Applied Biodynamics — Issue 087 (Spring/Summer 2015)

Read the original Applied Biodynamics Issue 087 PDF.

Applied Biodynamics No. 87 makes observation operational. Bruno Follador shows how to follow compost from decomposition into humus through touch, smell, temperature, moisture, microscopy, and monthly chromatograms; Abigail Porter gives precise backyard entry protocols; and Joseph Brinkley supplies field and seed comparisons for Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray.

In “Towards a Wholeness of Nature with Composting and Chromatography,” Hunter Francis interviews Follador on Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s round-filter chromatography. The method is simple to perform and rich to read: color, form, zones, radiations, and the way a solution moves through paper portray the compost’s living process. Rather than treating one final picture as a score, Follador follows the full metamorphosis. His preferred sequence begins with a first sample after four or five weeks and continues approximately once a month through the pile’s life.

Chromatography works best beside direct pile observation. Temperature, moisture, oxygen, carbonaceous and nitrogenous materials, odor, structure, and turning rhythm remain important, while the farmer reads how this particular farm’s materials are behaving. Follador adds about 10% soil to his mixtures—or mature compost when soil is unavailable. Dry, hot horse manure receives water as it is mixed; fresh cow manure and straw commonly need none. The aim is a homogeneous, moist mixture guided from breakdown into a structured, up-building humus process.

The paired chromatograms in the issue make the contrast visible: a six-month cow-manure-and-straw compost that passed through healthy decomposition and humification shows integrated development, while material held in anaerobic putrefaction shows a markedly different form. At JPI’s spring workshop, participants inspected cross-sections, moisture, heat, odor, bacteria and fungi under magnification, then arranged twelve chromatograms from successive stages of transformation. Because each chromatogram takes several days to make and about two more weeks to develop fully, the series rewards careful dating and comparison.

“Nature’s Life and Flow: The Farmer as Observer,” by Karen Davis-Brown, expands this method into daily husbandry: weather records, soil tests, crop response, memory, movement, and repeated field presence become one decision system. Barbara Scott’s “The Light Root: Human Consciousness and Health” applies the same living attention to Dioscorea batatas, a deep-rooting plant understood in anthroposophical agriculture for its distinctive relationship with light, nutrition, and human development.

In “Beginning Biodynamics for the Backyard Gardener,” Porter gives an immediate starting point. One two-ounce unit of Field and Garden Spray in three to five gallons of water treats up to one acre; one teaspoon treats approximately 1,000 square feet. Apply in late afternoon or evening to moist soil, using a sprayer, whisk broom, wallpaper brush, or bundled flexible twigs. Complete coverage is unnecessary; on open ground, lightly rake the spray into the top three to four inches. It may be used before spring planting, as a seed or transplant-root soak, beneath leaves during the season, and on mown cover crops before incorporation, where replanting may follow in as little as two weeks.

For compost, one ounce of Pfeiffer Compost Starter treats up to one and a half tons or a four-by-four-by-eight-foot pile. A minimum four-foot-square heap, three to four feet high, uses about half an ounce or one tablespoon. Apply the liquid to each layer while building, pour it into holes about one foot apart in an existing heap, or mix the dry starter with very dry sand for small household additions. Keep it dry until use so activation begins only when feed material and moisture are present.

Porter also introduces Barrel Compound: stir the full one-acre unit for twenty minutes, repeatedly forming a deep vortex, reversing into chaos, and rebuilding the vortex before an evening soil application. The issue’s new beginner kits combine these compound preparations with BD 501 and BD 508; JPI’s current Quick Start guide offers a concise modern entry point.

Barrel Compound is the same preparation also called Barrel Compost. JPI uses “Barrel Compound” for its U.S. product because “Compost” is regulated in what can legally be sold under that name.

In “Anecdotes: Pfeiffer Biodynamic Field and Garden Spray,” Brinkley’s vineyard trial used fifty treated acres and fifty control acres, six blocks in each. Spray went onto the mown cover crop immediately before disking. In year one, yeast-assimilable nitrogen rose by 50 mg/L in five treated blocks and did not rise in the controls; five treated blocks continued to increase in later adequately moist years, eventually reaching a level that called for reducing annual application. In a seed trial, dry concentrate coated half the black bean and okra seeds in a shared tray; untreated seed occupied equal pots in the other half, and the tray rotated every few days. After ten days, treated seed germination was twice the untreated rate.

The workshop report, beginning-gardener guidance, plant essays, and reviews of The Light Root and A Monk in the Bee Hive all reinforce the same practice: observe a living process repeatedly, change one condition clearly, keep the comparison visible, and let form, growth, and transformation guide the next action.

Articles

• Towards a Wholeness of Nature with Composting and Chromatography — Hunter Francis interviews Bruno Follador
• Nature’s Life and Flow: The Farmer as Observer — Karen Davis-Brown
• The Light Root (Dioscorea batatas): Human Consciousness and Health — Barbara Scott
• JPI Spring Workshop — Abigail Porter
• Compost and Chromatography with Bruno Follador — Abigail Porter
• Beginning Biodynamics for the Backyard Gardener — Abigail Porter
• Beginning Biodynamic Kits Now Available
• Anecdotes: Pfeiffer Biodynamic Field and Garden Spray — Abigail Porter
• Book Review: The Light Root: Nutrition of the Future
• Book Review: A Monk in the Bee Hive

Key Topics Covered

• Round-filter chromatography as a living process record
• First compost sample at four to five weeks and monthly thereafter
• Moisture, temperature, oxygen, feedstock, odor, and structure
• Ten-percent soil or mature-compost addition
• Aerobic humification and anaerobic putrefaction patterns
• Farmer observation joining measurement, memory, and field presence
• Two-ounce-per-acre Field and Garden Spray protocol
• One-teaspoon rate for approximately 1,000 square feet
• One-ounce Compost Starter rate for one and a half tons
• Twenty-minute Barrel Compound vortex stirring
• Fifty-acre treated and control vineyard blocks with YAN measurement
• Rotated-tray bean and okra germination comparison

Related JPI resources

• Pfeiffer Field & Garden Spray, guide, and instructions
• Pfeiffer Compost Starter, guide, and instructions
• Barrel Compound, guide, and instructions
• BD 501 Horn Silica, guide, and instructions
• BD 508 Horsetail, guide, and instructions
• Biodynamics Quick Start and beginner kits

Citation

Applied Biodynamics, Issue 087, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Spring/Summer 2015.

Download Issue 087 PDF