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Thrips Cure, Soil Compaction Tests, Natural vs Conventional Fields

Drake answers a viewer question on thrips: with over 7,700 species, thrips usually show up on sick or malnourished plants, often from too much nitrogen or a mineral shortfall. His fix is nutrition, not pesticide — calcium phosphate and seawater minerals to strengthen roots, following the Pure KNF recipe book, with an herbal smoker (tobacco) as an option for greenhouse pressure. Member growers Yarrow and Royal Flesh Farms' Spencer and Earl describe leaving chemical hydroponic cannabis setups for KNF: the bugs didn't vanish, but once plants were properly fed they stopped being destructive.

The show returns to the poultry-training video series filmed at Pastor/Master Li's farm in Muju. He spread IMO on a rye field before rolling and crimping it as cover crop, then walked across the street to a neighbor's conventional apple orchard for comparison. The natural-farmed soil held moisture with no irrigation pipe; the conventional orchard needed drip lines because tilled soil couldn't hold water on its own.

A soil penetrometer test shows the natural side penetrating deeper than the conventional side, but Drake is skeptical of the method — nothing standardizes how hard each person pushes the probe. He also questions Master Li's on-farm organic-certified trial plot, noting it wasn't a controlled comparison (different slope, different duration, no chicken manure on that side).

The clip ends with a tour of Master Li's OHN room, where he brews garlic-ginger LAB fresh daily, straining each batch into the same container five times before combining all five into the final product. Drake closes by pricing a commercial soil penetrometer online at $181, guessing it's just a calibrated spring gauge.

Questions answered

  • 25:08 What's the cure for thrips on my plants? — Thrips mostly target sick, malnourished plants — fix the roots and nutrition (calcium, minerals) instead of trying to kill them.
  • 34:59 Can natural farming really fix pest problems for indoor cannabis growers? — Member growers Yarrow and Royal Flesh Farms' Spencer and Earl said pests never disappeared, but KNF nutrition balanced their plants so pests stopped being destructive.
  • 43:32 How does natural soil compare to the neighbor's conventional apple field? — The natural side held moisture and needed no irrigation pipe; the conventional orchard next door needed drip irrigation because its soil couldn't hold water.
  • 45:53 Does tilling actually loosen soil deep enough for roots? — Drake says mechanical tillage only softens the surface — it never reaches where tree roots want to spread, especially when trees are planted too close together.
  • 48:31 What's the organic-certified side of Master Li's field testing? — He's running an organic trial next to his natural-farming side, but Drake says it isn't a fair comparison since equal effort wasn't given to both plots.
  • 50:27 Is the soil penetrometer test in the video trustworthy? — Drake is skeptical — nothing controls how hard each person pushes the probe, so results could just reflect effort, not real soil compaction.
  • 55:30 Why might the rye field's 'organic' side look different from the natural side? — Different slope, different farming duration, and no chicken manure on that side — too many variables to credit the difference to 'organic' alone.
  • 58:34 How is Master Li's garlic-ginger LAB made? — He brews a fresh batch daily, straining each one into the same container five times before combining all five into the final product.
  • 1:02:11 Is it worth buying a commercial soil penetrometer? — Drake found one online for $181 and figures it's just a calibrated spring gauge — likely cheaper to build than buy if you're handy.

Topics: thrips, imo, lab, ohn, cover crop, rye, soil compaction, penetrometer, apple orchard, organic farming, calcium phosphate, muju

KNF Office Hours is a free live Q&A every Sunday at 9 AM HST. Bring your question to pureknf.org/learn/questions or join live.

In this episode

  1. 0:00 Welcome & Livestream Kickoff
  2. 3:27 I Ching: The Power of the Great
  3. 11:26 Story: Processing a Cow With Neighbors
  4. 14:36 Detour: Guns, Shotguns & Home Defense
  5. 25:08 Q&A: Thrips Cure
  6. 34:59 Member Stories: KNF Fixes Cannabis Pest Issues
  7. 41:40 Poultry Training Video: Back to Muju
  8. 43:32 Neighbor's Conventional Apple Orchard
  9. 45:53 Tillage vs Natural Soil Structure
  10. 48:31 Organic Trial Plot on Master Li's Farm
  11. 50:27 How Scientific Is the Penetrometer Test?
  12. 55:30 Comparing the Rye Field Sides
  13. 57:48 Tour: Master Li's OHN Room
  14. 58:34 Garlic-Ginger LAB Recipe Ratio
  15. 1:01:23 Wrap-Up & Next Week Preview
  16. 1:02:11 Is a $181 Penetrometer Worth It?
  17. 1:03:31 Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Auto-transcribed with Whisper. Click any timestamp to play from there.

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