If you’d like a good clear introduction to biodynamics, Understanding Biodynamics is an excellent New Zealand primer.
This 60-page booklet covers a surprising amount of fascinating detail about things like the biodynamic preparations, the moon, stars and cosmic forces, and ways of measuring the quality and life force of food plants. There are numerous photos that complement the text.
The following is a short extract from Understanding Biodynamics, published with kind permission of the author.
We hope you enjoy this free article from OrganicNZ. Join us to access more, exclusive member-only content
The earth needs biodynamics
When organic food first became available in New Zealand, people bought it because they were concerned about their health. In later years, this focus changed, the horizon broadened, and nowadays many people buy organic because they want to support a growing system that has a positive impact on the environment.
Similarly, you can regards biodynamics simply as a way to improve your soil and stimulate microorganisms. But if you see the preparations as something more – as a gift to Papatลซฤnuku / Gaia / Pachamama / the Earth Being – it puts it all in a different light.
Just as humans are not just bones and tissues and brain cells and hormones, so land is not just soil and plants and trees and animals. Many people today have come to view the Earth as Gaia – not just a planet that supports life, but a dynamic, self-regulating super-organism.
It is apparent that over the last hundred years or more, Gaia has been sorely abused, her core processes – such as the soil’s ability to self-regulate, cycle nutrients, and hold carbon – have been badly disrupted, her metabolic coherence fragmented.
Biodynamics is the practical means by which humanity can consciously participate in nurturing the Earth herself, by encouraging her innate ‘homeostatic’ ability, i.e. her power to sustain herself in a state of stable balance. This is does through the special biodynamic preparations which work on a non-material level.
It’s an approach intended to heal the wounds inflicted by materialistic agriculture: not only working with the Earth’s inherent life forces but also enabling a stronger connection between cosmos and earth – thus restoring Gaia’s balance and health for future generations.
Recognising Gaia as a living being instils a profound sense of reverence and duty towards the land. This act of care elevates farming from a purely material trade to a spiritual practice of Earth stewardship. We can be the agent through which this healing can happen. Gaia needs us as much as we need her.
Author bio
Gita Krenek has practised biodynamics since 1980, and is the author of several books about biodynamics which are available via Biodynamics New Zealand’s online shop here.
Growers worldwide are experiencing two fundamental growing challenges โ high and rising input costs, and climate extremes. Species, soil, plants, crops, food supply and affordability are all threatened.
Organics is well equipped to solve and lead solutions.
This article proposes one proven method โ the Johnson-Su compost system โ as an example of how growers of all stripes can reduce inputs and costs, improve soil health, resilience and yield, and reduce food costs and human contributions to climate extremes.
We hope you enjoy this free article from Organic NZ. Join us to access more, exclusive member-only content
First, a little context
Since the 1940s, agricultural fertiliser input volumes and prices have risen dramatically in real terms, whereas production per input unit has declined. More fertiliser, less crop and greater cost per input unit applied. The result: higher food prices, poorer soil, health, species, environmental outcomes, and lower grower returns.
Climate extremes will intensify with an elevated El Niรฑo weather pattern now in place. Resilience to adapt to fast-changing climate has become the grail of agriculture. As a result, a fundamental change is occurring to how we grow.
Mainstream and even progressive agronomists have until recently put huge productive store in soil and plant nutrition through fertiliser inputs. The soil as an ecosystem was lost to industrial agriculture. Thanks to those practising the wisdom of Rudolf Steiner, founder of biodynamics, Albert Howard, father of western organics, and indigenous systems, the soil is again being viewed more widely as a living, integrated organism rather than the dead chemical medium of dirt.
The living soil
Recent pioneers have applied scientific understanding of the soil food web, the soil ecosystem, to show how microbes are more critical to soil health and productive performance than fertiliser inputs. Everything we have in our environment today comes from microbes that have cycled carbon and minerals to grow life.
