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Squirrel Deterrent, Jadam Winter Pest Spray, Soil Foundation Recipe

Drake opens with the I Ching hexagram for increase, then shows a custom GPT he built from Master Cho's Korean Natural Farming books. He asks it about KNF basics, Cho's best qualities, and what inputs to use locally, and points out where it goes off the rails and hallucinates.

Gerard asks about getting kids into KNF. Drake shares old classroom photos: kids looking at soil life under a microscope, taking soil samples, and making iPad videos about garden ferments. He also fields a question on pepper spray for squirrels — boil peppers in water down to half volume, add soap, and spray.

Drake finishes the Jadam book with two recipes. Recipe 13, winter pest control for fruit trees, mixes 10 liters soap, 5 liters sulfur, and 2 kilograms fine red clay powder into 500 liters of water (tangerines get under 2 liters sulfur). Recipe 14, soil foundation, combines Jadam Microbe Solution, sea salt, phylite solution, and grass/crop residue liquid fertilizer, watered in heavy before rain.

He explains phylite as a fine-grained metamorphic rock, and lays out dilution rates: microbe solution around 20 to 1, liquid fertilizer around 100 to 1, applied weekly. He previews next month's episodes covering large-batch sulfur and soap making.

Questions answered

  • 8:24 What is the Natural Farming Hawaii GPT Drake built? — A public GPT trained on Master Cho's KNF books that searches his literature to answer questions.
  • 22:47 Any ideas for outreach to educate kids in KNF? — Start kids with soil microscopy and simple ferments; Drake's classroom program used soil samples, a microscope, and iPad videos.
  • 32:52 Any microscope recommendations? — Check KNF Support for Elaine Ingham's picks; Drake uses an AmScope trinocular but calls a microscope more a teaching tool than essential.
  • 38:00 Is there a pepper spice to deter squirrels? — Boil peppers in water down to half volume for a strong pepper spray, mix with soap, and spray around the area.
  • 41:05 What is the Jadam recipe for fruit tree winter pest control? — Mix 10 liters soap, 5 liters sulfur, and 2 kilograms fine red clay powder into 500 liters of water; tangerine trees get under 2 liters sulfur.
  • 41:52 How do you make fine red clay powder for the pest spray? — Dissolve red clay in water, filter through felt, let it settle an hour, discard the top water, and dry the fine sediment in the shade.
  • 43:24 Is there an Italian translation of Cho's recipe book? — Yes, Elena Parmigiani produced a full Italian translation of the Jadam recipe book.
  • 47:24 What's the Jadam soil foundation recipe for nematodes and wilt? — Combine Jadam Microbe Solution, sea salt, phylite solution, and grass or crop residue liquid fertilizer, watered in heavy before rain.
  • 53:03 What is phylite? — A fine-grained metamorphic rock made of quartz, mica, and chlorite; Drake soaks it in water and uses the mineral-rich water on soil.
  • 56:48 How diluted should the microbe solution and liquid fertilizer be? — Dilute the microbe solution about 20 to 1 and the liquid fertilizer about 100 to 1 before applying weekly.

Topics: jadam, phylite, jadam microbe solution, sea salt, gclf, winter pest control, red clay powder, sulfur, squirrel deterrent, microscope

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 Intro & I Ching: Hexagram 42, Increase
  2. 8:24 Cho GPT: testing Master Cho's literature
  3. 22:47 Educating kids in KNF
  4. 32:52 Microscope recommendations
  5. 38:00 Squirrel deterrent pepper spray
  6. 40:14 Jadam Recipe 13: winter pest control
  7. 43:24 Italian translation of Cho's book
  8. 47:24 Jadam Recipe 14: soil foundation
  9. 53:03 What is phylite?
  10. 56:48 Dilution rates for microbes and food
  11. 58:56 Preview: sulfur and soap batches
  12. 1:03:25 Closing thoughts

Transcript

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

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