>From Allan B. > > Thanks for this information, Cheryl. Where did this testing occur? At > a SFI lab in Australia? (When reporting SFI results, please also > include the location of the lab.) I hope someone has the time to > extrapolate on the meaning of your 'ug/b' figures.
Yes, we have a SFI lab in Lismore, about 3 hours north of me in NSW. > > If I understand this correctly, you had the test done on the physical > 'out of the box' BD500. Do you have plans to test stirred 500? > Yes, it was physical out of the box BD 500, (unstirred, it is tested like compost) in this case it was about 5 years old, had been passed on from one of our elder BD practitioners who sold his wheat farm. The new guy was wanting to know if it was still ok to use!! He then suggested that we should get some newer BD 500 tested, so we have. Yes, we are planning on getting some stirred 500 plus Horn Clay and CPP (Barrel Compost,) as this is what we tell most of our farmers to put out as one spray. Then we should get some BD 501 plus 508 stirred and done as well ! Not that we see the fungal and bacterial content as all that BD is about - we know that what is really happening is bringing in the forces to stimulate the activity in the soil. But SFI tests are not able to quantify that as yet.!! But it helps the more rational minds to cope and helps them see that Biodynamics already has the answers. Proof! Later this year we are bringing Dr Fritz Balzer from Germany to our AGM and National BD Conference in August. He specialises is BD soil testing, plus sensitive crystalisation - a method of showing life forces in BD food and products - so it will be interesting to work with both methods and approaches to Biodynamics. > >We are awaiting the final bacterial biomass count to see what > >protozoa are there. > > > >Maybe you could add 500 to your brew!! > > > I saw Elaine's flowform report, but couldn't make much of it. Do you > know what sort of pump was being used? The make/model of the forms? > What was being used as a compost basket? And, a new question, why the > guy trialing it through the basket should have been removed earlier? Alan, the pump was a Grundfos vortex submersible pump AP 12.40.06 (Which takes 12ml particles - "it can pump rocks!" says Phil Sedgman our Flowform man) Flowform is the Vortex flowform, 3 big forms, made of fibreglass, for mobility. You can see Phils flowforms on his website - www.livingwaterflowformsaustralia.com The guy was using a laundry basket (plastic mesh about arms in oval shape size ) with cloth holding the vermicompost. He placed it under the last flowform as the water poured into the pool at the bottom. He left it there for 8 hours - or where you see the lowest point of O2, and it apparently was building up so many bacteria, that it was taking all the O2 supply. Once he removed the basket and vermicompost, the O2 levels could catch up with the bacteria growth. What they were so excited about was that the flowform was able to get the O2 levels up in 8 hours when the the usual tea brewers took 16 hours. (Of course) They plan to do some more tests in a wek or two , and we will also visit Phils to do some 500, Horn clay and CPP stiring for testing. Will probably do some for one hour - as per our usual strring time, and then whilst testing with an O2 meter,see what happens to the brew then and how long it needs. Then we can drop in the bottles to SFI nearby. We are also very keen to test the fuzzy brew that we have made up since the trip to India - I am still getting fungi brewing on top after two weeks. All exciting things happening. When are you getting your lot done at SFI? I thought it would be good to do it in different countries to see if there was any differences. Cheers Cheryl.