Despite this, fungi, for example, are being destroyed in modern agricultural soils โ lowering plant immunity, eroding soil, reducing nutrient uptake, lessening water-holding capacity, producing food of poorer quality. There is a microbial species crisis.
Below our feet are armies of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, viruses, microbes far greater in number and importance to us than the stars above. But they are under threat. It is imperative that we save soil microbes to save ourselves.
ABOVE: White fungal cap on a Johnson-Su compost
What are the best growing systems?
The Kete Ora Trust funded Plant & Food NZ to undertake a meta-analysis of world research findings to determine the best growing system to produce nutrient-dense food (read more here). Results were mixed.
Far clearer were these overwhelming findings:
that organic and biodynamic growing increase microbial biomass, the total number of microbes in soil;
that organics produces the highest percentage of soil organic matter (SOM), made in large part from microbes, compared to non-organic farming;
and that organics often outperforms other farming systems, thanks to microbes, to help plants produce phytonutrients, vital natural protectors of plants, animals and us. Phytonutrients are antioxidants and anti-inflammatories for the bodyโs immunity.
Microbes play a huge role in growing soil organic matter (SOM) and the root rhizosphere, where most nutrient transfer happens between plant roots and the soil. Less than six percent of soil volume, SOM is also a key driver of soil oxygen, soil water-holding capacity (reducing the need for irrigation), beneficial soil structure (less compaction), and fertility. The more and diverse the microbes, the more carbon and the healthier and more productive SOM, soil, plant and crop. Soil plant nutrients are only a tiny fraction of total soil mass.
The Johnson-Su compost system
Enter a professor and his partner, fully aware of these points and the United Nationโs case that one third of the earthโs soils are severely degraded, largely due to modern farming practices that destroy soil microbes.
Dr David Johnson and Hui-Chun Su developed a low-cost system that brings lifeless soils back to life. This is a paradigm shift. Rather than a nutrient fertiliser, Johnson-Su compost functions as a high-biology, fungal-dominant microbial inoculant. Up to 2500 species of bacteria and 400 species of fungi can be produced. That is much greater than most composts, which are normally bacteria dominant. A full complement of soil microbe species helps a soil system function properly.
A Johnson-Su compost heap is not turned, but is aerated via vertical pipes, and matures over many months. Just a kilogram of this compost will go a long way in your garden, and can be applied either as a straight compost, compost extract ground drench or foliar spray. An easy web or YouTube search will show you how to make and use Johnson-Su compost in your garden, farm or orchard.
Think of the Johnson-Su composting method as a soil probiotic. We highly value nutritional probiotics as cultured inoculants to improve our gut microbiome. Helpful microbes control the growth of potentially harmful ones. The same principles work with Johnson-Su compost applied to the soil or plant. A small amount of the clay-like compost can be added as extract in water to power the plantโs immune system and increase its ability to grow and produce.
In the Johnson-Su method, beneficial microorganisms are reintroduced to the soil usually in the form of compost extract or seed inoculants. The extracted microbes build a diverse SOM, enable much greater plant uptake of native and introduced nutrients, improve yields, assist soil oxygen and water retention. Extract improves seed germination and growth rates, while also increasing carbon sequestration.
This is a free, open-source system. It is proven and at work in many countries around the world. It can be used in the garden and at scale, with some farms in the US, Europe and Australia applying extract to thousands of hectares. For reasons already outlined, the microbial heavy Johnson-Su compost works best organic.
Itโs also an easy system. The static pile compost requires no turning. Feedstock is often free. The compost bioreactor is inexpensive to make and has no odour. There is no leaching or contamination.
Our experience in the olive grove
What I have found using this easy compost method for three years on a commercial olive grove is a 50% reduction in organic fertiliser inputs, along with high growth and yield rates, and green grazing pasture all year.
