Applied Biodynamics — Issue 077 (Summer 2012)
Issue 077 combines Jim Barausky’s forty years of farm experience with John Bradshaw’s humus-and-soil-life account of biodynamics. It gives high-light BD 501 timing, weekly greenhouse BD 508 use, Prepared 500 ratios, multi-species grazing and green-manure systems, plus exact fruit and blight spray protocols.
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Applied Biodynamics 077 connects the perception of an experienced farmer with the biological processes beneath his practice. Hunter Francis interviews Jim Barausky on preparation use, light, farm individuality, and farmer education. John Bradshaw explains why humus, roots, microbes, grazing, and green manures work so powerfully with the biodynamic preparations. Hugh Courtney closes with exact BD 501 and BD 508 directions.
Keys to good farming
For Barausky, a good farmer grows more than crops: the farmer carries civic responsibility, cares for the local landscape, teaches practical competence, and strengthens the surrounding culture. His forty years include commercial farms, market gardens, college programs, apprenticeship work, and the conversion of a conventional dairy into a diversified biodynamic farm at Kimberton Hills. His earlier work at the 400-acre Buschberghof community farm also placed him near the beginnings of community-supported agriculture.
His preparation practice begins with biodynamically prepared compost, then works with the polarity of BD 500 Horn Manure and BD 501 Horn Silica. BD 500’s effect can be felt in crumb structure and smelled in healthy soil; BD 501 is read through plant posture, spacing, firmness, fruiting, and the character of local light. The form of the plant indicates which side of the polarity needs support, making farm observation the practical guide to timing.
Working confidently with light
At 6,000 feet in Colorado, Barausky found repeated BD 501 applications especially valuable because intense high-desert light can overwhelm cultivated plants and fruit. He recommends several silica sprays and notes that grain can benefit when BD 501 begins at a young stage—pre-tillering and certainly before boot. The aim is not simply “more light,” but a plant that can organize and metabolize the light available in its own place. JPI’s BD 501 instructions provide the current stirring and application sequence.
He used BD 508 Horsetail as part of a regular weekly greenhouse watering program and in Pennsylvania hard wheat, where it supported baking-quality grain under hot, humid conditions. He also urges growers to cultivate the preparation plants themselves—dandelion, valerian, horsetail, yarrow, nettle, and the others—and place them in the farm organism as living centers of their characteristic forces.
Why biodynamics works
Bradshaw’s article places colloidal humus at the center of natural plant feeding. Soil organisms convert roots, leaves, manure, and other organic matter into a stable colloid that holds minerals in soluble form without letting them wash away. The issue notes that colloidal humus can hold up to 75% of its own volume in water and dries slowly. Fine feeder roots take nourishment from it in response to solar warmth, while larger roots primarily replace the water lost through transpiration. Humus therefore coordinates water, minerals, soil life, roots, and sun.
Podolinsky’s two root systems: water roots and white feeder roots
In his own account, Podolinsky distinguishes darker, predominantly vertical roots that take up water from smaller, more horizontal white hair roots, which he calls the plant’s “real feeder roots.” On nursery trees in late winter or early spring, the white hair roots can appear even before the buds swell. This two-root description is from Podolinsky, alongside Bradshaw’s humus-and-roots discussion above.
Source: Alex Podolinsky, Bio-Dynamics: Agriculture of the Future (2000), p. 6.
Every scale of soil life contributes. Animals shred residues, build aggregates, and open air and water channels. Earthworm casts contain about five times the nitrogen, seven times the phosphorus, and eleven times the potassium of the surrounding soil, while worm tunnels carry humus and roots deeper. Fungi open cellulose and lignin; mycorrhizae extend the root’s reach for phosphorus and trace elements and strengthen drought response; bacteria fix and cycle nitrogen; enzymes drive organic-matter breakdown, nutrient cycling, and aggregation. Healthy soil smell, dark color, crumb structure, deep roots, water entry, and crop endurance are the field expressions of this community.
Preparations and Prepared 500
Bradshaw describes well-made BD 500 and the six BD 502–507 Compost Preparations as concentrated biological organizers that promote microbial activity, roots, humus, darker color, and friable soil. Prepared 500 brings the compost preparations directly into stored Horn Manure. The issue’s JPI formula is four sets of BD 502–507 for 15 gallons of finished BD 500; allow six weeks for integration, then stir for one hour before spraying. Multi-year use is associated with substantial topsoil development.
