BIODYNAMIC AGRICULTURE: BRINGING RESILIENCE BACK INTO FARMS
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BIODYNAMIC AGRICULTURE: BRINGING RESILIENCE BACK INTO FARMS

The Indian Farmer Stereotype
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The Indian Farmer Stereotype

Whose Market Is This?
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Whose Market Is This?

In Journal

Why Grow Food In Soil

Soil is the most important element in making our food. Working in the soil is the most meaningful thing mankind could do to nourish and make their body strong.

So let’s simple break it down. Most of our food comes from some form of plants. So what makes it grow?
– Sun light
– Water
– Energies
– Soil

Sunlight is free of cost. Available in abundance. Just need to position your plants to make the best of it. Just respect the seasons and grow crops that can accept the harshness or mellowness during the year.

Water. Mineral rich water provided on a limited basis based on the crop. Just like you feed babies, more intervals in the beginning and then less often as they grow. Some need a nice rainforest environment to thrive and some need just some moisture after they fruit.

Energies. You can’t just plant a seed in soil, attach a machine to water and feed it and walk away and expect it to thrive. They need some TLC (tender love and care) too. Good energies. Your energies. Animal energies. Energies of the overall biodiversity and environment around them. And watch them thrive! No it’s not fufu logic here. It works. Trust me.

And finally Soil.
Not dirt. Not dead. Not nothing.
Means it’s everything 🙂

Soil is not just NPK + copper when needed + silica when needed + magnesium maybe. Only 5% of the microbes that exist in soil have been possibly discovered so far. Nourish the soil with some good compost that consists of – nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, alkaline elements, and some good beneficial herbs and preps. When animal manure makes the nitrogen element, you are adding a lot more beneficial microbes into the compost. Basically creating an environment to make the compost become a tasty recipe for the plants. It’s not the inputs, but it’s the final result that comes out that smells like earth that’s been freshly rained on.
Can be addictive trust me!
You can also add a lot of beneficial liquid manures or inoculants that improve soil quality. Choose what works best for you.
Improving soil quality is a must in organic farming. It’s not rocket science, just needs some perseverance and consistency.

We are so blessed to be in India with the beautiful variance in soils, lots of plant diversity, biodiversity, innumerable climates to grow and larger variety of crops and a large number of farmers who live in the rural setup. But the system is flawed. Sad but true. Centralization and industrialization along with economics messed up the whole equation. We want everything quick and accessible at our fingertips now. Including our fresh produce. Demand creates supply.
That’s where the urban artificial farms came into play. They are expensive technologies to setup, so they will aggressively market their produce. Only the ones who are privileged can make this setup in an urban environment, not an average farmer. That’s why they treat it a like a business. We know what happens when food and agriculture becomes a hard core business. Enough said on that.

Okay so now let’s go back to the elements that make plants –
*Sunlight – replaced with artificial lighting. It’s like asking me to get vitamin d sitting under a light.
*Water – mind you clean water, or water with fish excretions, which is not bad, but not sure how beneficial that alone can be.
*Energies – ahem! You saw the pictures. You see any biological activity there? You see pollination happening there? You see any happy lady bugs or animals there? Clean people with gloves and sanitization at its optimism. Wohooo! No pests or bacteria! Problem solved! Who wants to deal that?
*Soil – last and important one.
Here’s a description online – Hydroponics is the method and process of growing plants without using any soil. … As long as a plant receives an adequate amount of the required mineral nutrients that it needs in order to grow and thrive, then soil is not needed or necessary for gardening.” Some systems may use a soil mix with compost, peat and some minerals. Some use only fish excretions, and other aquaculture outputs. Some use rock wool in seedling trays.

Whenever nutrients are given in a water form, it’s unnatural to start with, because the plants don’t learn how to absorb nutrients from soil anymore.

Okay now take a person and give them lots of artificial food that requires them to survive. Give them a dose of pure protein, some pure carbs, add some essential multivitamins, all with water. Give them some rock wool blankets and artificial light for their short life span. They will grow and look like humans in a lab to some extent. That’s all they need, and it’s a successful project. Work done!  You know what I mean now? Plants are also living elements, have feelings and have a purpose in life. Cherish them, nurture them, give them an opportunity to make some good for humankind in the way nature intends.

About the marketing terminologies they use for non soil based gardening, let’s try and understand them better –
~ Less adverse environmental impacts – Please! What about the carbon footprint they are creating by pumping in water and electricity into the units that need to run 24/7. And they call themselves eco friendly and organic, maybe because there’s no methane 😂
~ Reduced consumption of resources – What resources are these now? Cause I only see additional byproducts being made to support this industry.
~ Faster plant growth – sure, cause everyone’s in a hurry to buy what you are selling.
~ Higher Yelids – but ofcourse, your mission is to save this world and feed it, not protect Mother Earth.
~ Clean food – That’s grown sanitized with gloves and masks – without the beneficial soil microbes? Well good luck with your gut health and overall immunity

To conclude, this is not complete food with the correct nutrition profile, please get the produce tested if you have the resources and prove us otherwise. I have had clients who tasted such produce and said it doesn’t taste as dense and their stomach didn’t agree. “There’s  something missing” is what I constantly hear, now that’s your gut and human intelligence talking. Go figure!

