SEED GROUNDWORK FOR KNF
Without seeds, farmers have no crop. Without healthy seeds, they don’t have a good crop. Seeds can be regarded as life itself for farmers.
If you raise a healthy seed with a healthy seed leaf (cotyledon), then healthy roots form and more main leaves grow. The cotyledons act as the egg yolks of the seeds, which plants use for nutrients and energy until they can develop their first true leaves and photosynthesize themselves. This stage is critical to plant development.
Master Cho loves to compare crops to humans because we are all living beings and share many patterns. He explains that when children are poor, they have good appetites, eat and digest well, get along well, and grow healthy bodies. Contrast this to rich children who often complain about food, are picky eaters, and are likely to be sickly.
This example Master Cho gives does not include starving people, of course, but it also does not include modern industrial populations where the only food available is largely full of toxins and void of nutrition.
The ill health of modern industrial society actually fits in well with his model of health. The more industrial, processed food children eat, the worse their health and behavior. Modern industrial children are increasingly sick, obese, and socially inept.
Seeds also follow this same pattern. When they have too many nutrients (overprotected rich kids) or toxic choices (modern industrial kids), their health suffers. Overprotected seeds do not have good appetites or digest well. Seeds grown under severe conditions have superior adaptability and digesting power, and their vitality is strong.
Seeds inherit their vitality from previous generations. Therefore, seeds with a shaky foundation cannot have normal, healthy growth no matter what scientific treatment they have been given.
Seeds that are bred for improved harvest and human taste are not bred to be strong plants. They are unable to absorb nutrients well. We are left with seed stocks that fit modern agricultural requirements, not the nutritional requirements of humans or the requirements of the plants themselves.
In order to grow healthy crops that fill the nutritional needs of people, we need to have “complete seeds”, or “healthy seeds.” When the nutrients contained in the seeds themselves are weak or unbalanced, the vitality is weak. They are less capable of adapting to Nature. They are less capable of proper development during the first stage of growth. This is not favorable for the farmer.
In Natural Farming seeds are taken from plants growing in less than fertile soil. While these plants are not the best in terms of yields, their seeds are healthy and can grow in sub-optimal conditions.
When more fragile seeds are used, they can be vitalized with a liquid seed treatment to help them grow healthy. This Seed Treatment Solution is easy to make from locally obtained plant materials.
Ingredients in this Seed Solution include Oriental Herbal Nutrient (OHN), a tonic with a specific recipe of five herbs, Brown Rice Vinegar (BRV), Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ), and Master Cho’s proprietary Mineral A (eliminate if you cannot obtain this).
Other ingredients are sometimes added, such as Indigenous Micro-Organisms (IMO), Seawater (SW), Water soluble Calcium Phosphate (WCaP), or Fish Amino Acids (FAA).
The acronym for the solution is referred to as SES.
The seeds are soaked in a dilute solution of these ingredients for different periods of time, depending on how quickly they germinate.
Soaking time is about two hours for fast-germinating plants, such as beans, peas, carrots, radishes, cabbage, sorghum, melons, and cucumbers.
Plants with medium sprout times, such as barley, wheat, corn, lettuce, beet, cilantro, papaya, sesame, and mustard, should be soaked for about four hours.
Plants with longer sprouting times, such as tomatoes, rice, and sunflowers, should be soaked for about seven hours or perhaps overnight.
I would, however, strongly caution against soaking seeds too long. In my experience, this will lead to seed rot and you will lose your seeds. If you are unsure how long to soak, look up the average germination time and err in the direction of less soaking time.
Seeds treated in this manner have a strong vitality. They have thick seed leaves (cotyledons), which plants use for nutrients and energy until they can develop their first true leaves and photosynthesize themselves. This stage is vital for the health of the plant over its lifetime.
This treatment builds in resistance to seedling blight and damping off. The treatment has also been used to eliminate the need for grafting, an expensive and time-consuming practice.
In summary, it is best to use seeds from crops that have some stress. Bred your own if possible. Choose seeds from the healthiest plants that have the characteristics you want but are growing in your poorest soil.
If you’ve been studying Master Cho or following me for some time you will recognize this pattern from where to collect IMO. Seeds from your land will be best adapted to your conditions. Seeds taken from poor soils will have the most vitality.
If you don’t have access to strong, vital seeds, the strategy is to soak the seeds in the treatment solution, SES.
Groundwork for KNF: Seed Groundwork
This series is continued in part 3: Genetic Activation
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