The four-set-to-15-gallon ratio above is retained as the 2012 source record. Current JPI preparation-making guidance combines one complete BD 502–507 set with approximately five gallons of finished BD 500. For current field application, stir one JPI Prepared 500 unit for one hour in 3–5 gallons of water and spray it over soil, preferably in the afternoon.
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.” The issue’s annual preparation-making workshop describes the same field preparation under its historical Biodynamic Compound and Barrel Compost terminology.
Grazing, cultivation, and green manure
The Australian system divides pasture into at least five paddocks on a small farm and as many as 35–40 on a dairy, rotating stock so each section regrows fully. After grazing, dying roots feed soil organisms and their channels are reopened by worms and new roots. Harrowing spreads manure thinly for rapid digestion into humus; it is unnecessary where dung beetles are active and is avoided whenever tractor traffic would compact wet soil. Biodiverse pasture is the standard: traditional horse breeders valued about 80 species and read fewer than 40 as decline.
A one-year pasture observation from Podolinsky
In one same-paddock comparison, Podolinsky describes weedy pasture roughly aerated by ripping, sprayed twice with basic soil-activating BD 500, and lightly over-sown. After one year he observed darker and newly structured soil. The result belongs to that combined sequence in that paddock, not a fixed two-spray program or a claim that whole-farm conversion is complete in one year. The pasture and cultivation guidance in this issue remains the guide to assessing local soil, moisture, and preparation work; use JPI’s current BD 500 directions for stirring, amount, and application.
Source: Alex Podolinsky, Bio-Dynamic Agriculture Introductory Lectures, Volume 3 (1999), printed p. 51.
Summer chain-harrowing: read the pasture and weather
Pfeiffer describes a chain or Scotch harrow loosening the surface and spreading small manure droppings in summer, with a more uniform stand of grasses the following year. His qualification is essential: do not do this in a drought. On lighter sandy soils, harrow carefully enough not to expose roots. The pasture guidance above also leaves harrowing to dung beetles when they are active and avoids tractor traffic that would compact wet ground.
Source: Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Bio-Dynamic Gardening and Farming, Volume 2 (1983), printed p. 34, read alongside this issue’s pasture account.
Related Pfeiffer pasture observation: root felt
Pfeiffer describes root felt as roots intermingled with decaying leaves a few inches below the pasture surface. It acts like a sponge, absorbing surface moisture; when thickened, it prevents water and air from penetrating. He connects it with reduced drainage and aeration, standing water, increasing acidity, moss, and a shift away from bluegrass and clover toward sour grasses. Read the mat, water movement, and plant cover together when diagnosing a pasture.
Source: Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer, Bio-Dynamic Gardening and Farming, Volume 2 (1983), printed p. 32.
When cultivation is needed, tined tools that lift and break soil are favored over implements that smear, cut, or pulverize it. Work only at suitable moisture, leave the soil reasonably rough, and travel no faster than a walking horse. Deep ripping can open existing subsoil compaction when conditions are semi-dry, allowing roots and biology to descend.
Why not plow soil while it is too wet?
Pfeiffer warns that improper plowing of too-wet soil gradually creates hardpan that blocks air, water, and roots and may leave large lumps that persist. He also describes damage when deep inversion buries the living surface layer. Wait for workable moisture; where cultivation is needed, the tined-tool and diagnosed-compaction guidance above preserves the living surface while opening the soil as conditions allow.
Source: Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Bio-Dynamic Gardening and Farming, Volume 1 (1983), printed p. 62.
Read soil layers with Pfeiffer’s spade-cut profile
For a profile about one foot deep, Pfeiffer says to dig a hole one foot square; make it larger if investigating deeper layers. Keep two sidewalls sharply cut and uncompressed, then peel a layer from one face with a flat spade without disturbing its structure. Choose workable moisture: neither so wet that water gathers in the hole nor so dry that the soil is rock-hard. Observe soil structure, roots, hardpans, and other layers across representative places.
Source: Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer, Bio-Dynamic Gardening and Farming, Volume 1 (1983), “Soil Profiles: A Diagnostic Means,” printed p. 119.
Green manure is most effective as a diverse community. The issue cites Agrilatina Cooperative in Italy using as many as 90 species in summer mixtures and 30 in winter. Mulch the stand finely at optimum development, incorporate it gently, apply Prepared 500, and plant the next crop after the material has become colloidal humus. Barry Edwards’s “weeds as green manure” system let the existing plant community mature and then returned it to the soil; his comparable-yield crops used about 3 kilograms of non-water-soluble phosphorus per hectare per crop, versus 12–20 kilograms in conventional programs.
