Grandpa Apple in Yilan: 86 Field Q&As Released

General News Jan 1, 1970By Emily Carter 0 views

Akinori Kimura, the Japanese apple farmer who grows apples with no pesticides and no fertilizers, visited Taiwan. On the morning of 9/27, he first went to the Datun Creek Natural Farming Education Farm in Tamsui, Taipei (Taiwan's earliest farm promoting Shu Ming Natural Farming - cultivation with no fertilizer and no pesticides) for an on-site field visit and explanation, then rushed to Sanxing, Yilan at 2 o'clock for an indoor talk and discussion.

Both sharing sessions were packed to capacity. The morning session was attended by practitioners and supporters of Shu Ming Natural Farming, about 50 or more people, and the small farm was crowded with visitors; in the afternoon, at the Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station Yilan Branch, the spacious conference room was packed with at least 200 people, including farmers in Hualien and Yilan practicing environmentally friendly agriculture, farmers growing fruit and other crops, and research or agricultural administration personnel. Mr. Kimura's whirlwind indeed carried great force, attracting a great many people, and I hope that among these people many will be willing to follow in his footsteps and cultivate crops with no fertilizer and no pesticides.

Mr. Kimura giving a field explanation at Happiness Farm, attracting farmers from all over Taiwan to rush there to learn

To see Mr. Kimura's charisma and generosity with my own eyes, and to learn his deeper methods, I too, like a fan chasing a star, took the night train from Taitung to Taipei to attend the first session, then rushed to Yilan for the second.

Mr. Kimura's selfless sharing attitude and cheerful smile were indeed just as in the NHK film, easily inspiring others. His keen observation of field crops made me, a farmer practicing no-fertilizer no-pesticide cultivation, feel ashamed of my inferiority, and reflect that I must observe crops and the orchard environment more carefully. Although time was rushed and Mr. Kimura could not say everything about his experience, the brief sharing still made me feel the trip was worthwhile. Below is my written record of the two sessions that day (only a small amount of image recording, because I was busy taking handwritten notes, and I may have misheard or miswritten due to the speed!), hoping that more friends who could not hear it in person can also gain something and walk together into the ranks of no-fertilizer no-pesticide cultivation.

After the Yilan session, Mr. Kimura agreed to the inviting organization, the China Productivity Center, to share his more than 100 computer slide files (limited by time, only about 40 or more were shared in Yilan). Please pay attention to the China Productivity Center's public release or write to request that they be made public.

I. Field Visit – Datun Creek Natural Farming Education Farm (9/27 10:00-11:30)

1. Paddy field area

Coarse tillage lets air enter between the soil clods and lets aerobic bacteria in too. Coarse-till dry soil, then shallow-till and loosen the surface. On the coarse-tillage cultivator, remove every other blade.
Fields that flood should first have ditches dug for drainage.
In the field you can dig a hole (at least 50 cm deep) to measure good soil temperature - measure the temperature every 10 cm of depth; if the temperature difference is within 1℃, it is clean soil, and the position with the lowest temperature is the fertilizer-poison layer.
The farmer is only someone who helps the rice.
Plowing once before transplanting rice seedlings in spring already determines that year's yield.

Actually examining the rice roots and soil temperature

2. Dry-land sweet potato

After tearing a leaf open, you can see something on the surface like plastic wrap; if there is pesticide, that film becomes thinner and the leaf is easily bitten by insects. Because the leaf is wrapped by the film, its appearance is slightly paler in color.
Plants have ears that listen; speak gently, saying "keep it up," and although it is one-way communication, in fact both sides know.
Leaves and leaf veins: the upper part of the soil is how the plant grows, and below the soil is how the roots grow.
To pull white radish, turn counterclockwise and it pulls up easily. Once, white radish was continuously cropped in the same place for 4 years and all grew well, but in the 5th year it would split, so a row was made 60 cm from the original spot and planted for another 4 years, and it grew well again.
If the soil for sweet potato is too fertile, wheat can be planted to absorb some of the fertilizer (planted in the furrows, wheat); when the wheat is harvested,
then plant sweet potato.
In Japan's Edo period, wheat was also planted first and then sweet potato. If rice is planted, it will absorb too many nutrients.
After planting wheat and then planting vegetables, the vegetables become smaller, but sweet potato and peanut are both fine.

3. Dry-land peanut area

Dig the soil to look at the rhizobia on the peanut roots.
The shape of the roots is the same as the peanut leaf veins.
Root nodules absorb nitrogen from the air.
More than 30 root nodules means the soil is too fertile; very few root nodules means the soil is very good.
When peanut is mixed-planted with other vegetables (at a distance of more than 20 cm), the vegetable roots will find a way to get close to the peanut to absorb nutrients.
Land that has been fertilized will grow many root nodules.
Wheat, sweet potato, peanut, planted like this.
But black soybean does not give nutrients to others, so mixed planting with vegetables does not grow well.