Our soil has gone from being bacterial dominant to a fungal:bacteria ratio of 4:1, equivalent to the forest floor. Trees require fungal dominant soils. Garden soils require a 1:1 ratio. All soils and roots need beneficial fungi and other microbes to function, exchanging sugar for nutrients, communicating via networks.
Our feedstock is chipped ramial (side fruiting) branches from Italian alders, with 20% leaf coverage. A range of inputs can be used, from leaves to olive and grape pomace, to wood chips, ensuring a high carbon over nitrogen ratio. The static compost pile is aerated with pipes and kept around 70% moist. Worms are added after a heating stage.
Johnson-Su is far more than compost. Please read the research. Make a batch of Johnson-Su compost this month, let it sit for nine months at least, apply and enjoy the results. You will be helping to save soil microbes.
Just when we most need to lower growing inputs and costs, and to help mitigate and build resilience against climate extremes, here is one tool to help. Organics and nature can lead not only to grow far better, but also to save species and soil, and feed us as nature intended. No GE required.
Ross Vintiner asks questions and sometimes answers come. He took a broken olive grove that now ranks in the top 100 best groves in the world, organic and biodynamic by choice. Natureโs answer.
https://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG-20260809-WA0001.jpg13652048membershiphttps://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/OrganicNZ-2024-Masthead.pngmembership2026-09-24 15:50:072026-09-24 15:51:41Organic probiotic for the soil
What started as a simple experiment to improve soil in the direction of terra pretaโa famously fertile, friable soil that seems to sequester carbon permanentlyโhas become a national field trial for the use of biochar in New Zealand.
Betsy Kettle from Hibiscus Coast Zero Waste tells the story.
We hope you enjoy this free article from Organic NZ. Join us to access more, exclusive member-only content
One of the programmes of our environmental education trust is City to Farm, which involves schools, retirement villages and cafes collecting their food scraps in wheelie bins, along with bokashi to add microorganisms and biochar to control odour and build topsoil.
The bins are transported to a local farm for composting.
Jenny and Phil Grainger have been experimenting at their Waitoki farm, in Rodney district north of Auckland, creating compost swales, enriching the soil and growing bananas.
Seven years later, the results are in. The compost swales created at the Graingersโ farmโlayered with mulch, food scraps, and biochar, then planted with bananasโhave transformed from hard, lifeless clay into something resembling the black, soft soil of the Amazon. Soil tests from Hill Labs and the Bioeconomy Science Research Lab confirm it.
ABOVE: Phil and Jenny Grainger | Photo: Betsy Kettle
WHAT IS BIOCHAR? Biochar is a form of stabilised carbon that can last for decades, centuries, or even millennia in the soil without decomposing โ read more about it on the Biochar Networkโs website here.
The black gold of terra preta
Archaeologists who have analysed terra preta tell us that ancient Amazonians placed organic waste of many kinds, along with biochar, into trenches to transform their infamous clay into their famous, long-lasting topsoil.
So we followed their lead. We imitated the process by collecting food scraps from town, using donated biochar from Soil Conditioner Products (SoilPro), and keeping both the composted area and the area around it planted.
The biggest mystery, though, is this: how long does it take to make terra preta? We know there are areas of this โblack earthโ that are centuries, perhaps even millennia, old. But does it really take that long to create it? Landcare Research told us it would take at least five years before we would notice even the slightest change in soil carbon. We were a little concerned, but we carried on.
ABOVE: Paul Candy of Future Ready Farmschecks out the soil in the compost swales | Photo: Rebecka Keeling
Compost swales
Compost swales are designed especially for clay soils to catch water from above and help it soak into the subsoil. Long, shallow excavations are dug across the contours of a hill, sloping gently downhill. The excavated soil is mounded on the downhill side and planted.
The hollowed area is then layered again and again with woody mulch and food scraps with biochar, or another nitrogen source, until the desired height is reached.
