Horn Manure (BD 500) | Instructions for Use on Soil

One unit is ¼ cup.
One unit treats 1 acre.

Current JPI application at a glance: For one acre, add one ¼-cup unit of BD 500 to 3 gallons of lukewarm rainwater or other chemical-free water. Stir for one full hour, repeatedly reversing direction, then spray promptly onto moist soil late in the day. JPI recommends adding one BD 507 unit per acre during the final 20 minutes. For a smaller area, reduce BD 500 and water in the same proportion and retain the full one-hour stirring time. See the weather, equipment, and storage directions below.

Why it is called “500”: According to Alex Podolinsky, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer named the preparation “500” because properly wintered horn manure contained, per gram, “500 million aerobic bacteria, partly of a totally new kind.” Podolinsky concludes: “For this reason he named this substance ‘500’.” In Podolinsky’s account, the name refers to that bacterial count, not to an application rate.

How did Podolinsky describe the transformation of cow manure into Preparation 500?

Alex Podolinsky describes cow manure changing through the freezing winter, when bacterial activity is suppressed, into “active-creative humus 500.” This substance then undergoes the energising vortex/Chaos process, from which soil-structuring and plant-forming Bio-Dynamic power arises. In his exact phrase, “Individuality arises in adversity.”

Source: Alex Podolinsky, Living Knowledge (2002), p. 25.

Dose and carrier-water clarification: One ¼-cup unit is the BD 500 material dose for one acre. The 3 gallons listed below is carrier water for stirring and application, not 3 gallons of BD 500 material. In Podolinsky’s broad-acre context—one owner-operator, the sole farm worker, covering 1,000 or more hectares—his exact rate excerpt is “88g/Ha (1¼ to 1½ ounces per acre), with a droplet per square centimeter,” with the compost preparations added in their appropriate quantity. This is his historical Prepared 500 broad-acre method. JPI’s current ¼-cup unit remains the current retail direction; the measures may be placed side by side as practical context without mathematically converting mass and volume or changing the current directions below.

What you need:

3 gallons of lukewarm rainwater (or chemical-free water) for every 1 unit of BD 500
a clean container large enough to prevent splashing out (chemical-free)
a light-weight but strong stick

Directions:

Add the measured BD 500 to the water. Stir vigorously in one direction until liquid forms a deep crater. Quickly reverse direction and repeat. Continue this alteration every minute or so for one full hour.
IMPORTANT: For best results, during the last 20 minutes of stirring, add one unit of BD 507 per acre. BD 507 ignites the action of BD 500.

Spraying:

How soon after stirring should Preparation 500 be sprayed?

Spray Preparation 500 within one hour where possible. Pfeiffer describes its strongest window as within three hours and says it loses strength thereafter; his overnight-remixing direction belongs specifically to Pfeiffer™ Field and Garden Spray.

Spray as soon as possible after stirring—it deteriorates rapidly if left standing.
Spray during the latter part of the day, when shadows are growing long.
To spray with an ordinary sprayer, first pour the diluted 500 mixture through a paint strainer. For small areas use a bucket and whisk broom.
Spray on soil.
Always use chemical-free, clean utensils.
If possible, spray on soil that has been recently worked and rake lightly afterward.
If 500 has been used in the area before, quantities may be more dilute—increasingly so with each application.

Storage:

Keep moist until used. Part portions may be used, keeping the same proportions and stirring for a full hour, regardless of the amount you're making.

When to use:

Spray shortly before seed sowing or transplanting.
Use mainly in the spring or fall.
Use during the latter part of the day.
Use when there is no wind, preferably on an overcast day.
Use when the soil contains some moisture—never in drought. Never just before
a rain.

Preparation 500 and living feeder roots

Podolinsky described the visible structuring effect of 500 developing with actively growing white feeder roots. In sparse sandy grassland he observed change around the plants while the bare sand between them changed little. This observation does not change the current timing above: spray BD 500 on moist soil shortly before sowing or transplanting, chiefly in spring or fall, after the prescribed one-hour stir. Do not apply during drought.

Source: Alex Podolinsky, Bio-Dynamic Agriculture Introductory Lectures, Vol. 3 (1999), printed/PDF p. 49.

Download these instructions.

How much headroom should I leave in a stirring vessel?

Use a clean, chemical-free vessel large enough for the water to form a vigorous vortex without splashing out. Leave generous space above the waterline while keeping enough water for active stirring.