GardenTalk07-Let us do Magic!

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As we discussed in the previous episodes, our Indian Scientist Dr. Krishan Chandra seems to have a magic solution for all the ills of gardening. It almost costs nothing as he puts it.

But his claims are not easy to believe. If things were that rosy, why are not everyone doing it? In a matter of few years we could change the entire world and solve not only farming problems but also many of our health problems as well, that are increasingly becoming a menace due to our use of chemicals and pesticides in farming.

So, with this kind of skepticism, myself and my friend in India decided to try out this magic solution of Dr. Krishan Chandra. My friend has a reasonably big fruit garden in India where he grows several varieties of tropical fruits. For him it is more a hobby than a livelihood. Initially he had restricted himself to organic farming but as the labor has become expensive these days, he has switched to using chemical fertilizers.

Since fruit trees are not that vulnerable to change in fertilizer use, we decided to switch to Dr. Chandra’s method, at least for some time. We did not expect magical results, but we were confident that nothing drastically bad is going to happen. Decades ago, my friend had tried bio fertilizers as well as various bacterial mixtures such as Azotobacter, and fungi like Trichoderma etc. Honestly, he did not find much visible benefit.


Let me briefly narrate the way we went ahead.

First and foremost in Dr. Chandra’s method, is to prepare the ‘magic solution’ which he calls ‘waste decomposer solution’ for historical reasons. We need the bacterial culture for that.

Amazon India product page

Luckily for my friend, this culture is available online through amazon India. Several vendors are selling it for as low as Rs. 20 per 30 ML bottle, which works out to roughly 30 cents. But most vendors charge you 10 times that as shipping and handling charges and package multiple bottles to justify the cost. All that you need is just one single bottle but you have no option but to buy whatever they provide. But still it is a dirt-cheap deal.

Many of these vendors display documents to show that they are certified by Dr. Chandra’s research center NCOF. So hopefully they are genuine.

Apparently, you can buy these directly from NCOF and some reviewers have reported that such cultures are more effective. But we felt that buying online is more convenient. Dr. Chandra assures that any certified vendor can be relied upon and the product is genuine.

The culture we received was in a small bottle, and looked like some green moss like stuff on some gel like semisolid. And that is all you need to prepare the magic solution for lifetime. It is a onetime purchase.

Things you need

The next thing you need is a 200 Liter plastic drum with a lid (preferably). Dr. Chandra recommends plastic drum since the organic acids produced by the bacteria can corrode metallic drums.

Just fill the drum with water to the brim.

The only recurring expense in this magic making is unrefined sugar, sometimes called brown sugar, or Jaggery in some places, or Gud in India. I guess even refined sugar should work as well. But for whatever reason, Dr. Chandra recommends unrefined sugar which comes as yellow colored solid lumps in India, mainly made from Sugar cane juice.

You need 2 Kg of unrefined sugar for 200 Liters of water. Even the cost of this ingredient is negligible, roughly a dollar or two in India.


The process is quite simple. Just put the unrefined sugar into the 200 Liters of water in the plastic drum. Empty the complete bottle of the bacterial culture into the drum. Let the drum be in some warm area. It may be a good idea to keep the drum closed to avoid mosquitoes and other insects that may lay their eggs.

That’s it!

Solution after 7 days

Keep stirring the solution twice a day for a week. Unless you live in a cold region, the bacteria would multiply in less than a week and you will have a solution which is creamy in appearance with thick brown colored colonies of bacteria floating on the top.  See the picture on the right.

You can start using this solution in various ways that I will discuss later.

Before you exhaust the complete solution, retain around 20 liters to be used as the starter for the next batch. This starter would take the place of the culture bottle you used in the beginning. The rest of the procedure is same.

In this way, you can endlessly multiply the solution, use it forever throughout your life if you so wish, share it with your friends and set off multiple bacteria factories so to speak.

Dr. Chandra says that the bacteria can remain alive in the solution for at least a year after the solution is prepared. But make sure that it does not get contaminated by some external stuff and the place is warm and not freezing.

Some farmers who have used Dr. Chandra’s method claim that the solution can remain active for several years if you use earthen pots instead of plastic drum! But why does one want to keep it for that long anyway?

The solution has a pleasing fermented smell and does not stink. So, you don’t have to worry about your neighbors complaining 😉

We prepared the solution. What next? How do we go about using it? We will discuss that in the next episode.


A series of weekly (every Monday 12 PM PST) talks on new ways of Gardening by Dr. King. © Dr. King 2019