Seedballs

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this info used to be found at http://seedballs.com good thing someone made a backup

SEED BALLS ~ A NEW TOOL FOR REVEGETATION

Presented By:
Hillary Loring, Field Ecologist
Dee Ford Perkins, Soil and Water Microbiologist
Of The Adobe Seed Ball Consortium


In arid areas, germination of seeds is often quite difficult. The wind blows seed away from the site, rain washes seed into arroyos, the desert heat diminishes the viability of the seed embryos. Rodents, birds and insects consume much of the exposed seed.

Seed balls take care of all these problems. Appropriate seed mixtures are encased in a ball of red clay and soil humus. The clay protects the seeds from the drying sun, rodents, birds and insects until sufficient rains come. The rains melt the clay, allowing the seeds to sprout protected within a mini environment of the nutrients and beneficial soil microbes found in the humus and clay. Although not all seedlings within a seed ball will survive to maturity, the appropriate species for each micro location will be there to survive.

Seed balls have four basic components - mixed seeds, soil humus, red clay and water. For restoration purposes, native seeds are mixed together, then in the correct proportions, the seed blend, humus, clay and water are mixed and rolled into small (1/2" diameter) clay balls. Seed balls can be made either by hand or by simple machine, depending on labor availability. They are dried in the open air for 24 to 48 hours after which they are ready for broadcasting or short term storage. It takes at least 10 seed balls per square meter, or about 1 per square foot to establish trigger points from which the vegetation can spread.

Our unique, simplified approach to making seed balls was inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka, who is considered the founder of Natural Farming. He has worked for over fifty years, throughout the world, implementing this beautifully simple method of rehabilitating damaged lands. His methodology is derived directly from observing Nature's ingenuity at work in any sort of situation. He has been applying seed ball strategies for arid and desertified, as well as marginal agricultural areas, throughout the world. Not only does it restore natural habitat, it can also provide a way for all people to begin growing their own fiber and food, sustainably. This cheap, low maintenance method of revegetation and agriculture requires no water, other than natural rainfall.

At this time, several test sites utilizing seed balls are being monitored. In 1996 the BLM, Rio Grande Restoration, members of Adobe Seed Ball Consortium and hundreds of community volunteers, made and scattered more than 12,000 seed balls along the Rio Grande near Pilar, New Mexico. In addition a series of test plots were setup by Riverway along the Santa Fe River. Plots within a grid were randomly selected to receive one of four treatments:
1. seed balls on imprinted ground
2. seed balls on bare ground
3. hand broadcast loose seed on bare ground, and
4. a control with no treatment.
Early results indicate that native vegetation covered 20-70% of the seed ball plots. A demonstration site was established in Big Bend National Park, Texas and at Sul Ross State University (Alpine, Texas). Other tests are in progress. Inquires about potential test and reclamation sites are welcome.


PLEASE CONTACT:
ADOBE SEED BALL CONSULTANTS CONSORTIUM
P.O. BOX 101 Tesuque, N.M. 87574
Tel/Fax: (505) 955-0956
e-mail -- jimbones@seedballs.com
All Photographs And Text Copyright (C) 1996 Jim Bones (Unless Otherwise Indicated) Box 101, Tesuque, N.M. 87574 (505-955-0956)
"Light Writings" http://www.seedballs.com

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Natural Farming With Seed Balls

"You know that daikon radish seeds are in hard shells, well, I noticed that when they drop on the ground, they decay as they start to sprout. So I realized if they need a shell like that, then clay can be the shell for a ball with many seeds inside. Seed balls need at least one hundred kinds of seeds. One seed eventually makes ten thousand seeds. If you sow seed balls, and wait three years, you will understand what Nature is. It works much better than reading books about Natural Farming. Seed balls are a small universe in themselves. I have written six books, but I was unable to express what Nature is in words. So I decided to manifest Nature in form. A seed ball is a one centimeter model of a Natural Farm, with trees, fruits, vegetables and grains. I do not say my one hundred kinds of seeds are the best. It is just an entrance to Natural Farming."

"I love best to give children boxes of seeds as gifts because they scatter them so innocently. Sow seed balls with a child-like mind whenever, wherever, without judging the first year. During the second year birds or bugs will carry the seeds from the plants and sow them naturally for you. So in the third year you will get a natural design. Children sometimes sow seeds in unexpected places, and that brings us to a big discovery that we never even considered. Even if ninety-nine percent fail, and only one percent succeed, that will take us to new possibilities. If you use human wisdom, you will only achieve the result you expect. Give yourself to whatever you do one hundred percent or not at all, and do not doubt. Everything will be all right. Just spread seed balls and Nature will do the rest." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

Think of it! A Whole Habitat in a tiny clay ball.

