Listen to wise words

John Priestly

We are very pleased to bring you a podcast of Eileen Kaufman’s interview with John Priestly, an expert biodynamic citrus grower and consultant from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. Recently, John was a guest speaker at the Parsifal College Applied Biodynamic Course, of which Eileen is one of the main tutors. To listen to the interview, click the play button.

John packs seven topics into this 13 minute interview, including:

• his philosophical background
• ecology of the soil - keeping it healthy
• foliar sprays and tonics
• recommendations to treat spray-contaminated soil
• alternative nitrogen sources (instead of animal manure) for home composting
• ecologically safe snail control methods
• deterring fruit eating birds.

John brings a wealth of information through a lifetime of experience in sustainable farming and land management.  His past clients have even included an airport and a racecourse. John takes an ecological approach to solving pest problems, explaining “All pest and disease problems originate from the soil”. For example, weeds are dynamic accumulators - they accumulate particular minerals that are present in very low concentrations in the soil. Over time, weeds balance out nutrient deficiencies. By applying the deficient nutrient to the soil the weed gradually disappears. For instance, yellow dock accumulates iron, so iron chelate is used to treat the soil to reduce this problem weed.

John also explained his method for tree planting. He doesn’t put compost in the hole and this forces the tree to send out roots in search of nutrients. After a year, once the tree has established itself, compost is applied.

Eileen will be attending  the National Biodynamic Agriculture Australia Conference this weekend so you can look forward to hearing more interviews from biodynamic experts. She has also promised to send a post from the conference (too much biodynamic wine and it could be a very interesting post! Just joking, Eileen is way too professional for that…).