Gardening (G. Nottingham)

Citation

Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue No. 40, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Spring 2003.