After that, it is simply left to compost. The compost is not turned and not moved. Instead, the combination we used of biochar and bokashi in the food scraps keeps the heap fresh and healthy, if it is not sitting in standing water. The bokashi โzingโ (microorganism mix) in the food scraps supports some anaerobic breakdown, and worms move in once the heap has cooled. Fungal hyphae grow undisturbed.
Climate action tool
Swales are useful climate action tools because in times of drought the biochar and deepened topsoil act as a reservoir that plants can draw from. They can also help ease flooding by encouraging runoff to soak into the subsoil. And when the swales are saturated, the bunds provide a drier, more aerated area for roots.
Compost swales are also climate action because they use the stabilised carbon that is biocharโmaking it a carbon sink in its own right. But this is not the biggest carbon sink. The growth of the living soil microbiome may be much larger.
Biochar acts as a long-lasting home for soil microorganisms, giving them more surface area to colonise. Fungal hyphae also seem to be stimulated by biochar and add to the growing carbon mass. But the fungi and bacteria must still rely on a steady source of food from the starches and sugars that plants pump into the soil.
ABOVE: Banana trees growing in compost swales | Photo: Rebecka Keeling
Holistic approach
So, the swale, biochar, compost, plants, and microorganisms all work together symbiotically and synergistically to transform the soil.
Will this work in other parts of New Zealand? We may have been fortunate: we were working with the same โdeadโ kaolinite clay found in much of Rodneyโs soils, that are also found in the Amazon.
We encourage growers throughout the country to experimentโnot only with biochar, but with creating diverse living systems that work together to create living carbon sinks that are resilient to an ever-changing climate.
Betsy Kettle has been a zero-waste advocate and composter for at least three decades and is a trustee of the Sustainable North Trust. She thanks Auckland Council for their support for the City to Farm project over the past eight years.
https://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/Phil-and-Jenny-Grainger-with-banana-trees-grown-in-compost-swales-photo-Betsy-KettleCOMPRESSED-scaled.jpg25601920membershiphttps://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/OrganicNZ-2024-Masthead.pngmembership2026-08-28 13:50:342026-08-29 08:04:06Biochar, black gold and bananas
Microbes are a big name in organic agriculture โ in fact, they are the reason for everything. Iโm not exaggerating here: the first life forms thought to have existed were โ you guessed it โ of such tiny proportions that you and I would have thought nothing of them. Story and photos by Paige Murray.
Paige Murray
Iโm sure you know the basics, but to be clear, โmicrobeโ is the broad term to describe organisms of microscopic size โ too small for us humans to see, thus we give them far less credit than they deserve. In this case, Iโm referring to the microbes colonising our soils and helping our plants to grow big, strong and healthy. Microbes are like colostrum for babies: without them, our plants would be sickly, weak and lacking a whole heap of important nutrients.
The following content is only available to logged-in members. Join us to gain access to a wide range of content.
Paige lives in a tiny house on the outskirts of Lincoln, and loves to get her hands dirty in all ways homesteading. A childhood of growing up on and around farms was the perfect way to understand that agriculture got us, as a human race, to where we are todayโฆ and it will shape who we become tomorrow.
The past five years saw Paige working on an organic market garden. It was here that she learnt (in spite of what all her agricultural science lecturers told her) that organics can be economically viable, and is a pretty good way to grow and produce alongside nature, rather than fighting her.
https://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/IMG_20240911_191402.jpg15651080Sophorahttps://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/OrganicNZ-2024-Masthead.pngSophora2024-09-20 10:30:002024-09-20 23:23:05When Micromanaging is Goodย
The following content is only available to members. Join us to view all our content.
Christine Grieder lives with her partner on a four-acre property at Wakefield, near Nelson. She gardens using permaculture principles and tries to grow as much as she can of the things they need.
https://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20220203_Carob-Tree-2-1.webp13331000Staff Writerhttps://organicnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/OrganicNZ-2024-Masthead.pngStaff Writer2024-06-26 15:36:132026-04-29 12:15:54Bio-boost Your Compost!
