Konkuk University, Seoul · October 5–7, 2016

Natural Science Farming Symposium 2016

A day of talks in Seoul, then two days on the farms. 23 talks, three languages. Master Cho's students from ten countries showed what natural farming did on their fields, from Afghan potatoes to Hawaiian macadamias. Every talk is translated, checked line by line, and boiled down to what was tested and what happened.

Read what it all adds up to →

Also on the record: Hilo 2015

Topics microbes soil economics pigs poultry rice history corn food scale disease feed health minerals protectors reproduction Clear

4 talks on “reproduction”

Baryalai Malekzada ·Afghanistan ·17 min

Reproduction (WCA) on the Soil Lifted Potato Yield 63%

A potato trial at Paju, March to July 2016, grown with natural farming solutions throughout, tested ten ways of giving Reproduction (water-soluble calcium, WCA): on the soil, on the leaves, or both, at three strengths. The strongest soil dose gave the top yield, 40.7 t/ha against 25.03 for no calcium, and the heaviest tubers. Calcium on the leaves alone did little for yield; soil and leaf together built the most foliage.

Found Strongest soil dose (T4) gave the top yield: 40.7 t/ha vs 25.03 with no calcium

microbes phosphorus potato reproduction soil yield

Morning presenters, with questions from the floor ·22 min

Q&A: From 50-Ton IMO Piles to Strong Calcium on Potatoes

A short Q&A after the ten morning talks. Chris Trump explained how he moved from 50-ton piles of Microbes (IMO) to small IMO3 batches brewed into liquid IMO; a Hawaiʻi taro grower described IMO4 in flooded fields; the Konkuk students explained their trial designs, how liquid IMO was made for the peanut trial, where the tomato trial's phosphorus came from, and why the potato trial used water-soluble calcium six to nine times stronger than the usual 1:1000. Several questions went unanswered for lack of time or because the presenter had left.

Found Chris Trump has made about 70–75 tons of IMO over three years, not every year

microbes potato reproduction scale soil taro

Julius B. Sugue ·Philippines ·15 min

Rice Root Volume Nearly Tripled with Fuel (FAA) at 1:500

A one-season paddy rice trial at Paju gave Fuel (FAA) at three strengths, 1:2000, 1:1000 and 1:500, on top of a full natural farming spray program, against a no-FAA control. The 1:500 plots had the most tillers, the longest roots, nearly three times the control's root volume and the most panicles per hill (23.6 vs 18.4). Filled grains per panicle and 1,000-grain weight did not differ, and no grain yield per area was reported.

Found Root volume at flowering 180 cc with FAA 1:500 vs 65 cc in the control

food fuel medicine microbes reproduction rice

Field trip Master Cho Han-kyu (interpreted by Dr. Hoon Park) ·South Korea ·85 min Spoken in Korean

One IMO4, Three IMO5s: Match the Plant's Stage

After the farm visits of October 6, 2016, Master Cho Han-kyu gave the field-trip group an evening lecture, interpreted by Dr. Hoon Park, on one idea: IMO5 is not one recipe. The IMO4 base stays the same, and what goes in depends on the crop's stage: fish protein for early growth, calcium phosphate from charred bone for the changeover, calcium from charred shell for maturing. He worked it through with corn (calcium phosphate about a week before the changeover, day 58 of 180), then covered seawater at 1:30, a vinegar, LAB and yeast tonic, and an alcohol, mugwort and dropwort recovery mix with doses for pigs.

Found Corn, sugarcane and rice, the grass family, carry about 15–16 leaf layers

corn food microbes minerals nutritive cycle pigs