Soil Foundation
use natural farming inputs to
create a naturally fertile environment
drake @
naturalfarminghawaii.net
Soil Foundation
• Natural Farming Recipe
• Method
• Theory of Soil Foundation
• Rational for Components
• Insights & Examples
Recipe For an area 100 Square Feet
• 5 lb of IMO#4 • 4 gal natural water
• 2 oz Fermented Plant Juice
• 2~5 lb bio-char • 1 oz Oriental Herbal Nutrient
• 1 oz Fish Amino Acid
• 15 gal oxygenated water • 1 oz Brown Rice Vinegar
• 1 oz Lactic Acid Bacteria
• 20 oz sea water
Natural Farming Method
• Week 1 • Repeat 4 gal and 15 gal mixtures
• Spread IMO#4 mixed with biochar • Week 4
• Water 4 gal mixture “to cover” IMO • Repeat 4 gal and 15 gal mixtures
• Water 15 gal of oxygenated water • End of Week 4
• Week 2 • Sow seeds or transplants
• Repeat 4 gal and 15 gal mixtures • Water with remaining soak solution
• Week 3 • Do not irrigate for first 11 days
Theory of Soil Foundation
• Promote root growth
• Roots grow on oxygen
• Support beneficial (aerobic)
Microorganisms
• Release “fertilizer” on demand
• “Hard start” prepares plant for life
• More nutrition as plant seeks further
Theory of Soil Foundation
• Less weeding; more beneficial “weeds”
• Think of soil as an energy field
• Chemical, biological lenses may be myopic
• Energy is grand unifying principle of universe
• You are a knight; Microbes do farming
Rational for Components
• IMO #4 & BioChar
• Fermented Plant Juice
• Oriental Herbal Nutrient
• Fish Amino Acid
• Lactic Acid Bacteria
• Brown Rice Vinegar
• Ocean Water & Oxygenated Water
IMO#4
• Provides “advanced” workers to the soil
to assemble present nutrients in plant
assimilative form
• Positively energizes soil energy field
• Virtually stretches roots millions of miles
• Suppresses bad nematodes and ciliates
• Balance fungal and bacterial to prevent
weeds
• Enhances soil immune system with
micro-diversity
BioChar
• Housing and Storage for microbes
• Acts as a battery to the soil energy field
• Enables microbes to store toxins and
prevent plant uptake
• Activates the natural moisture cycle to
eliminate irrigation
• Lets plants grow to their full potential
Fermented Plant Juice
• Provides food to microbes
• Raises energy level of soil to enable
higher plant forms to take root
• Hormones and enzymes activate
microbes to optimize for growth
• Complete fertilizer mimics nature of fruit
and plants rotting on the ground
Oriental Herbal Nutrient
• Provides medicine for the microbes
• Stimulates Aerobic microbial growth
• Suppresses Anaerobic microbial growth
• Helps maintain vigor in the system
Fish Amino Acid
• Provides replication and building material
• Amino acids are the building blocks of life
• Nitrogenous forms very close to nature
• Very potent activator of life
Lactic Acid Bacteria
• Provides emergency workers and
welcoming crew
• Aerobic and Anaerobic behavior enables
depth penetrating ability to prepare soil
for more sensitive microbes
• Help to balance soil energy field and
restore homeostasis
• Friendly with other microbes; can
dominate if over applied
Brown Rice Vinegar
• Provides the key to unlocking “stuck”
nutrients
• Flips energy field from acidic (negative) to
alkaline (positive) upon metabolization
• Frees up environment for change
• Old can be used properly
• New is given a space to accumulate
Ocean Water
• Provides trace nutrients to land
environment
• Heals with ying yan energy balance
• Restores damaged land over-saturated
with chemicals
Oxygenated Water
• Provides oxygen to roots and transmits
nutrients to plant
• Higher state of energy than normal water
• Can carry nutrients in colloid suspension
• Breaks down rock nutrients
• Ground water 0%; rain 8%; BMW 16%
General Insight
• The soil foundation is the most
important part of natural farming, so take
your time and do it right
• Wood makes a great soil substrate/
additive; encourages fungal activity
• Only 4% of the plant’s composition
comes from the soil
• 99% of the plant’s immune system is
determined by the soil
Insights from Gil Carandang
• Where there is food, there will be life;
Where there is low stress, there will be good life;
When stress rises the good life becomes the food
• There are many ways to get the “same” end
result; The path seems to determine the quality of
the journey, not necessarily the destination
• Farmers must feel knowingly confident in using
the materials abundant in a given situation to get
to at least one acceptable destination
Insights from Leon Ridzon
• Understanding carbon is fundamental to farming
• Carbon’s ability to filter the soil is a necessary component of clean
nutritious full potential food that gives rise to advanced life forms
• Toxin is defined as anything present in the environment in greater
quantities than necessary to facilitate the production of life
• Processing toxins burns up the good carbon in the soil; lowers the
overall carbon “battery” life runs on
Insights from “Bread from Stones”
• Rock minerals build healthy strong farmers; Manure builds lazy sickly
plants and the farmers and animals that eat them are weak
• Chemical fertilizer and manure acts as toxins if added directly to soil
• Never see heaps of manure in nature. Always small events. Grazers will
move on to mitigate exposure to pathogens, worms and disease.
• Process with worms or compost before introducing to the soil
Insights from Elaine Ingham
• Beneficial microorganisms tend to be aerobic
• Bacteria to Fungus ratio is very important in determining which plants
naturally want to grow in soil
• Plants feed microbes something very similar to bread in exchange for
nutrients, making mill run ideal for propagating beneficial microbes
• Anaerobes produce alcohol which attracts bad guys like ciliates
• Just-in-time solubilization of minerals for plant uptake near root zone
6 Month Soil Recovery
Korean Natural Farming Setting
Korean Natural Farming Setting
Soil Foundation
• Natural Farming Recipe
• Method
• Theory of Soil Foundation
• Rational for Components
• Insights & Examples
More Information
• Soil Foundation Workshop with Let’s
Grow Hilo on February 15th 2012
4:30pm in front of Kress building
• NaturalFarmingHawaii.net
• Spend fifteen minutes with nature
• Questions?