Daikon radish seeds sprouting from rain soaked clay seed balls, Iyo, Japan.

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I. What They Are And How To Make Them

Seed Balls are one half inch diameter models of the living world. They can contain all the seeds for a complete habitat, or a wild or domestic garden. In a holographic way Each ball can contain the whole plant potential of the entire ecosystem. They require a fraction of the cost of planting or drilling and are hundreds of times faster. They can be made by anyone anywhere in the world where there is clay, soil, seed and water. Seed balls work on all scales, small to large, and can be air dropped over broad areas! Hundreds of kinds of mixed seeds, soil humus and dry powdered red clay, form the solid components of seed balls. When mixed with water and rolled into balls, they become little Adobe Gardens.


Mixing Proportions By Volume

1 Part : Dry Seeds Mix with all kinds of desired plants.
3 Parts : Dry Compost with Fungi and Soil Microbes, (plus 10% Natural Repellents).
5 Parts : Dry Red Clay, finely powdered and sifted, not gray or white clay.
* Mix ingredients DRY, turning and sifting to coat seeds with soil, then clay, then add:
1 to 2 Parts : Water added a little at a time until the clay mix is easily workable.
*Soil and water are the critical lowest common denominators, as they are in conventional agriculture.

After thoroughly stirring the seeds in a large flat container, and covering with dry soil humus from compost, dry clay is added and mixed well. In large batches, layer the seed and soil humus combination with clay to insure proper mixing. Water is then gradually added until a firm suitable consistency is reached for rolling clay into half inch diameter balls. Wet clay is pinched off the main mass and rolled between the palms of the hands until smooth and round. A transformation occurs within the balls as they are rolled, and after a few seconds the clay can be felt to set up or organize, as the tiny clay platelets align themselves to each other, and the seeds they enclose. It is important to roll the clay until this polymerization is felt. The balls then dry with structural integrity. Finished seed balls are tossed onto a tarp to harden undisturbed for at least 24 hours. When dry, seed balls may be stored in a cool ventilated place for weeks or immediately applied.

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II. How To Apply Them

Once they are dry, seed balls may be stored in a cool dry place, where they may breathe until they are spread abroad. Or they may be broadcast immediately after drying and allowed to lay dormant in place until released by timely rains. The seeds, along with essential soil humus, are already planted within the protective clay shells, so they do not need to be buried. They should not be watered unless you are going to continue to water them until natural rainfall takes over. The seed balls, however, are perfectly content to simply lay about "sleeping" until the right amount of rain falls to insure their success. When rains come, no matter where a seed ball has landed, something from the mix inside will be at home on the spot, so all possible habitat bases are covered in one broadcast application, and plant successions are accelerated by generations. A minimum application seeks a scatter density of at least 10 seed balls per square meter. Adequate coverage requires at least .20 grams of seeds per seed ball, or 2 grams of seeds per square meter minimum! Restoration requires at least 3 grams of seeds per square meter. One acre contains 43, 560 square feet, or 4, 050 square meters. Between 8 and 12 kilograms, or 20 to 30 pounds of mixed seeds are required per acre. One hectare contains 2.471 acres.

Protected from predatory insects, rodents, birds and other animals, seed balls lie dormant until sufficient rains fall to set them free and start their germination. Then hundreds of sprouts explode from each ball as they eagerly reach for the sun. There are many ways to make seed balls. Experiment! Be like a child and just try them. It's fun! Seed balls can contain wild habitats, gardens, edible landscapes, orchards and farms. The more you put out the faster Nature re-grows. Picture the world the way you want it, then make it so with seed balls.

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AN INTRODUCTION - PART A

Here is how to start if you want to make seed balls. Gather about 25-lbs. of local red or brown clay, like you might use for terracotta pots. Not white or bentonitic gray clay. Mr. Fukuoka is very specific about using red clay as it contains a broad diversity of minerals, especially the iron and manganese minerals. Some gray clays were deposited in anaerobic environments, and may contain sulfides and salts. Local clay is desirable if available, as it may have the local complement of mineral nutrients to which the native plants have already adapted. It is inadvisable to quarry clay in a way that will cause damage or lead to erosion.

The finest clay source I have found is by streams that flood and leave pools of still water to evaporate. The mud at the bottom often shrinks as it dries, and cracks into large pieces. At the very end of evaporation, delicate mud curls like broken pottery may form on the drying surface. These natural potsherds contain ceremonial quality clay. Gather them when they are dry. Brush off coarse sand and powder the pieces by grinding between concrete blocks, bricks or stones. The clay needs to be dry and loose. Sift it through a screen to remove large chunks. If there is no local source of clay nearby, you may order terracotta clay from ceramic supply companies.

