Sonic Bloom

[Beekissed]

I agree...not much but anecdotal evidence. But, I deal with that all the time and many of the experiments I do with my chickens are nothing but anecdotal evidence as well....but still evidence of a change that has been affected by the implementation of one practice or another.

Most of life's good experiments start out with anecdotal success and then someone takes enough interest to study it closer and see if that success is uniform under laboratory conditions. Since there's not much money in it for big agribiz corporations, I'm betting such an experiment won't be funded any time soon.

All I care about is the end result, really, and care nothing much about the scientific proof of it all. I've done many an experiment in my back yard with that endeavor in mind...the end result.

Fermented feed for the chickens turned out to be a smashing success, for me and for others...three years ago you couldn't find any information on it at all and I had to fight everyone who claimed feeding wet, "moldy" feed to chickens would kill them....now the practice is common among backyard flocks all over the world.

Composting deep litter in the coop was another huge success...more and more folks are seeing the benefits of it, even though not many studies have been done on it...if any...to prove how beneficial it can really be.

Last year I incubated eggs in a cardboard box using natural nest materials and a heating pad and was successful in hatching and even had as good a hatch rate as those using a traditional incubator after learning how to use the materials. Couldn't find any information on anyone doing it previously~no double blind studies, for sure~ but proved it can be done. Will be hatching like that again this year...it's cheap, effective and easy, not to mention more natural than hatching in a styrofoam cooler bator.

Using ACV in chicken's water didn't used to be a common thing and I was pretty much laughed at when I mentioned it the first time on BYC....now seems like everyone is doing it. That's because the results are clear, despite there being no double blind studies done on it.

Last year I experimented with adding some of my own soil cultures in my potting soil so the plant would already be inoculated to the cultures found in my garden, to prevent that first shock to the plant during transplant to a new soil medium, and found those seedlings grew better, were healthier and yielded more fruit than those of the same type that didn't get that early exposure. Doing it again this year.

I'm more than satisfied with anecdotal evidence! A good result is still a good result and a bad one is a bad one, even if they've not been studied in a laboratory by folks proposing to be smarter than the rest of us.

 

[thistlebloom]

Sorry I mentioned double blind studies.

 

[Beekissed]

Sorry I mentioned double blind studies.

No need to be sorry! There's just some folks who don't put much faith in such things and will try methods without having that type of proof on hand. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[thistlebloom]

All of the things you listed that you checked out by doing for yourself are highly commendable. But I wonder if you have a website and are selling kits or instructions for a profit. That's the difference.

 

[Beekissed]

True...not selling anything here. But then, they've probably learned that people are comforted by the evidence or mention of science, but don't necessarily care for proof of it, if the results are good.

Think about toothpaste. All the commercials for this or that one cite studies that their product has been proven to prevent tooth decay better than "brushing alone". That little end to the claim simply means that using toothpaste is better than just brushing with plain water and their studies have proven it. Well, duh!

Flouride in city water supplies. It's never been proven to prevent tooth decay and still yet they persist in putting it there...it was a neat way to make money off the byproduct of making fertilizer. In 2013 they cited "new studies" that it does prevent bacteria adhesion to fake teeth used in their study...but no details of how the study was done, if it was "double blind" or not and if other studies have been done by independent labs to support these "new findings". And still yet no studies done on actual teeth in the general populace.

I find many such "studies" are purposefully vague and usually done to guard and support the profits of one big corporation or another, but are not real big on getting down to the nitty gritty of the basic scientific proof of it all either.

These Sonic Bloom guys aren't much different...vague references to studies done in conjunction with this or that scientist, lots of name dropping, but no real evidence of these experiments being tested by independent labs and their results.

 

[thistlebloom]

I will agree that results are all the proof I need. Personally I like to foliar feed with a kelp solution. Other nutrients I like to apply to the soil.

When I was a kid all the animals got ACV in their drinking water, and the goats got a dose on their grain in the milk stanchion, which they relished. Mom was a huge believer in the health benefits of it, we all consumed it fairly regularly.

 

[Beekissed]

I've never tried foliar sprays before. One of the recipes I found involved kelp meal and said it had all the necessary micronutrients most readily used by the plant. I've given kelp meal to my animals as their mineral supplement and loved the results.

I'm willing to try something this simple, just to see if it has any merit. Not so much the sonic music claptrap, but the time of day to apply the foliar sprays and all. I have the bird song here already!