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Mosaic Virus, Banana Bunchy Top, and Making Lactic Acid Bacteria

Rain and flowering open the show. Heavy rain adds nitrogen and pushes plants back into vegetative growth, so flowers drop. Drake sprays in the lulls between downpours and credits it for good fruit set on his macadamia and lychee trees. He also talks about grazing Wagyu beef cows and his milk cow on the yard. Green rings that bloom up around urine and manure patches prove the rest of the lawn is nitrogen deficient, a lesson from Elaine Ingham's 2012 soil biology workshop.

Two diseases come up. Taro mosaic virus lives in every cloned kalo plant. Symptoms only show when the plant's immune system breaks down, so IMO and balanced feeding keep it quiet. For banana bunchy top, Drake sprays maintenance solution plus lactic acid bacteria straight into the bunched crown, once a week or twice if it's bad. New leaves grow out normal within one to three weeks.

Listener questions: a scaled-down KNF chicken coop (the Hubbel Bubble design, documented by the University of Hawaii), whether the Android KNF Solution Calculator app got patched (yes, back on the Play Store, matches Master Cho's numbers exactly), and whether filtering compost tea through a 220-micron bubble hash bag strips out microbes (it doesn't). Willie in New Zealand asks about shelf life for premixed leaf, bloom, and fruit formulas: about three months, but protectors go in right before spraying, never premixed.

Drake closes with Master Cho's lactic acid bacteria recipe. Rice wash water sits 24 to 36 hours to catch wild lactobacillus. Mix that liquid with milk at 10:1. Once curds and whey separate, keep the whey and stir in an equal volume of brown sugar for a shelf-stable protector. He also talks about Indiana's chemical ag industry near Eli Lilly and Bayer, and points listeners to the Microbial Secret Society episode with Felix Goble.

Questions answered

  • 9:15 Why do flowers fall off crops when it rains a lot? — Rain carries nitrogen that pushes plants back to vegetative growth, so he sprays in lulls between downpours to hold fruit set.
  • 17:08 How do you know if your lawn or pasture lacks fertility? — Green rings that flush up around urine or manure patches prove the rest of the ground is nitrogen deficient, a lesson from Elaine Ingham's 2012 workshop.
  • 23:35 Goswami asks what causes mosaic virus disease in taro. — The virus is always present in cloned taro; symptoms only show when the plant's immune system breaks down, so IMO and balanced feeding keep it symptom-free.
  • 28:34 How does Drake treat banana bunchy top disease? — He sprays maintenance solution plus lactic acid bacteria straight into the bunched crown weekly; new leaves grow out normal within one to three weeks.
  • 33:25 B Car Rosa asks if there's a scaled-down KNF chicken coop. — Yes, the Hubbel Bubble coop, a small design documented in a University of Hawaii poultry publication on naturalfarminghawaii.net.
  • 38:09 BM asks if the Android KNF dilution app got patched. — Yes, it's back on the Play Store as KNF Solution Calculator and matches Master Cho's numbers exactly.
  • 41:17 Juan Santa asks if filtering compost tea removes the microbes. — No. Filter through a fine mesh like a 220-micron bubble hash bag so the sprayer doesn't clog without losing microbes.
  • 46:00 What's happening with KNF interest in Tanzania and Kenya? — A farmer near Lake Victoria is bringing natural farming and Elaine Ingham's soil biology course to East Africa against chemical ag pressure.
  • 47:52 Willie in New Zealand asks the shelf life for premixed leaf, bloom, and fruit formulas. — About three months per Master Cho, but leave protectors out of any premix and add them right before spraying.
  • 57:15 How do you make lactic acid bacteria (LAB) the way Master Cho teaches? — Set rice wash water out 24 to 36 hours, mix the liquid with milk at a 10:1 ratio, then once curds and whey separate, keep the whey.
  • 1:02:23 What's Drake's KNF Protectors recipe from his book? — Same rice-wash-and-milk lactic acid bacteria process, then stir in an equal volume of brown sugar once curds and whey separate for a shelf-stable protector.

Topics: taro, mosaic virus, banana bunchy top, lab, lactic acid bacteria, compost tea, imo, chicken coop, knf calculator, cows, elaine ingham

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. 2:39 Intro and Welcome
  2. 4:20 I Ching Reading - Preponderance of the Great
  3. 8:01 Welcomes From Around the World
  4. 9:15 Rain, Nitrogen, and Flower Drop
  5. 15:28 Grazing Cows on the Farm
  6. 17:08 Elaine Ingham and Grass Fertility
  7. 23:35 Mosaic Virus Disease in Taro
  8. 28:34 Banana Bunchy Top Disease
  9. 32:58 Hemp Farming in Michigan
  10. 33:42 KNF Chicken Coop - Hubbel Bubble
  11. 38:12 KNF App and Calculator
  12. 41:22 Filtering Liquid IMO and Compost Tea
  13. 43:33 Indiana Report and Teaching KNF
  14. 46:00 Regenerative Ag in Tanzania and Kenya
  15. 47:30 App Precision and Shelf Life of Formulas
  16. 55:00 Contact Drake for Training
  17. 57:15 Master Cho's LAB and KNF Protectors
  18. 1:04:40 Indiana and Chemical Ag
  19. 1:08:19 Microbial Secret Society Episode
  20. 1:08:44 Thank Yous

Transcript

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

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