About SPeS: From Backyard Experiments to BunduTeq Systems

Our Story – Ten Years of Following Nature

SPeS was never supposed to become a biological engineering project.

Not because we believed we had the answers… Because we kept discovering that nature already did.

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The History of Bundu Teq – We Didn’t Invent Bundu Teq

One of the biggest misconceptions about innovation is that it means inventing something entirely new. In reality, most breakthroughs come from seeing familiar things differently.

• Earthworms have been engineering soils for millions of years.
• Fungi have been recycling forests since long before humans existed.
• Microorganisms help build the atmosphere we breathe.
• The Amazon’s Terra Preta soils have remained fertile for thousands of years.

None of this is new.

Our contribution has simply been connecting these biological processes into a practical framework that anyone can build in a backyard.

Bundu Teq is therefore less an invention than a rediscovery.

Phase 1: The Hydroponic Initiative (2014-2019)

It started with the same disappointment many South Africans face—expensive hydroponic systems that demanded imported chemical inputs. We made our own Alpha and Omega Binary Nutrient Concentrate, fulfilling the Hoagland Formula for a full nutrient profile. But we knew there had to be a better way. Though “organic hydroponics” was considered impossible then…

“From Coke bottles to CEA dreams—solving the Hydroponic nutrient puzzle.”

Phase 2: The Mushroom Breakthrough (2019-2022)

While searching for ways to utilize agricultural waste, we stumbled into mushroom cultivation, and a whole variety of Gourmet Mushrooms—not grown on manure! After countless contaminated batches, the BioaKt discovery changed everything. Bundu Tek pasteurization with specific Calcium compounds created selective substrates with no contamination…

“Waste to wonder: Cracking contamination for SA’s unconventional substrates.”

Phase 3: The Vermicomposting Revelation (2023)

This was the missing link that made everything circular. When we started feeding spent mushroom substrate to worms, something magical happened. The worms not only processed it but created the most incredible vermicompost we’d ever seen. More importantly, we discovered this vermicompost could solve our original hydroponics problem.

“Worms as wizards: Turning spent substrate into VermiPonics.”

Phase 4: Closing the Circle – VermiPonics (2024)

The final breakthrough wasn’t about complicated systems—it was about simplicity itself. Vermicompost in the growing media as nutrient source, with bottom-feeding delivering clean water. No more chemical nutrients, no more complicated dosing schedules. Just pure, organic growth powered by the complete nutrient spectrum in VermiPonics.

“Bottom-fed brilliance: Organic hydroponics, earthworm bio-engineer edition.”

Phase 5: Soil Renaissance – VermiCHARged BAM! (2025)

Building on VermiPonics’ simplicity, our latest STS breakthrough fuses vermicompost’s living microbes with biochar’s eternal structure: VermiCHARged BAM!—a “microbial hotel” that turns Vermicast into a Biome supercharge for permanent Terra Preta fertility. Boosts yields up to 88%, enhances water retention by 13%, and cuts emissions by 30%.

“Biochar + BAM!: Centuries of soil Biome life, from one tub.”

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Every Failure Changed the Question

The Real Breakthrough

People often ask what the biggest discovery was.

We stopped trying to improve nature…

and started trying to understand it.

Once we viewed plants, fungi and microorganisms as cooperating biological systems rather than separate industries, the framework almost assembled itself.

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Why the Sustainability Testing Station Exists

The STS isn’t a laboratory designed to prove ideas.

It’s a workshop designed to break them.

Most innovations look impressive under perfect conditions.

We wanted to know what survived under imperfect ones.

Every failure became another experiment.

Every experiment became another lesson.

Eventually those lessons became STS Notes.

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Everything we share has first passed through our own hands. If something doesn’t work at the STS backyard…

it doesn’t belong in yours.

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The Journey Continues…

Because engineering biological independence isn’t about reaching the destination.

It’s about continually learning from nature.

One growing season at a time.

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STAY SAFE…