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ABalliett's avatar

"Some of us add valerian during the last 20 minutes of stirring horn manure. "

Stewart - How much Valerian do you add to a 500 stir?

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Stewart K Lundy's avatar

How much do you have?

Any Valerian at all is a lot better than no Valerian! :)

I add 21 drops, minimum. But I'm told folks like Hugh Williams treating orchards (a lot more surface area) use 1/4 CUP per acre of land (but you have to think each tree is acres of surface area)

I'm interesting in finding the "upper limit" of the preparations, and not just the "threshold effect."

(There's a big difference between all dead and mostly dead, but there's an important difference between sickly and healthy, and I aim for robust health)

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Misty Perryman's avatar

I’m not sure why my heart always says to start this process but i always feel intimidated by the process. I really enjoy and am thankful for your writing.

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Mark Baird.'s avatar

I am buying my section of land in Mamaku New Zealand and will miss putting out my bd500

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Stewart K Lundy's avatar

There's always time - whenever you can is the best time. The second best time is what the calendar says! :)

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ABalliett's avatar

As Peter Proctor was prone to say (and I'm sure glad he did!) "Half a cherry is better than no cherry at all!"

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Joe Stevens's avatar

I've never been a fan of Barrel Compost, as I saw it made at JPI with Hugh Courtney. Here's why. Hugh mixed raw cow manure with basalt powder and eggshells on a board plywood with a hoe for maybe 20 min, transferring this mass into half an oak barrel sunk into the ground, applying the compost preps, covered the barrel with a slate stone lid, and let it set for any number of weeks until finished.

1. Steiner is clear that a compost pile raised up above ground level has a tendency to aliveness. This enhanced ethericity effect is diminished in an earth burial.

2. The preps that ARE buried, Field Sprays and Compost preps, all have an animal sheathing which reflects and concentrates astrality, except the Nettles whose sting already possesses sufficient force. Without the astrality to drag it into the carbon (pg 51) the ethericity in manure floats away (ph 48). Which means Barrel Compost, made without a sheathing, is more of a compost tea, lacking the characteristic (pg 73) concentrated etheric/astral forces of a Steiner prep.

3. Applying Valerian to finished Barrel Compost disguises the absence of etheric/astral power. Chromatography testing would show these differences.

4. A product made in an aboveground barrel inside an animal hide layered in with manure preps et al would have more power.

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Stewart K Lundy's avatar

This is partially true but in my experience with you Courtney he stirred it all for a full hour before putting it in a pit. And he was recommending that people build it half buried rather than fully submerged. BC is definitely more of a compost tea and it's always been proposed that way. It's not a substitute or replacement. But the use of young poet eggs as developed by Pfeiffer and Thun was because the "young calcium" prevents plants from absorbing the radioactive isotope of strontium in the fallout of Chernobyl.

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Joe Stevens's avatar

Steiner says to dilute Valerian 'very strong' (sehr stark). In his discussion with Streicher (4 years before the Course) about adding foxglove with minerals the 'very strong' dilution rate is 10% (pg 248), which is an X,or D, potency in homeopathic terms. Kolisko used further potencies in Agriculture of Tomorrow, with D8 having the greatest effect on growth and mass of seedling plants. It would seem that a 'very strong' Valerian dilution of 10% is meant as a starting point, for further research, as well as the time of stirring or succussing to potentize progressive dilutions. Note that Steiner specifies 'warm water' to make Valerian, just as with the Horn Manures.

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Stewart K Lundy's avatar

Hi Joe, can you compile all your Valerian research into a single document?

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Joe Stevens's avatar

Idk it goes places I'm not yet up to speed on.

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ABalliett's avatar

Thanks for the Valerian details.

Wanted to ask before I possibly waste time and materials: Full Moon tomorrow but calendar is for Root right now March 24 2024 I planned to make a box of Barrel Compost starting around noon today. Perhaps not the best scheduling but all the time I have available for a while. Would this be acceptable for BC stirring (this close to the full moon) or should I wait. (I gather the pies - fresh fresh fresh - two days ago (I discovered an Organically certified dairy herd near me) )

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