>So how's it going since you wrote this Paul?
Last spring I scattered seeds for a couple of thing in different areas. The
only thing I pelletized was some commercial wildflower seeds that I planted
along the driveway.
Most of the open-ish land I have is in native warm season grasses�mostly
not very productive types. I figured the seeds I tossed would have a
head start on the grass, so I just scattered the seeds. I was going to
do more, but I got very ill and came back here to Virginia without getting
much done. Shortly after I left Missouri I knew that some crops like
the corn were doomed because the warm spell ended and the area had a wet
and cool spring.
A few weeks after I got back I knew the clover, alfalfa and most other
crops wouldn't do well either. I got the soil tests and the pH was 4.4.
I spent nearly a month in bed and it was mid-summer and into the drought
by the time I returned to the farm.
A few shallots, asparagus, some garlic that I had planted in beds and some
were alive, but not well. The only things that I planted at random that
made it were a few sunflowers (there were sunflowers sprouting when I left,
I don't know what did them in) and a mixture of legumes and turnips that
happened to land near enough to a pile of ashes from my burning a brush
pile.
When I was there in July, I spread some limestone powder in the area
where I want to put the main garden. The soil test also showed I was
real low in magnesium, so I also spread some Epsom salts. I need to
spread both over a wider area soon.
I'm assuming since things did rather well on the edge of the ash pile
that my biggest problem was the pH and that can be fixed easily enough.
I used powdered limestone rather than hydrated lime since it's longer
acting and harder to over-apply, but I'll probably give the area a
dusting of hydrated lime this spring. I'll also be spreading some
blood meal and/or slaughterhouse tankage.
Although last year's efforts didn't lead to much, it actually encourages
me that anything at all grew. Like I said in the long post, I will be
putting in a more conventional garden until I get my wild garden going.
>
>A couple of quick comments - I too am turned off by the hocus pocus aspects
>of BioDynamics HOWEVER
>1. you don't need to buy in the preparations, in fact BD friends tell me
>that they don't think the bought in ones work and that they are only
>effective if you make them yourself on site which brings me to
>2. Don't know about the stellar influences but the lunar ones are well
>documented - I've tried it both ways and moon planting works for me. I
The only trial I know of where all other things were the same compared
planting by the moon, planting by how many days before or after the
average last frost date and planting by soil temperature. Planting by
soil temperature was the most reliable. Planting by the moon was the
least reliable. That was only one trial, I don't remember who did it,
but it may have been Rhodel. (or how ever you spell the people who did
Organic Gardening magazine.)
>think the preparations are essentially cultures of all the various aspects
>of the micro herd present on the land in the first place and are thus - I
>was going to say vaccinations, but realised that by the time was has
>diluted and stirred them in the appropriate manner they are homeopathic
>preparations - develope the natural health of the land and crops
A small inoculation of the right stuff could grow and spread, but they
don't seem to �prime' the preparations with anything. They could be
doing so on a hit-or-miss basis without realizing it though.
>3. I happen to know a very, very, good organic farmer and a very, very good
>BD farmer who have side by side tiny farms on identical slices of hillside
>and bottom land. They get very, very similar quantities of crops off the
>land but by the ultimate test - my kids blind tasting - the BD stuff tastes
>best
Taste tests are hard to do in a meaningful way. Were the varieties the
same? Where they picked at the same ripeness? Did the crops get the
same amount of sun? I'm sure growing methods do have an effect on
taste, but so do many other things.
>Having said which I'm too lazy to get into the detail of observation
>necessary to do BD and whilst I happen to be an organic certification
>manager on my own plot I just do what comes naturally. Which is a mixture
>of no-till, square foot, stick it in a handy spot etc. Our only input is
>organic straw and some organic chicken feed. Apart from the chickens we are
>currently stock free until I can raise time and cash to make sure sheep
>can't raze the garden (again) on 3 acres. We don't raise grain, because the
>wildlife always gets it, but otherwise we have, in the past, been
If you want to raise grain for animal feed, have you looked into other
things? Sunflowers that droop before they ripen are one example of a
crop that gets less damaged than others. Beared barley does well too.
>self-sufficient in food and got a useful income as well - certainly enough
>to more than cover capital outlay. (Why we aren't doing this now is another
>story)
>
>kathryn
==>paul
