When somewhere in the media we hear an expert put forward an obvious statement, the old Enkhuizer Almanac wisdom ‘rain in November, Christmas in December’ is always remembered within the Bade family. Of course it makes no sense and it is not in any almanac, but it is always correct. If it rains in November, Christmas always falls in December.

“Predicting is difficult, especially when it comes to the future,” noted the well-known physicist Niels Bohr. It is of course a bit easier if you mainly focus on predicting the near future. That is what we do in this newsletter. And then we see from Triple E that within Natural Soil Improvement we will first receive reinforcements in November from Diederik Visser, who will join us as a senior researcher in the field of mycorrhiza and Brickz. Especially in the context of Fiber2Fiber. And then we also see that in November we will be strengthened in the cultivation and research activities in the greenhouse. Daan Houwers will join us as a junior researcher/project employee. We predict that this will allow us to make a big leap forward.

We can also predict that we will further expand the production capacity for the Brickz within NSI, especially in the context of the ABBA project (Amaryllis, Trees, Soil and Waste Reduction). This is a collaborative project with, among others, our neighbor Kwekerij Evers, in which we use residual flows from the cultivation of amaryllis as raw material for Brickz and Tompost.

We also see that in November we will have to work hard on the research assignment that we have for the Delfland Water Board. This concerns the possibility of using salinated river sediment for the cultivation of trees and the production of Brickz.

But we also see that there is great interest in the research that we have carried out for the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals in order to establish expulsion as a fully-fledged instrument within nature management. We will also pay attention to it this month in the Leafy Green section of our Youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYkWYkgklUbIQVo1tv4nTng

What we also know for sure is that Tom Bade will give a lecture on sustainable roadside management for the Koninklijke Ginkelgroep on 2 November. However, we do not dare to predict whether it will be a success. The future will tell.

Finally: if something cannot be predicted, it is nature. It always surprises us. Of course, this also applies to the application of Brickz. As we have indicated, research by NIOO-KNAW led by Gerard Korthals has shown that the application of Brickz gave an enormous boost to the formation of mycorrhizae as well as a good root system in the cultivation and planting of trees. But recently we received a message from the manager of Twickel via Bosbalans that the oaks where we have applied the Brickz are doing better on the estate than the neighbors who have not received Brickz. Also see:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6856865291000008704/

That is more than two years after the application. We had predicted it, of course, but it’s nice when you’re right. That also offers hope for the future. In any case, we predict rain in November this year as well, so our Christmas hopes are not washed away. Have a nice month everyone.