4. Citrus tree area

Growth will conform to the leaf vein principle.
Fruit trees will say, I want to grow like this, why make me grow like that.
Do not split the trunk into 5 branches of the same thickness; make the branches shorter or thinner than the trunk, that is, children must not become a burden to their parents.
When the split trunk is too tall, the terminal bud can be cut short; for a slanted trunk, place a leaf slanting to look at the leaf veins, and in this way
water will be transported normally.
There are many apple varieties, with different leaf widths, and pruning must likewise follow the leaf veins.
Fruit trees are very simple.
If too tall, cut off the terminal bud.

How should we think about the relationship among diet, farming methods and the environment?

II. Indoor Talk – Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station Yilan Branch (9/27 14:20-15:30 talk, 15:40-16:20 questions)

Mount Iwaki near the apple orchard is 1162 meters high, and I feel very close to the number being the same as my height.
His main business is apples, and before that no one had tried pesticide-free cultivation. In the photo, the orchard of his apprentice Mr. Sasaki has severe leaf fall; this is the result of Sasaki not using pesticides.
But in the photo, Kimura's apple orchard on September 17, 2011 was laden with fruit, and academically this still cannot be answered. Now people come every day to investigate. Everyone is surprised, yet it remains laden with fruit.
My method differs from organic farming. Organic uses materials allowed by certification bodies. The natural farming I advocate uses only vinegar.
This June, the United Nations FAO (World Food and Agriculture Organization certification) recognized its Natural Farming method as a "World Agricultural Heritage." A.K. Method = Akinori Kimura (note: that is, the kanji)
As awareness rises with the times, the number of people willing to practice natural farming has greatly increased. Not only individuals, but governments and farmers' associations have joined in, and large enterprises too.
At the Kimura Juku in the Noto Peninsula region of northern Japan (offering courses at a university), too many people signed up for the lecture, and a lottery was even needed.
More than 20 years ago, though, I was considered an odd person.
In a spoilage experiment using the white rice eaten every day (placed in a glass bottle for 2 weeks), the naturally cultivated rice did not spoil, while both JIS organic cultivation and general farming methods turned black and spoiled.
The cucumber spoilage experiment was the same.
For different crops under natural conditions without pesticides, the situation of damage by pests and diseases. Most other fruits and crops are below 30%, but apples and cucumbers have a damage probability as high as 80% to 90%. Therefore, if even apples can be done, other crops must certainly be easier.
How much of the pesticide sprayed every day is absorbed by crops? Please everyone answer. Someone at the venue answered: 25%.
The softness and hardness of the soil is very important.
When Japanese universities researched how much nitrogen in fertilizer is absorbed by crops, according to the research: crops: 10% to 15%, grass: 10% to 15%, land: 20% to 30%, volatilization: 40% to 50%. This is also one of the causes of global warming.
Everyone blames car exhaust, factory exhaust and so on for causing global warming. But the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made a public statement in 2008: "Part of global warming comes from fertilizers and herbicides, and a method must be found."
What I am doing is not only promoting a personal method, but for the future of the next generation.
So far, farmers who adopt this farming method can still have a decent yield.
Too many root nodules on soybean roots means the soil is too fertile. These fertilizers can survive in the soil for 8 to 10 years.
Planting soybean next to tomato means no fertilizer is needed.
He asked whether anyone at the venue grew tomatoes? What is the record for how many meters tall they can grow? Someone at the venue answered: 3 meters.
Mr. Kimura said: "My family's tomatoes can grow to 10 meters, at least 6 meters," because he plants tomatoes horizontally, and the tomato stem also grows adventitious roots; when the stem's adventitious roots become large, the original underground roots disappear.
Another farmer who grows tomatoes without fertilizer can also grow them to 8 to 10 meters, relying only on interplanting soybean, and with no pest damage. The small tomato fruits grown this way emerge very neatly aligned, one left and one right.
Many Japanese people get diseases when growing tomatoes, but farmers using natural cultivation, when selling, cut them off directly with the stem attached and put them in a transparent box for consumers to see, because once fertilizer is used, tomatoes will not grow so neatly.
The Hokkaido region all uses large-scale natural cultivation, one row of corn, one row of soybean, one row of corn. This planting method keeps aphids from appearing in the field.
The photo shows two paddy field photos side by side; please everyone guess which plot is naturally cultivated rice.
The photo shows two photos of rice root systems side by side; please everyone guess which plot is naturally cultivated rice. Rice without fertilizer can let its root system rest, and instead grows better. So please everyone try a small plot in the field!
Mr. Kimura went to a famous organic institution in Germany, where 30 years without fertilizer made crops grow only as big as a ping-pong ball; Mr. Kimura immediately dug a hole for them to see, measuring the temperature every 10 cm.
At present, experienced farmers who follow the transition to natural cultivation all fail; but inexperienced farmers who follow the transition to natural cultivation all succeed.
The soil temperature difference between the surface and 50 cm underground. The hardpan layer below the soil is the lowest-temperature spot, but academia still has no one researching the hardpan layer.
Professor Sugiyama of Hirosaki University analyzed that the types of bacteria in his orchard are more numerous than in ordinary cultivation.
Apple tree leaves will automatically shed the parts attacked by bacteria, but with fertilizer this situation does not appear.
Many people say you cannot go without fertilizer, you must use compost. If you really must use compost, be sure to use fully matured compost.
In Europe and America more than 20 years ago, infants appeared who soon after birth developed a blue face and then died; this was because when food was grown it contained immature compost, causing the food to produce nitrate. According to tests by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries: vegetables using immature compost can reach 16000 PPM. The EU safety standard is 2500 PPM. Naturally cultivated ones are all below 500 PPM.
A farmer's bounden duty is to keep consumers healthy, and I hope that through everyone's hands a fresh atmosphere will blow through Taiwan.
This era is an era of agricultural revival.

