Applied Biodynamics — Issue 074 (Autumn 2011)

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Applied Biodynamics 074 shows how a compact urban farm can unite an intensive business plan with biodynamic soil care. Abigail Porter interviews Linda Borghi, a SPIN-Farming educator who brings preparations, compost, planting rhythms, and direct observation into a standardized small-bed production system. Hugh Courtney’s reader answers then supply exact equipment and composting protocols, while two book reviews deepen the farm-organism theme.

Small plots, intensive production

SPIN—Small Plot INtensive—organizes commercial vegetable production on one acre or less around 2-by-25-foot beds, quick-growing high-value crops, relay planting, and direct markets. The historical planning target described in this issue is $100 per bed per planting with three or four plantings per season. At Somerton Tank Farms in Philadelphia, the half-acre trial grossed $26,000 in its first year, exceeded $50,000 in year three, and reached $68,000 in year four. A related feasibility study projected that season extension, 200 beds, and as many as four rotations per bed could lift gross sales further. These figures give growers concrete bed, rotation, and revenue benchmarks for designing their own local enterprise.

Borghi explains that SPIN provides workflow, production, and marketing structure, while biodynamics provides the soil-fertility and plant-vitality foundation. Her starter sequence introduces growers to Pfeiffer Field & Garden Spray, BD 500 Horn Manure, BD 501 Horn Silica, BD 508 Horsetail, and either the BD 502–507 Compost Preparations or Pfeiffer Compost Starter. This is a practical bridge from bed-based production into a living farm organism.

Abundant Life Farm in practice

Borghi’s third Abundant Life Farm began commercial production on a quarter acre after eight months of clearing and terracing former woodland. She brought in 150 cubic yards of composted cow manure to establish the beds and reported abundant returning earthworm activity after the first year of preparation and spray use. She grew lettuce, spinach, parsley, coriander, chard, kale, and dandelion leaves, serving a 30-member “Farmers Club” whose members ordered weekly from an availability list, plus a Bronx farmers’ market and a planned restaurant channel.

She also planted by the biodynamic calendar and recorded the occasions when field work fell outside its guidance, giving her a direct basis for comparing crop response. For current rhythm-based planning, see Stella Natura. Her interest in Three Kings Preparation points to another way small farms can bring seasonal and spiritual practice into their land work; JPI’s Three Kings guide gives the current ritual and application sequence.

Although the cultivated area was small, Borghi equipped herself for consistent application and future custom work with a 110-gallon mist sprayer and a 300-gallon vortex brewer. The equipment choice follows the intended service, not acreage alone: a grower can begin by treating a small bed system accurately while building the capacity to serve neighboring gardens and farms.

Spraying and stirring that preserve preparation quality

In “Anecdotes and Antidotes—Biodynamics at Work,” Courtney explains that many category-one, three-point-hitch sprayers with a 50-gallon tank and 12- to 17-foot boom can serve biodynamic field work. Both diaphragm and piston pumps have been used successfully; a diaphragm pump is favored as a gentler choice. Venturi recirculation or mechanical agitation is acceptable during application. That in-tank movement does not replace the preparation’s full hour of hand stirring or a purpose-built machine that creates a deep vortex and reverses direction frequently. JPI’s Making and Using the Biodynamic Preparations and BD 500 instructions carry this sequence into current practice.

A four-point BD 508 compost protocol

For a windrow compost pile, use four cups of fermented BD 508 tea. Open four holes at the normal compost-preparation depth—one at the north end, one at the south end, and one at each midpoint on the east and west sides. Pour one cup into each hole and close it. Courtney’s expected result is more even moisture through the pile, without wet pockets, overheated or dry “fire-fanged” zones, and with a more uniform finished compost. This simple one-cup-at-four-points pattern is easy to repeat and observe.

Exact compost-unit calculations

The issue’s historical beginner horse-manure guidance converts pile size into preparation quantity. Its working rule uses about 1⅓ cubic yards per ton, describes one BD 502–507 set for 10 tons or more, and describes one Pfeiffer Compost Starter unit for 1–1½ tons. Those figures remain part of the 2011 source record.