Prepared 500 after cultivation: Podolinsky’s vegetable-soil rationale
The green-manure sequence above concerns a mulched and incorporated stand. In a separate passage on newly cultivated vegetable soil, Podolinsky explains that cultivation can disrupt active humus structure and colloidality; he recommends Prepared 500 so white hair roots develop with the growing crop and uptake of elements, structuring soil within their reach. He also describes reactivating roots in pasture following dry autumn or winter wetness. Use JPI’s current Prepared 500 directions for the amount, stirring, water, and application.
Source: Alex Podolinsky, Bio-Dynamic Agriculture Introductory Lectures, Volume 3 (1999), p. 54.
BD 501 from local rose quartz
Rose quartz, milky quartz, feldspar, or orthoclase can provide the silica for BD 501. The material must be finely ground, filled into a cow horn, and buried through the summer; a decorative stone placed intact in a bed is not the preparation. Courtney’s issue rate is one-half teaspoon per acre, stirred in three gallons of water and sprayed as a fine mist over plants and their atmosphere. A modest handful of ground quartz can make enough finished Horn Silica for hundreds of acres.
For strawberries, raspberries, apples, and other fruiting crops, avoid BD 501 and BD 508 during full bloom. Resume when fruit is well formed, spray again as it ripens, and again shortly before harvest. A post-harvest BD 501 spray can support bud formation for the following season. This stage-based sequence protects flowering while carrying silica through fruit development.
Issue 077’s historical six-step BD 508 blight protocol
The sequence below is retained as the 2012 source record for tomato and potato blight. Current JPI practice distinguishes fresh foliar tea from fermented soil tea; the current recipe, dilution, acreage, and handout appear in FAQ4 below.
- Bring one unit of dried BD 508—1.5 ounces by weight—to a boil in one gallon of water, then simmer for one hour.
- Cool and transfer the tea to a crock or glass container.
- Store it cool for 10–14 days, until fermentation produces a noticeable aroma.
- Dilute one part fresh or fermented tea with nine parts rainwater, or water left in sunlight for a day if chlorinated.
- Stir for 20 minutes, reversing whenever a deep vortex forms—about once or twice per minute.
- Spray larger droplets on the soil on the crop’s corresponding day: Fruit for tomato, Root for potato. Foliage may also receive the spray when treating blight.
BD 505 Oak Bark can accompany or follow BD 508 for plant-disease support, with BD 501 and BD 507 Valerian continuing in the regular crop program. JPI’s preparation-use guide and Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course supply the broader framework.
Articles
- Keys to Good Farming with Jim Barausky (Hunter Francis)
- Why Biodynamics Works (John Bradshaw)
- Anecdotes and Antidotes—Biodynamics at Work (Hugh Courtney)
Key Topics Covered
- Farmer observation as a guide to preparation timing
- BD 500 and BD 501 as a polarity after prepared compost
- Repeated BD 501 application under intense high-altitude light
- Weekly greenhouse BD 508 and humid-climate wheat
- Colloidal humus as the meeting place of water, minerals, roots, and sun
- Earthworms, fungi, bacteria, enzymes, and soil aggregation
- Prepared 500 ratio and six-week integration period
- Five- to forty-paddock rotational grazing systems
- Low-disturbance, moisture-timed soil cultivation
- Thirty- to ninety-species green-manure mixtures
- Fruit-stage BD 501 and BD 508 timing
- Six-step fermented BD 508 blight protocol
Related JPI resources
- Biodynamic calendar guide
- 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
- BD 505 Oak Bark and guide
- BD 507 Valerian and guide
- Making and Using the Biodynamic Preparations
- Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course
Citation
Applied Biodynamics, Issue 077, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Summer 2012. 16 pages.
Related biodynamic pasture practice from Alex Podolinsky: rotational grazing as sheet composting
Podolinsky describes mixed pasture offered to livestock at “optimal growth”—neither too short nor stagnant—as stock rotates across the farm. He preferred cows while welcoming sheep and other stock. Regrowth to optimal length develops “deep root activity,” and he says this sheet-composting practice works deep into the soil. Shape the rotation and rest around your pasture’s growth and conditions.
Source: Alex Podolinsky, Bio-Dynamics: Agriculture of the Future (2000), pp. 43–44.