Farmers listening intently to Mr. Kimura's sharing

On-site Q&A:

Q: It took you 11 years to make the transition successfully. Is there a faster way?

I practice no-fertilizer no-pesticide cultivation, so it is impossible for me to tell you what material can speed up the transition.
However much time was spent in the past to damage the soil, that much time is now needed to restore it.
As long as you are willing to work hard, you can succeed.
If this method still does not work, it means there is still a lot of fertilizer in the farmland, and at least 2 to 3 years are needed.
Although I spent 11 years, it was because only in the last few years did I find the correct method.
Paddy field experience: transplanting determines the yield, and afterward no matter how hard you work it is useless. 15 years ago, one crop of rice under Japan's general farming method yielding 300 kg was already a lot; now it can reach 550 kg; most farmers believe that as long as you add more fertilizer, the yield will increase.
But with my method of cultivating rice, the photo shows the rice of 2010/9/16 is very likely heavier and larger than the rice grown by everyone present; this is the third year of natural cultivation. The average harvest for farmers using this method is 720 kg (note: 1200 Taiwan jin per fen). Weeding is generally done by machine, but this paddy field uses manual labor throughout.
Even an amateur can grow it, so experts like all of you should have even less problem.
Even if you fail, it will not be a situation of no harvest at all.
The world already has a trend of seeking food ingredients that do not spoil; no one wants food ingredients that will spoil in their stomach.
Naturally cultivated rice in Okayama Prefecture: 32 to 38 tillers, 150 to 170 grains per rice ear.
Rice under general farming method: about 20 tillers, 130 to 150 grains per rice ear.
For paddy fields, coarse-till the slightly dry land; at the beginning do not make it too wet, and do not fine-till either.
Who among you present can grow rice on your body? Of course no one can. Farmers must always think about what kind of environment rice needs. With healthy soil, rice will not get diseases.

Mr. Kimura's apple orchard

Q: How do you manage the weeds in the apple orchard?

The photo shows the condition of the grass in the apple orchard in August, about waist-high.
When the weather is hot, people want to hide in the shade, but fruit trees cannot hide.
The grass in my orchard is basically not dealt with, because no fertilizer is applied either, and there is no worry that the grass will absorb the fertilizer.
Yesterday I went to Chiayi and visited a place; the temperature was measured on a certain farmer's orchard land, and the spot without grass was as high as 34℃, while the spot with grass was only 27℃. Through wild grass, the vitality of the land can be reborn.
I do not bag my apples to prevent insects, because there are already no pests in the apple orchard; it is only to prevent the off chance that insects suddenly come in here.
Apple trees can get scab, and I spray diluted vinegar by hand; the whole tree must be sprayed, and it must be sprayed before the disease occurs. This vinegar is made by fermenting rice and corn.
My apprentice Mr. Sasaki failed because he used a sprayer cart to spray vinegar, because the heavy sprayer cart compacts the land. Spraying vinegar by hand is like stepping on your own foot and not feeling pain.
One person's land, after many years of pesticide, herbicide and fertilizer use, became like sandy ground, and the carrots grown with no fertilizer were at most only like a 5 cm long pencil. But the method I taught him was to plant wheat in the furrows, plant soybean on the two outer sides of the wide bed, and plant vegetables in the center of the wide bed. Wheat roots can reach 80 to 100 cm and will break up the hardpan layer. After 3 years of planting like this, the carrots had already reached normal size.

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