Seed Milk, Not Cow's Milk: The Seed Soak and Weaning Feed

What does a seedling live on before you feed it, and what goes into the seed soak and the first feeding?

The rice chart (DJSS5255) is projected. At about 1:00:50 Cho draws a rice seed on the flip chart, the germ (씨눈) and the seed milk (씨젖). At about 1:09:30 he writes at March 12 on the flip chart: '? + FAA + FPJ + PCa + OHN (mugwort, watercress)', the first term overwritten. From about 1:14:15 the Korean prescription handout (XFLH5606) is projected and the interpreter reads the seed and seedling column and the Type 2 column aloud; the first column (soil foundation) is not read. Every number read out matches the photo of the handout.

• Seed and seedling treatment (종자·종묘처리), soak then plant — Read aloud by the interpreter off the handout; all match the photo: 1) brown rice vinegar (Cleanser, BRV) 1:500; 2) Food (FPJ) of mugwort or water dropwort 1:500; 3) Medicine (OHN) 1:1000; 4) Fuel (FAA) 1:1000, in parentheses on the handout; 5) Structure (WCP) 1:1000; 6) malt (맥아, 엿질금) 1:500, read out only as 'Mega'; 7) yeast (효모, 미생물) 1:500; 8) seawater 1:20–25; 9) Mineral A 1:1000. Cho: soak the seed in it, then plant. No soak time is given on tape.
• Weaning feed (rice, March 12; flip chart) — Cho, in Korean only: when the seed milk runs out, start feeding; in Natural Farming you give amino acid, Fuel (FAA). The board lists '? + FAA + FPJ + PCa + OHN (mugwort, watercress)'. No rates; Cho then says to give nutrients close to Type 2.
• Type 2 (2형), vegetative growth — Read aloud off the handout; all match the photo: 1) BRV 1:500; 2) Food (FPJ) 1:500 of mugwort, water dropwort, or 동자액 (juice of young green fruit); 3) OHN 1:1000; 4) (FAA) 1:1000; 5) WCP 1:1000; 6) Protectors (LAB) 1:1000; 7) yeast 1:500; 8) Mineral C 1:1000. The English handout printed item 6 as 'malt'; it is LAB. Cho: 'I'll explain this again later, so just take it as written here.'

1. In Hawaiʻi you can grow rice twice a year; this chart follows Korean weather

   Cho's opening caution before reading the dates.

   ▶ 59:07 As spoken

2. Rice: sown and sprouting February 12; young seedling and weaning March 12, a month later

   Chart: 발아 2/12 (type VI, 2–3 leaves); 유묘·이유기 3/12 (type III–II). Cho compares March 12 to a baby coming off the breast.

   ▶ 59:25 From the slides

3. A seed has a germ (씨눈) and seed milk (씨젖); every living thing grows on its seed milk first

   Drawn on the flip chart. 'Until it can carry on its own hard life, it is made to grow on this seed milk.'

   ▶ 1:00:49 Written on the board

4. Base fertilizer under a seed is like raising a baby on cow's milk instead of its mother's

   The seedling grows big and fat but 'can't run, it huffs and puffs': its vitality drops. Build its ability on the seed milk first, then fertilize.

   ▶ 1:03:26 As spoken

5. Give no fertilizer at the sprouting stage

   The interpreter's summary of Cho's point. Fertilized early, the body grows big but 'puffed up with water'.

   ▶ 1:05:00 As spoken

6. Raise tomato, paprika, bell pepper and papaya seedlings in poor soil, not fertile soil

   Poor soil makes the life force strong. Korean proverb: 'Hardship in youth is worth buying.'

   ▶ 1:06:25 As spoken

7. When the seed milk runs out (weaning, March 12 for rice), start feeding, with Fuel (FAA)

   Never interpreted. Cho: 'Now that the mother's milk has run out, this is when you have to give fertilizer… in Natural Farming we give amino acid… F-A-A.'

   ▶ 1:09:46 As spoken

8. Seed treatment keeps the sprouting seed from tearing and makes up any loss right away

   Cho compares a sprouting seed to a birth. 'If you do it by the prescription, there's no tearing when the seed sprouts.'

   ▶ 1:12:40 As spoken

9. Seed soak: BRV 1:500, FPJ 1:500, OHN 1:1000, (FAA) 1:1000, WCP 1:1000, malt 1:500, yeast 1:500, seawater 1:20–25, Mineral A 1:1000

   Handout column 종자·종묘처리, read aloud and checked against the photo. Soak the seed, then plant.

   ▶ 1:14:42 From the handout

10. The prescription came to Cho in a dream, after the Japanese asked him for one

    He woke, wrote it down, and was startled himself. 'If you just use it exactly as written, you won't make mistakes.'

    ▶ 1:16:42 As spoken

11. At weaning, give nutrients close to Type 2

    Rice chart: III–II at 3/12, II at 5/5. Type 2 is vegetative growth.

    ▶ 1:18:44 As spoken

12. Type 2: BRV 1:500, FPJ 1:500, OHN 1:1000, (FAA) 1:1000, WCP 1:1000, LAB 1:1000, yeast 1:500, Mineral C 1:1000

    Read aloud and checked against the handout photo. Item 6 is LAB, not malt as the English copy said.

    ▶ 1:20:17 From the handout

13. Seawater does not replace the Mineral products (Mineral A, C, D, E): 'seawater is seawater, and mineral is mineral'

    Asked whether ocean water can stand in for Mineral C. Only Cho's institutes in Japan and Korea make the Mineral products; if Natural Farming takes off in Hawaiʻi, he'll make them here.

    ▶ 1:21:48 As spoken