For current JPI practice, one complete BD 502–507 set treats up to 15 tons and the full set is also used on smaller piles: place BD 502–506 in five separate holes about halfway into a properly moist pile, stir BD 507 in 1 gallon of lukewarm chemical-free water for 10 minutes, pour half into a sixth hole, spray the other half over the pile, and close all holes without air pockets. Current Pfeiffer Compost Starter directions use one 1-ounce unit per 1–1.5 tons (1.5–2.25 cubic yards), activated for 12–16 hours or overnight and distributed through the materials while the pile is built.

Barrel Compound is the same preparation also called Barrel Compost. JPI uses the name “Barrel Compound” for its U.S. product because regulations govern what may legally be sold as “compost.”

Finished-compost targets in the issue are about 10 tons per acre for a market garden, 1–2 tons per acre for pasture or hay, and an intermediate rate for cropland according to the crop. For fields, Courtney recommends either Pfeiffer Field & Garden Spray or a combination of Barrel Compound and BD 500. One tablespoon of Pfeiffer Field & Garden Spray treats 3,000 square feet; activate only the quantity required for the area. See the Pfeiffer Spray instructions and Barrel Compound instructions for current directions.

Keep these calculations separate: Compost Starter coverage above concerns material being inoculated while building the pile, whereas the finished-compost tons-per-acre figures concern field application after composting. Plan Starter units from the starting material or pile volume; a desired finished-compost target alone does not supply that quantity or a unit count.

For a known starting pile, recommend whole Starter units conservatively: one unit for each ton of known starting material and round any fraction up. Ten tons of starting material therefore calls for ten units rather than seven at the maximum coverage. The pile's cubic-yard size is material-dependent, so do not turn an approximate cube example into a universal tonnage conversion. A goal of ten tons of finished compost is a different quantity; first establish the starting pile size before recommending how many units to buy.

Books on the farm organism

Hugh Courtney reviews Karl-Ernst Osthaus’s The Biodynamic Farm: Developing a Holistic Organism for its concrete treatment of the farm’s “due amount” of cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, and other animals, and for its use of hedgerows as livestock forage and habitat for birds, insects, and wildlife. The review also restates JPI’s preparation-quality standards: BD 501 remains in the earth through late autumn, BD 502 spends a full year in its bladder sheath, and BD 504 passes through winter and the following summer underground.

Tom Petherick’s Biodynamics in Practice documents Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch, two English farms brought into community ownership beginning in 1995. Its photographs and story show biodynamics extending beyond a farm method into a relationship among land, animals, growers, eaters, and the surrounding community. Together, the reviews connect Borghi’s neighborhood-scale work with the larger social form of the farm organism.

Articles

• Putting a Spin on SPIN-Farming® and Taking Biodynamics to the City (Abigail Porter interviews Linda Borghi)
• A Message from Our New Board Member (Abigail Porter)
• Anecdotes and Antidotes—Biodynamics at Work (Hugh Courtney)
• Book Reviews—Newly Received Titles (Hugh Courtney)

Key Topics Covered

• Bed-based business planning for farms of one acre or less
• Four-year production benchmarks from a half-acre urban trial
• Biodynamic starter preparations for SPIN growers
• Quarter-acre soil building with compost and preparation sprays
• Planting-calendar comparison through written field notes
• Equipment capacity for farm and custom application work
• Sprayer pumps, agitation, and full-vortex stirring
• Four-point fermented BD 508 placement in compost
• Compost tonnage, pile dimensions, and preparation units
• Finished-compost rates for market gardens, pasture, and cropland
• Farm-organism models rooted in animals and community ownership

Related JPI resources

• Biodynamic calendar guide and Stella Natura
• Pfeiffer Field & Garden Spray, guide, and instructions
• BD 500 Horn Manure, guide, and instructions
• BD 501 Horn Silica, guide, and instructions
• BD 508 Horsetail, guide, and instructions
• BD 502–507 Compost Preparation Set and instructions
• Pfeiffer Compost Starter, guide, and instructions
• Three Kings Preparation, guide, and instructions
• Barrel Compound, guide, and instructions

Citation

Applied Biodynamics, Issue 074, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Autumn 2011. 12 pages.