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Fixing Iron Water with BMW, Humanure Fertilizer, Banana Potassium

October 22, 2023 · by Drake Weinert

Drake opens with his fall and winter plans: two natural farming classes coming in November and January, a big hydroelectric build for power resilience, and a bigger shift into rotational cattle grazing. His drone spraying is paying off too — 15 flights over 62 acres and 10.35 hours so far, including 6.7 acres covered with 92.68 gallons in under an hour on October 20.

On rotational grazing, the rule is to let cattle eat only the top third of the grass, then move them to the next paddock until it fully regrows. He's running six cows on eight acres and wants to push toward double or triple that as his pastures improve.

For iron-contaminated well water, instead of a $12,000 filter system, Drake recommends building your own agricultural mineral water (BMW/AMW) setup: a 120 cm pond lined with vinyl, with water recirculated as a waterfall over rocks and IMOs, or simply aerating the water into a settling pond so the iron gases off. He also discusses a study where chitosan-coated substrate removed hexavalent chromium from water, though he's not certain it works the same on iron.

For humanure and urine, Master Cho's method is excrement plus half its weight in water, a yeast starter (cultivated on grapes or rice bran), fermented 4-5 days, matured a week, then diluted 30-50 times and combined with IMO or FPJ. For yellowing banana leaves, he says add more potassium, let leaves brown fully before trimming, then burn them and use the ash water as a potassium spray. He also breaks down his drone, a DJI Agras T40 that carries up to 50 kilos and sprays 12 liters a minute.

Questions answered

  • 10:27 What are your fall and winter plans, personal and for the channel? — Two KNF classes in November and January, a big hydroelectric project for power resilience, and shifting more into rotational cattle grazing with drone spraying.
  • 27:19 How do you do intensive rotational cattle grazing? — Let cattle graze only the top third of the grass, then move them to the next paddock until it fully regrows before grazing again.
  • 33:11 Iron in my well water is scorching banana leaves — without a $12,000 filter, what can I do? — Build your own agricultural mineral water system: recirculate the water over rocks and IMOs in a waterfall to biologically clean and balance it.
  • 40:24 How do you ferment urine and humanure into liquid fertilizer? — Follow Master Cho: mix excrement with half its weight in water, add a yeast starter, ferment 4-5 days, let it mature a week, then dilute it 30-50 times.
  • 46:43 How do I deal with iron-rich well water? — Aerate it and run it through a settling pond so the iron gases off, similar to running it through a BMW system.
  • 47:47 What is Master Cho's yeast recipe? — He cultivates yeast from grapes as a starter to break down sugars in ferments like humanure.
  • 49:08 Can chitosan clean up heavy metals like chromium or iron in water? — A Malaysian study found chitosan-coated substrate removes hexavalent chromium from water; Drake isn't sure it works the same on iron.
  • 55:19 Why are my banana leaves yellowing, and should I clip them off? — Bananas pull potassium from older leaves as fruit forms, so add more potassium, and let leaves brown fully before removing and burning them for ash.
  • 57:56 Does chitinase kill beneficial fungi along with the bad guys? — Probably not fully benign, since fungal cell walls contain chitin too, so Drake prefers building chitinase naturally through KNF IMOs.
  • 1:03:27 How many gallons does the drone spray per acre, and how long does the whole process take? — About 92 gallons over 6.7 acres at 12-25 gallons per acre, roughly an hour of flight time plus prep for a 6-hour IMO brew.
  • 1:08:20 What drone are you using for spraying? — A DJI Agras T40 that carries up to 50 kilos, sprays 12 liters a minute, and has obstacle-avoidance radar.

Topics: bmw, amw, humanure, chitosan, potassium, banana, chitinase, imo, rotational grazing, drone spraying, iron water, yeast

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 Countdown
  2. 1:48 Intro
  3. 2:29 Welcome to Office Hours
  4. 3:08 I Ching Reading: After Completion
  5. 7:06 Chatting with Viewers
  6. 10:27 Fall and Winter Plans
  7. 15:39 Pastures Improving with Drone Spraying
  8. 21:58 Winter Plans for Channel and Foundation
  9. 27:19 Intensive Rotational Cattle Grazing
  10. 33:11 Fixing Contaminated Water with Agricultural Mineral Water
  11. 40:24 Urine and Humanure as Liquid Fertilizer
  12. 46:43 Dealing with Iron-Rich Water
  13. 47:47 Master Cho's Yeast Recipe
  14. 49:08 Chitosan Cleans Up Heavy Metals
  15. 55:19 Fixing Potassium Deficiency in Bananas
  16. 57:56 Chitinase vs IMOs
  17. 1:03:27 How Much We're Spraying Per Acre
  18. 1:07:07 Chitin
  19. 1:08:20 The Drone Product We're Using
  20. 1:10:45 Thanks Folks

Transcript

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