GENETIC ACTIVATION IN KNF, KOREAN NATURAL FARMING
Almost all plants in cultivation do not reach their genetic potential. They don’t grow as big as possible. The yields are not as large as possible. The quality and nutrition are typically far below what the plant is capable of producing.
However, there are simple steps to take which greatly improve a plant's ability to be healthy, resilient against all weather conditions, pests, and disease, and produce the most food of the highest quality and nutrition.
Current agricultural theory and practice are led by the concept that only the environment determines the growth of plants. This is why plowing and fertilizer schedules are so widely promoted. However, crops are not factory widgets. They are living organisms. Therefore, we should first understand their essence as living beings.
Life is only possible with water. When seeds are first touched by water, their life force is activated. This activates the albumen (endosperm), which contains the nutrients needed for the plants to establish themselves in the soil and reach a stage where they can collect their own energy from the sun.
If they are not touching soil, much of that precious nutrition will be lost. This is a large part of the genetic potential of a plant. The initial rooting-down establishes the stability of growth for the full life of the plant.
Furthermore, if they are given easy-to-digest fertilizers, either synthetic or organic, rather than the albumen (the equivalent of mother’s milk), then they lose independent vitality to live on and to adapt to the environment.
At this critical stage of development, the germination of the seed, if the seed loses the nutrients given to them by their mother to establish life, then the genetic potential in that seed is lost forever.
This loss can never be reclaimed no matter how much nutrition a plant is given later in life. This is why it is critical for plants to set down roots and establish themselves without any fertilizer. They need to use the nutrients of the albumen in order to be strong and to reach their genetic potential.
This is why seedlings should never be given any kind of fertilizer until they have lost their seed leaf, the cotyledon, which is an exterior structure that absorbs nutrients from the albumen and has the same function, to provide for the plant until it can provide for itself. The same reasoning is why animals should be raised with mother’s milk, and why chicks are given brown rice for the first three days of life.
USE LOCAL ORGANIC MATTER AND ANIMAL WASTE
Any fertilizer, even organic, does not have the same effect as Nature because it is taken out of context and produced in a limited, unique environment. Fertilizers are added without much thinking, merely following the analysis done on some plants in a far-away lab.
These created fertilizers and schedules may have been the best in a study, but they cannot tell you exactly what your plants and crops need this year, this month, this week, today, at this exact moment. But your plant knows.
It is better to follow the patterns of Nature and let crops absorb and digest the necessary amounts of nutrients at the proper time as needed according to their growth stage.
It is not necessary to buy fertilizers. Rather, you can use plant and animal materials and wastes available nearby. These materials are not newly created but rather composted and mixed materials that already exist in nature, on or near your property.
NUTRITIVE CYCLE
The Nutritive Cycle is a key element of Korean Natural Farming. Using it is one of the three actions that define what Korean Natural Farming is. Fermented Plant Juices (FPJ) are given to direct the growth of plants.
In addition to FPJs, formulas are designed to support each stage of growth, with ingredients such as calcium and phosphorous, but also Brown Rice (or banana) vinegar (BRV), and the tonic called Oriental Herbal Nutrient (OHN). Consideration is given to moisture levels as well as how the plant needs switch from nitrogen to carbon as the plant matures.
How to follow the Nutritive Cycle is the most complicated and least understood concept of the Korean Natural Farming system. It is important to understand in order to properly use KNF to mimic Nature and to coach plants into producing their genetic potential.
While the Soil Foundation and the application of IMO is by far the most important action to take to practice KNF, the Nutritive Cycle is the most important thing to understand.
Don’t worry, it’s not hard. Once you understand the guiding principles, then KNF is easy.
I taught these principles to uneducated sustenance farmers with little to no resources, some who could not read, and all who had never heard of things like photosynthesis. However, they were able to understand the Nutritive Cycle easily. The most common reaction after learning these ideas was the comment, “I feel so rich!”
These uneducated farmers are the easiest group to teach. The second easiest group I teach is people who have never grown food before. The more a student knows about growing food, the harder it is for them to learn Korean Natural Farming, as taught by Master Cho Han-Kyu.
It has to do with assumptions. If you already know a great deal about growing food, I suggest unlearning or forgetting much of what you know. At least be open to a different approach to thinking about how to grow food.
PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING
We have already discussed the importance of letting seeds initiate germination in contact with the soil. Ideally, that will happen where the plant is to grow and live its life. This is not always possible, however, and sometimes plants need to be transplanted.
This was true for my tea plants. They needed to be kept in a nursery for a year before they were mature enough to be planted out in the field. Master Cho developed techniques that harden plants to be strong and develop their genetic potential when transplanted.
Best transplanting practices for any size operation employ these concepts:
Drought-stress the transplant for a few days before transplanting
Soak in dilute Seed Solution (SES) before planting out
Disturb the transplanting hole as little as possible (Doughnut Transplant Technique)
Water in with dilute Seed Solution (SES)
Cover backfill with mulch
The details on how to properly transplant will be covered in an article about Transplanting, including the Doughnut Transplant Technique.
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