anyone stiring the biodynamic preps ?
biodynamics
I wish I was. Are you?
[Grandpa Simpson voice]: Doing what with the who, now?
http://www.jpibiodynamics.org/index_set.html
for your perusal Pirate
Thanks!
Did you ever see the movie "The Real Dirt on Farmer John"? He runs a very successful Biodynamic CSA in Illinois. Pretty interesting story there.
I have learned of this practice some time ago but have never actually used it. Would really like to hear of someone that does.
I've read a book on biodynamics, titled "What Is Biodynamics, A way to heal and revitalize the earth" Rudolf Steiner, seven lectures with an introduction, written by Hugh J. Courtney.
In 1924, a group of farmers, gardeners, and others concerned with the depletion of soils and a general deterioration in the quality of crops and livestock asked Rudolf Steiner to speak to them about what might be done. The result was the Agriculture Course, eight lectures on "the spiritual foundations for a renewal of agriculture."
Since then, on the basis of Steiner's indications, generations of farmers, gardeners, viticulturalists, and researchers have developed Biodynamics. It is a uniquely healing, ecological, and spiritual approach to a sustainable care of the earth.
http://www.angelicorganics.com/indexold.html
This is farmer Johns' website.
Check out both Hugh Courtney and Hugh Lovel.
http://www.mayasfarm.net/
Here is another Biodynamic farmer in my area.
This message was edited Apr 24, 2009 7:13 PM
thanks for the links , i have tried it , it works , when you stir the preps
you add energy to the mix, add that to the soil around your plants,
it has been used successfully in australia because of very poor soil,
basically an organic method with compost , the kicker is the energy
you add to it with stirring, if you have a compost pile i recommend
trying biodynamics, they have some preps (short for preparations)
that you add directly to your compost pile (natural ingredients),
as a foliage spray they also make a horsetail tea and stir
a silica and water mixtrue-- the preps are stored in the ground
for a certain period of time,
ALL great info here. Farmer John's story is something.
jimwil22, where do you get your preps?
jimwil22 do you still have to stir for an hour? in a copper vessel? first stirring one way then the other way to create chaos thus attracting the energy to the water?
jpi is the link for the preps jpibiodynamics , you use a 5 gallon pail
for the stirring , better with water from a stream or lake, the way
some compost they do just as well by gathering a lot of ingredients
that others throw away like coffee grounds , grass and leaves. biodynamics
is a way of enhancing the compost so that it goes further(use less
that other organic methods) --- i don't think it has been proven to
work in scientific tests , because they combined organic methods
and didn't just compare organic versus biodynamic , but in
test of synthetic fertilizers versus biodynamic on depleted soils the
biodynamic farmers were able to gradually increase yields and
improve the soil, whereas synthetic fertilizers deplete the soil
and yields go down.
The fourth post down on this thread has the link to the Josephine Porter Institute aka JPI.
Great! Glad I found this post! It's has not been easy for me to find info on biodynamics on line.