Applied Biodynamics — Issue 067 (Winter 2009–2010)

Applied Biodynamics Issue 067 (Winter 2009–2010) is a practical BD 508 Horsetail issue covering harvest, fresh and fermented tea, storage, crop-stage timing, farm-scale preparation, and positive field results.

Download the complete original Issue 067 PDF

Horsetail as a versatile biodynamic preparation

Patricia Smith gathers JPI's practical experience with Equisetum arvense and the sulfur-silica relationship described in biodynamics. BD 508 is used to balance moisture conditions, support plant resilience, and meet fungal pressure through timely, attentive application.

The issue brings preparation method and field observation together. Harvest, quantity, boiling, fermentation, storage, timing, crop stage, weather, acreage, disease expression, grain quality, yield, and cost all become part of the grower's practical knowledge.

Harvesting, drying, and storing horsetail

Harvest common horsetail from May through September, cutting the green stems while leaving about four inches at the base for regrowth. Lay the herb on racks to dry for several days, then cut it into pieces from one-quarter inch to one inch long.

Dried herb can be stored in glass jars or paper bags away from light and heat for up to two years. The issue's method uses Equisetum arvense, the same species specified in JPI's current guidance.

Fresh and fermented BD 508 methods

JPI's current native answer gives both methods in one ready reference:

• Fresh foliar tea: boil one 1.5-ounce dry unit in one quart of water, simmer for one hour, cool and strain, add two gallons of water, stir for twenty minutes, and apply as a fine mist to up to one acre.
• Fermented soil tea: boil one 1.5-ounce dry unit in one gallon of water, simmer for one hour, ferment for ten to fourteen days, strain, dilute one part tea to nine parts water, and use the full batch on up to three acres.

For the Issue 067 fermented method, transfer the cooled tea to a crock with a loose-fitting cover and keep it cool and dark. A sulfurous odor, oily surface layer, and film indicate readiness. Strain into glass and store cool and dark. The fermented tea remains effective for six months or longer.

The crock can also serve as a continuous culture: leave the herbal residue in place, withdraw the amount needed, and add a newly brewed batch to the remaining material.

Crop-stage timing

Philip Lyvers directs silica preparations to soil before crop emergence or applies them after fruit, ear, or head formation is established. He avoids flowering, especially in beans, to protect strong fruit set.

This crop-stage awareness joins the moisture-balancing role of BD 508 with the plant's developmental rhythm. Soil-directed treatment, canopy use, flowering, fruit set, grain fill, and harvest each call for a distinct observation and timing decision.

Farm-scale BD 508 preparation

For his 2,600-acre grain and hog operation, Lyvers brewed thirty pounds of dried horsetail in a ninety-gallon cast-iron kettle. The tea fermented for about fourteen days, was strained into a 250-gallon tote, and the spent herb returned to compost.

BD 508, BD 500, and Barrel Compound were processed for one hour in a compost-tea machine and another hour and twenty minutes through a flowform. A sixty-foot boom applied the program across roughly 450 acres in spring and fall.

The same farm used BD 508 in gardens, greenhouses, orchards, cover crops, grain fields, and prepared manure systems. Lyvers treated the farm as a whole, combining preparation work with crop rotations, clover, vetch, small grains, corn, hogs, compost, and on-farm observation.

Positive wheat and corn results in a very wet year

In the high-rainfall 2009 season, Lyvers reported good-quality wheat with very little Fusarium damage and no fungicide application. The crop yielded seventy-one bushels per acre, above his normal benchmark, with a reported cash cost of $1.60 per bushel. He also described the farm-ground flour as better than anything he could buy.

Corn harvested before the prolonged rains yielded 145 bushels per acre with only one to two percent damage and excellent quality. These results gave the farm concrete benchmarks linking preparation timing, disease pressure, yield, grain quality, and cost.

After several years of biodynamic preparation use, Lyvers also noticed healthier-looking farm animals and increasingly symmetrical deer antlers with balanced points and size. He read these changes as expressions of the wider farm organism.

BD 508 in a coordinated biodynamic program

Issue 067 places BD 508 alongside BD 500 Horn Manure, BD 501 Horn Silica, and Barrel Compound. The preparations are combined through an intentional sequence that responds to moisture, crop stage, soil, weather, and the developmental gesture of the plant.

For growers building a broader weather-responsive program, JPI's Sequential Spray Kit offers a related practical pathway. The Issue 067 records show how that work can be scaled from a small crock to hundreds of acres while retaining exact recipes, attentive timing, and field observation.

Key topics covered

• Harvesting, drying, cutting, and storing Equisetum arvense.
• Exact current fresh-foliar and fermented-soil BD 508 methods.
• Sulfurous odor, surface film, storage life, and continuous-crock fermentation.
• Crop-stage timing and protection of flowering and fruit set.
• Thirty-pound brewing, flowform processing, and sixty-foot-boom application across roughly 450 acres.
• Very little Fusarium damage, seventy-one-bushel wheat, $1.60 cash cost, and 145-bushel corn with one to two percent damage.
• BD 508 with BD 500, BD 501, Barrel Compound, crop rotations, compost, and livestock.

Explore related resources

• BD 508 Horsetail, guide, and current instructions
• BD 500 Horn Manure, guide, and current instructions
• Barrel Compound, guide, and current instructions
• BD 501 Horn Silica, guide, and current instructions
• Sequential Spray Kit and current instructions

Articles in this issue

• How to Make BD 508 (Equisetum arvense) Horsetail Tea — Patricia Smith
• Fields of Gold Farm Keeps Blight at Bay with Use of BD 508 (Equisetum arvense) — Patricia Smith and Hugh J. Courtney
• Sulfur Influence of BD 508 and Climate Control? — Patricia Smith
• Kentucky Farmer Has Many Uses for BD 508 (Equisetum arvense) — Patricia Smith

Citation

Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue No. 67, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Winter 2009–2010.