Ep. 356 Monty Waldin on Biodynamic Wine | Other Sprays and Techniques

Italian wine podcast. Chinchin with Italian wine people. Hello. Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. I'm your host, Monte Walden. In recent years, I've noticed increasing interest in ideas such as organic wines, so called natural wines, and biodynamic wines. I'll read for you some excerpts from my book Biodynamic wine and follow-up with some commentary on the topics covered for those interested in acquiring the full Biodynamic wine text. It's available from my publisher, infinite ideas. Who right now is offering a discount fifteen percent through July thirty first twenty twenty to get the discount use the code, which is bio fifteen off at infinite ideas dot com. That's bio, which is a b I o one five o f f. Though Rudolphstein had died not long after his nineteen twenty four agriculture course, Other practitioners have continued to build upon and refine biodynamic preparations. This week, we take a look at some biodynamic sprays and techniques that Steiner himself did not explicitly contemplate as well as some of the people that have continued to carry the biodynamic torch. Other biodynamic sprays and techniques In March nineteen twenty five, less than a year after giving his agriculture course, Rudolph Stoner died. Before his death, Steiner maintained that in an age of increasing empiricism, it was perfectly natural that the spiritual and scientific indications the course contained, the course being the agriculture course, should be verified by testing. An experimental circle was established, supported by the faculty of science at the Gothianum in Switzerland. Initially, research focused on proving Steiner's biodynamic preparations did have measurable effects. Since then, various biodynamic practitioners worldwide have refined Steiner's biodynamic indications or developed wholly new ones for sprays and spraying. In nineteen twenty eight, sixty six farms were using what had become known as the biological dynamic method or biodynamics. Food reduced using biodynamic methods now had its own demeter trademark, while the experimental circle had a hundred and forty eight members. After Rudolphsteiner's death, Aaron Fryfeiffer, the German biochemist, Stein had chosen to make trial batches of biodynamic preparations for the agriculture course became the leading figure in the Biodynamic movement. Ffeiffer helped developed Biodynamic farms in Germany in Switzerland. And also in the Netherlands before moving to Pennsylvania in nineteen thirty eight, not long before the Nazi regime outlawed biodynamics in Germany. Fifer compost starter. Here in Fryfeiffer, designed his compost starter for industrial and urban waste, trialing it commercially between nineteen fifteen, nineteen fifty two, whilst directing a municipal compost program in Oakland in California. Household waste was composted, then pelletized for use as agriculture fertilizer. Based on the six, Biodynamic compost preparations, numbers five zero two to five zero seven, and biodynamic horn manure five hundred, Fiper's compost starter also contained bacteria, fungi, actinomy seats, yeasts and other microorganisms capable of generating large quantities of stable compost from green waste via a quick hot compost fermentation. Having worked with Steiner, five for new that inoculating compost with a microbial starter was no magic bullet as this encourages a materialistic physical substances rather than the spiritual, intangible forces view of the composting process. Fifers field spray concentrate. Erin Fryfeiffer's second spray is a field spray concentrate. This was made in a similar way to the compost starter, but was intended to be sprayed directly on farmland. Its role was to build humus and help stubble or cover crops, green manures to break down before they were plowed into the soil. Two variations of Fifers field spray concentrate include Maria Tons, barrel compost spray, and Peter Procter's Calpat pit spray. Maria Tun's barrel compost spray. Five zero two to five zero seven. This is simply a speeded up form of solid biodynamic compost applied in infinitely smaller volumes and in liquid form. In Germany, it is called Flaiden Prepart or Calpat preparation. In France, it's called le compost de Bous. And in Australia, a variant of it, made by Peter Procter using a brick rather than barrel lined pit is called cow pat pit. Barrell compost has numerous other names. Barrell prep, barrel manure, biodynamic compound prep, dung compost spray, manure concentrate. You get the idea here, but it has one main function offering an easier quicker way of getting the biodynamic compost preparations five zero two to five zero seven. That's six of them altogether. On to vineyards, rather than waiting the six to twelve months compost piles generally need to mature. This is especially appealing to wine growers with large or steep vineyards. Or who are unable to find enough of the right compostable material. Peter Procter's Calpat pit or CPP. It's a spray, and it has the number five zero two to five zero seven, which are the six Pardemic preparations that go into it. Peter Proctor called his version of Marietun's barrel compost, the Calpat pit, or Cal Pat prep. This is because a shallow pitch or trench about ninety centimeters long by sixty centimeters wide and thirty centimeters deep is used rather than a barrel. Proctor found making barrel compost problematic in his words because it is slow and hard to get the preparation out of the barrel when it is ready, and the preparation can smell because it has gone anaerobic in the barrel. I find it easier to make the preparation in a pit lined on all four sides by old bricks. These absorb moisture but keep the dung or the manure cool while stopping it from drying out. Alex podolinski's prepared horn manure five hundred plus five zero two to five zero seven. And this is a spray. This soil spray was developed by Alex podolinsky, Australia's most well known biodynamic thinker and practitioner. Growers usually refer to this preparation as simply five hundred p. Alex podolinsky was born in nineteen twenty five to a family of Russian Ukrainian aristocrats, who had been forced to leave Russia during the nineteen seventeen revolution. His mother introduced him to Biodynamics through her contacts with farmers who had attended Steiner's nineteen twenty four agriculture