Journal

Diseased Cucumbers
I would like to report on two experiences from
the last gardening year: The cucumbers in the
green house last year were a complete flop. A
type of aphid, unknown to me and amazingly
prolific, had spread massively. I sprayed our
usual organic agent against aphids twice, but
soon noticed that it had hardly any effect, and
the chaos was complete. First a lot of leaves
died off, and then black sooty mould* (fungal
infestation) descended on the remaining
leaves. The use of beneficials at the start and
middle of July brought some improvement, but
the plants still looked miserable. By the end of
July I just wanted to pull them up.
Wonderful Successes
in Gardening with EM
Gerhard Gross has been a member of our association almost
from the very beginning. As a gardener in the nursery of a
Christian community in Franconia (Northern Bavaria) he has
been using EM, in particular homemade bokashi, for many
years. Now he has sent us a report on two experi ences from
last summer which will certainly be instructive for many
people gardening with EM themselves.
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In Jessers’ vineyard: You can
clearly see the alternately
sown rows, one row of grass,
then the “Wolff mixture”, a
spezial green manure.
Wine Production
After harvesting, the grapes are brought to the
winegrowers’ cooperative two km away. The
“Weingärtner Cleebronn-Güglingen” have made
a good name for themselves over recent years
with their conventionally produced wine. But
customers were increasingly enquiring about
organic wine. In response to this, in the meantime
three winegrowers have switched to organic
cultivation, two of them working with EM.
The cellar master of the cooperative treats the
organically grown grapes with the same care
that he gives to the conventionally produced
grapes. This practice bore fruit in 2014. All
three organic wines took top prizes at an international
organic wine-tasting event.
Shared Experience
The experiences with EM in the garden, in the
vineyard and in the household are being shared
in various seminars in the farm store with
integrated EM shop founded in 2011. My wife
Britta is always there to talk to people during
the opening hours.
The handling and use of EM in winegrowing
and other areas is a constant fascination for us,
so that a lot of this experience can be passed
on to the EM customers in the farm store. In
turn the customers report on their experience
with our tiniest cohabitants, providing the
ideal complement to our work so that
everybody benefits.
But then I started to look at it as a challenge.
I decided to spray Activated EM·1 (1: 50) every
ten days. I watered the plants twice with a
supplement of Activated EM and nettle slurry
(around 1:10) and treated the plants themselves
energetically. Within a short time the
cucumbers were completely transformed! They
had powerful growth, produced a rich harvest
and remained healthy until I cleared them in
mid-October. This had me jumping for joy.
The Bean Project
A different subject: The EMJournal featured
an article some time ago about the treatment
of seeds with EM ceramic powder. As we have
been cultivating a wax bean variety here for 35
years now, I wanted to try this out for myself.
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There were still some beans standing around
from a project in 2005. I was actually going
to throw them out, but then I thought that
would be a good opportunity to try if the EM
ceramic powder helps. I made a trial with and
without EM ceramic powder. I put four seeds in
each of five pots, i.e. a total of 20 seeds.
Of the seeds with the Super Cera powder, 16
germinated. The seeds without the powder
produced only two miserable plants. This made
a big impression on me and I thought it might
also interest others.
* Sooty mould: dirty, black mould on the leaves
caused by the honeydew secreted by the
aphids feeding on plant sap.
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Author: Gerhard Gross
After the damaged parts
are removed, the cucumber
plants are in a pitiful state.
Gerhard Gross with his
revived cucumbers which
produced a rich harvest into
October.
Bean seeds without EM
Bean seeds with EM ceramic
powder
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Amino Terra – substrate
fermented with nutrients
and EM for the production
of Terra Preta was dug in
between the vines.
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Spring onions grow through
the grass bokashi, alongside
this diverse vegetation
between the rows.
16 | EM Journal 51 | english | March 2015 17