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Jadam Sulfur for Disease, Flea Beetles, Seed Soak Solution

Drake opens with the I Ching hexagram The Creative, then gets into Jadam sulfur: Young Sang Cho's recipe dissolves sulfur with sodium hydroxide so it goes on as a liquid and works against apple scab, powdery mildew, and black spot. He covers flea beetles (soap diluted about 1:200 with sulfur at 1:5 to 1:1000, sprayed on larvae), boiled thyme, catnip, or mint water added to the spray, and explains that IMO is sophisticated and tuned to your soil while Jadam Microbe Solution (JMS) is cheap and quick to start with.

A viewer's cucumber plant juice turned to a chocolate-milk color and Drake wasn't sure why, just to check the smell. He reads the two finalist entries for the Pure KNF Foundation's HFUU convention merit lottery, with Sherry's entry winning.

The bulk of the episode is Master Cho's presentation on Crop's Cultivation Environment Recovery: three groundworks. Soil groundwork means stop tilling, mulch with rice straw, fallen leaves, or wood chips, and apply IMO4 to rebalance soil microbes; he also covers seeding rye and clover as living ground cover and amending in a donut ring at the drip line in fall. Seed groundwork uses a seed treatment solution (food, cleanser, medicine, structure, fuel, and minerals from the Recipe Book) soaked 4 to 8 hours. Seedling groundwork is a 15-second-to-a-couple-minute soak of transplants before planting.

Drake closes with schedule notes: no office hours Dec 4 (HFUU convention on Maui) or Dec 18 and Dec 25, but he'll be live Dec 11.

Questions answered

  • 7:40 How effective is Jadam sulfur (JS) for controlling plant disease? — Very effective; dissolving sulfur with sodium hydroxide makes it water soluble and it fights apple scab, powdery mildew, and black spot.
  • 17:29 How do I kill flea nettles? — Drake wasn't sure what a flea nettle is, but noted sulfur kills ticks and mites so it's a likely candidate.
  • 18:58 Should I apply IMO in fall or spring, and can I make IMO indoors? — Apply in fall and let it work all winter, then apply fresh in spring; you can also grow IMO indoors in a box, as a farmer in Indiana does.
  • 21:45 How do I get rid of flea beetles? — Spray soap diluted about 1:200 with sulfur diluted 1:5 to 1:1000, and hit them while they're still larvae before they harden.
  • 23:05 Can companion plants like thyme, catnip, and mint repel pests? — Boil them down by half, then mix that water into your sulfur and soap spray for extra pest deterrence.
  • 24:27 What's the difference between IMO and the cheap Jadam Microbe Solution (JMS)? — IMO is sophisticated and tuned to your own soil; JMS is fast, cheap, and less refined but a good way to get started quickly.
  • 26:40 How do I collect IMO indoors in winter? — Bring in a large volume of leaf litter with mycelium already growing, moisten it, and bury it in an indoor box rather than using just a handful.
  • 29:00 Won't killing off pests also wipe out beneficial insects? — Yes, sulfur and pesticides aren't selective, so it's better to keep plants healthy with probiotics than to chase down every pest.
  • 32:10 My cucumber plant juice turned into a chocolate-milk-colored liquid. What happened? — Not sure since cucumber juice is mostly water and hard to oversaturate; Drake said to check if it still smells good.
  • 45:02 What are the three groundworks Master Cho teaches for better crops? — Soil groundwork, seed groundwork, and seedling groundwork, done together to build stronger crops year over year.
  • 47:06 What does soil groundwork actually involve? — Stop tilling, mulch with rice straw, fallen leaves, or wood chips, and apply IMO4 to rebuild a diverse, balanced soil microbiome.
  • 51:00 Should I keep grass growing under fruit trees in an orchard? — Yes, grass feeds soil microbes and keeps insects down low instead of climbing into the canopy; only cut it if it grows up into the leaves.
  • 1:04:16 What's the seed treatment solution recipe and how long do I soak seeds? — Mix food, cleanser, medicine, structure, fuel, and minerals from the Recipe Book and soak seeds 4 to 8 hours, less for fast-germinating types.
  • 1:06:12 What's seedling groundwork before transplanting? — Soak transplants in the seedling treatment solution for about 15 seconds to a couple minutes, then use the leftover liquid instead of plain water.

Topics: jadam sulfur, imo, jms, flea beetles, seed soak, mulching, cover crop, orchard, groundwork, sulfur, pests, hfuu

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 and Welcome
  2. 1:28 I Ching Reading - The Creative
  3. 6:29 IMO4 from 10 collections, spread in winter
  4. 7:40 Jadam sulfur for disease
  5. 17:29 How to kill flea nettles?
  6. 18:58 Apply IMO in fall or spring; making IMO indoors
  7. 21:45 Flea beetle control
  8. 23:05 Thyme, catnip, mint with sulfur and soap
  9. 24:27 IMO vs Jadam Microbe Solution (JMS)
  10. 26:40 Collecting IMO indoors
  11. 29:00 Don't kill too many pests; go probiotic instead
  12. 32:10 Cucumber plant juice gone bad
  13. 37:30 HFUU merit lottery entries
  14. 45:02 Three types of groundwork
  15. 47:06 Soil groundwork: no tilling, mulch, IMO4
  16. 51:00 Grass, rye, and clover in an orchard
  17. 58:26 Row crops with rye cover
  18. 1:04:16 Seed treatment solution recipe
  19. 1:06:12 Seedling groundwork
  20. 1:08:04 Schedule: no episodes Dec 4, 18, 25

Transcript

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

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