course, or who had taken up Steiner's ideas. And to tutor Podylinski at the Gothianum in Dornack in Switzerland. Podylinski experienced what seems to have been a difficult education at public school in England, but in nineteen forty five, he fled to Australia. After Churchill and Stalin agreed at Yalta to the setting up of the Russian repatriation Commission. This threatened to send aristocratic families like Podorinski's back to the Soviets and an inevitable end. Podilinsky felt that the European Biodynamic farmer's insistence on stirring their spray preparations by hand rather than mechanically meant that only small areas of cropland would ever become biodynamic. In his words, he said, the world's population has increased four times in my lifetime, and we can't feed everyone with small scale backyard, biodynamic farming. Podylinski reminded his critics that Steiner had accepted mechanical stirring as valid when giving the agriculture course. Podylinski argued that mechanical stirring was capable of producing more consistent results than hand stirring, like deeper vortices in the water. Podylinski also felt Europe's biodynamic farmers had shown themselves to be no better qualitatively than their organic counterparts because their solid bio dynamic preparations, such as the Hall manure five hundred, and the compost preparations, appeared so dry as to be incapable of carrying the formative life forces lacking in contemporary agriculture. This coupled with his interest in Ffeiffer's Field spray concentrate, which you just talked about, led Podilinsky to develop a spray which he called the Prepared five hundred. Some Australians refer to it as Power Cow. While another name for it is Prepared Horn manure or simply five hundred p. Although podolinsky says to describe horn manure five hundred as any kind of quotes manure is misguided. Podorinski's prepared five hundred is made by combining the six compost preparations, numbers five zero two to five zero seven. With horn manure, which is number five hundred, and leaving the mixture in copper containers for one year. Prepared five hundred is dynamized or stirred in water and sprayed on soil in the same way and in the same volume as Horn Minua five hundred. Greg Willis's Horn clay spray. Rudolphsteiner suggested Clay was the substance which mediated between the two opposing force poles of lime or calcium and silica. The lime polarity looks after crop growth. Healthy vine and grape growth, which is what the Horn manure five hundred spray helps to engender in the soil, meaning a good root system. The silica polarity looks after crop taste. Which is what the Horn silica five zero one spray helps to engender by addressing grape health and grape varietal and terwar expression so healthy shoots and leaves. Corn Clay was developed in California in the nineteen nineties by Greg Willis. To act, he says, like the middle of the seesaw, between the lime, silica polarities. Horn clay is made by filling cow horns with clay rich soil, taken usually from the owner's farm. The clay is mixed to a slurry, and the filled horns are usually buried for six months. Either over winter, where you get winter or fall horn clay, as for horn manure five hundred, or the clay horn can be buried over summer as for horn silica five zero one. Francois Boucher's Verteque five hundred spray. Frenchman, Francois Boucher, developed a version of a spray originally conceived by German agronomist, folkmar lust. It's aim was to stimulate vegetative growth or cell division in newly planted vines or vines whose growth had been weakened or blocked, especially vines suffering from fan leaf degeneration virus or phyto plasma diseases like flavessos Dorey or grapevine yellows and Bonoir. As its name suggests, Ertikai five hundred is made by combining Stinging nettle, sir, but not botanical name is Urtika De Oika, Netl t with horn manure. Winter, tree paste. Tree paste or tree compost, if you prefer, is made by combining what Peter Proctor calls the three basic components of the soil, namely clay, sand, and cow manure. And these are combined with horn manure five hundred. Peter Proctor advised mixing together one part each of cal manure, silica sand, or diatomaceous earth, and potting clay, bentonite, or calcified sea algae, like, lithotan, for example, or male. Mixing these with stirred horn manure five hundred should produce a thin paste sloppy enough to apply divine trunks with ease. Other choices for the liquid element includes simple rainwater. Tree paste can be applied after leaf fall to strengthen the vine wood or after pruning to seal pruning wounds or at budburst to reduce excorios or phomopsis. The paste can be applied with a thin whitewash brush by hand on a small number of fruit trees or vines or with a sprayer on larger farms. Pruning wash. François Baucher describes a pruning wash similar to one used by fruit growers. This is applied in autumn, after leaf fall on the vine wood or on the soil, and then again at the end of winter after pruning. The bacteria contained in the pruning wash, clean vine wood of pathogens. For one hectare of vines, two hundred and forty grams of Maria Tune's barrel compost, which contains the preparations five zero two to five zero seven, the compost preparations, is mixed with between one and two liters of whey from cow, goat, or used milk. In addition, bentonite or mon Marillionite clay is premixed into a lumpy paste by diluting it in water. And this is then added to the manure whey mixture at a dose of one percent. Before use, the barrel compost five zero two to five zero seven weigh and clay mixture are diluted together in water and stirred or dynamized for twenty minutes and then applied to the land. Thank you for following this discussion on other biodynamic sprays and techniques. Next time, we'll take a look at teas, decoctions, manures, essential oils, and more. My name is Monte Wardent, and this was the Italian Mine podcast. If you're interested in my book, Biodynamic wine, my publisher infinite ideas is currently offering fifteen percent off through July the thirty first two thousand twenty with offer code bio one five o f f. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud Apple Podcasts HeimalIFM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italianline podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment and publication costs. Until next time.