In Growing Guides, Journal

Pest and Disease Management Basics

We get many messages and questions about how do we control pests and disease when growing organic crops. That seems to be the main reason why people don’t want to grow crops organically – dealing with pests and crop loss!

The answer is simple: Nothing.

Actually it’s not so simple, if you know everything else we do to discourage a pest and disease situation on our farm in the first place. That doesn’t mean we are totally pest or disease free, it only means have done everything to make sure that issue does not take over your garden. So compare it to the human body, just because we eat well, exercise, and take multivitamins, that doesn’t mean we never get a cold or infection. But yes it can be tackled easily with good rest and some care if your overall immunity has been taken care of. We can easily take painkillers or antibiotics, but that does not stop the issue from occurring again. In fact it makes our system weaker and more susceptible to problems.

The same logic applies to plants as well – give them the right environment to grow in, have healthy companions, good nutrition, some TLC, and lots of sunshine!

Ok, lets talk energies for a bit. Don’t expect your garden to flourish if you are in a bad mood and work in the garden. Plants sense feelings, emotions, and stress. The moon cycles and surrounding energy fields affect them as well. So watch them grow, see if they are struggling, keep the plants clean, and notice small changes. Talk to them, sing a song and breathe some good air in the garden to improve your mood. And watch them thrive!

If you go about researching what natural pest control you can use on your plants, it’s a never-ending list. It’s like searching the Internet about what teas to take to suppress a cough. There is so much information to absorb, and a lot of contradictory information out there. Yes, there are some sure shot solutions that work well. However, anything that’s strong and will affect insects will also stress out the plants. Anything that can kill a pest, can kill a beneficiary bug as well. Those yellow sticky pads out there kill a lot of the beneficial insects, pollinators, and bees. So exercise caution before you decide to use the natural anti pest solution.

Most caterpillar populations can be tacked in a small garden by finding and destroying the eggs under the leaves. Birds can do this for you too. Most aphids can be tackled if you spray some water on them, or they immediately go away with a heavy rain. If you maintain biodiversity in your garden, a lot of beneficial insects and microorganisms will do the work. Good compost and simple liquid manures can resolve most issues.

It is so important to a step back and look at the bigger picture. Sometimes you just have to trust the process when you do everything else. Here’s a list of questions you can ask yourself before addressing an issue with your plants:

1. Bad Germination and Young Seedlings are Dying

  • Is there enough light for germination and for seedlings to grow?
  • Are you overwatering or not letting the water drain out?
  • Seedlings got root shock because they were not transplanted with care? Did you give some compost and enough water for them to recover and grow?
  • Too cold at nights? Too hot and dry during the day?

 

2. Stunted Growth, Pest attacks, Abnormal Fruits/Roots

  • Have you sowed the crop in the right season?
  • Have you taken care of soil nutrition?
  • Have you checked what are good companion plants for your crop?
  • Have you planted or transplanted your crop during a stress period such as a node or new moon

 

3. Leaves Droop Down or Turn Yellow, Fruits are Rotting and Falling.

  • Have you give enough water or possibly overwatered the plants?
  • Too much mulch or water-logging in the soil?

 

4. Holes or Eaten up Greens, Black Spots on the Greens

  • Have you checked if they are flying bugs or caterpillars?
  • Are the greens sown too close to each other and lacking soil nutrition?

 

5. Plants are Growing Tall/Stringy, Flowering but not Producing

  • Is there enough light for them to grow?
  • Are you allowing pollinators near the plants?
  • Too much rain?

 

6. The Whole Plant Dies

  • Did you give too much lime or fresh manure to the plants?
  • Have you removed the plant entirely and checked the stems and roots? Maybe it’s a root nematode issue? Or a stem borer?
  • Do you see animals or bird footprints or feces around the plants?
  • Have you given them TLC every so often?

Remove all situations that can cause stress to plants and improve their overall growing conditions. Easier than removing stress from our own lives, trust me!

So when you want to ask us how to help you resolve plant pest issues, we simply say “make it work” and “trust your intuition”. It’s your duty and responsibility to make sure your plants grow well. And only you can make it happen.

We have written a whole section of Soil Nutrition, which covers the important elements that go into growing healthy plants in your garden. Please go through it so that you understand what entails maintaining healthy soil, plants and crops. It’s really not a lot of work, just a lot of common sense and as a result, immense joy from growing your own food!

FINAL WORDS OF WISDOM

Done hate pests. Instead of focusing on killing the pest or disease, focus on strengthening the plant. Instead of treating a symptom, correct the cause.