Carefully collect about 5-lbs. of native seeds (grasses, wildflowers, shrubs, trees, etc., everything available from your local ecosystem, and whatever you want to re-introduce into your watershed.) Seeds are adapted to regional conditions of climate and soil. It is best to keep to seeds from your area as they are at home with things as they are and you will not set loose invasive plants that could damage native ecosystems. The best source is from the vicinity of the site itself. Often in natural situations no more than 10% of the seed produced succeeds in establishing itself, due to predators and erosion. By encapsulating seed from the site in seed balls the degree of success is increased geometrically without pesticides. Seed that would have been lost from the site is encouraged to grow instead. This germ plasm should be returned to the site rather than taken away. Finally, learn to propagate native seeds, how to collect, dry, process, and save them.

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AN INTRODUCTION - PART B

Begin growing a guild of micro-organisms in a compost pile. For this micro-guild, gather a little leaf litter from the bottom of the leaf floor, under all of the native trees and shrubs within your entire watershed. Look for the white mycelium filaments, often found at the interface between the decaying matter and the upper, organically rich soil layer. Fruiting bodies are welcome. Also gather a little duff from beneath the oldest grasses and shrubs found by stream banks. DO NOT TAKE ALL of the material from any one place. That would tear a large hole in the local biosystem. Take a handfull from here and there, then spread the surrounding duff over the cleared place. Make the ground look about like it did before you collected the sample. Understand that we cannot rely on wildcrafting to supply all our soil humus needs. We would quickly strip the forests and prairies of the long term organic wealth that represents their concentrated future fertility. Whole ecosystems could be unraveled over night by enthusiastic uninformed advocates.

Put the various samples in a dry bucket and mix thoroughly. Let stand for a few hours so the larger critters can crawl out. When the mix dries just a little, rub gently between your palms into a coarse powder. Put a little of this leaf litter mix at the bottom of your compost pile to inoculate the compost with beneficial organisms. They will grow and spread mycelium, spores and micro critters throughout. A few weeks to several months later, depending upon location and climate, you will be able to harvest a little of the essence as needed for inclusion in seed balls. Living soil humus is critical to success, especially in arid regions. If you have a great variety of environments on your site you may need to grow several kinds of compost each in its own locally conditioned bed. Soils from each different habitat such as wet riparian, dry grassland, humid forest and disturbed barrens, can be grown and kept in raised compost beds of straw, lumber, logs, stones or earth. Each bed can then approximate the natural conditions that are home to the "Little People" you invite into you restoration plans. They are the real "Natural Farmers" and you must make them comfortable if you wish to restore health to the land. Only they know how to make sterile soil fertile again, how to make seeds feel at home, and how to nourish tender plants.

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III. A Word Of Caution!

A Native American farmer and water expert advised caution with the use of Seed Balls. His people have used such a concept for a very long time and he does not think most people understand the magnitude of the forces involved in Seed Balls. Great damage and disorder could result from ignorant tinkering with primal powers. You roll all the forces of Nature into Seed Balls when you make them. They have tremendous regenerative powers and they can be of great benefit. But used carelessly or wantonly, Seed Balls can cause irreparable biological disruption by effectively introducing alien species into a habitat with no means of coping with rampant invaders. The world is already host to many incidents of introduced exotic species that have radically altered Native Landscapes everywhere. Be careful which seeds you choose and where you scatter them.

There are people who believe that at this time the world flora is already so mixed, due to intentional and unintentional cross introduction of species, it is too late to prevent the contamination of global habitats and that the rapid collapse of ecosystems is so serious we should in fact help spread all kinds of seeds everywhere, to allow Nature itself to re-establish new stable ecosystems. There are other people who believe it is still possible to preserve the old ecosystems intact and prevent further degradation of existing plant communities. This is a profound question, demanding world attention, philosophical, biological and spiritual. Humans are responsible for this confused situation, and while it is not easily resolvable, we cannot afford to simply ignore it.

It is in the dynamic nature of Nature itself to try to send life into all possible places to continue the evolution of species and the development of new ecosystems that can cope with continual changes in world climatic conditions. The incredible diversity of life we take for granted today is in part the result of the unprecedented sharing and swapping of species that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago when all the major continents were joined, as the great mega-continent Pangea assembled. Nature does not recognize the conceptual boundaries created by human thinking and will not be confined to the islands of parks and preserves established for our pleasures and intellectual or economic purposes.



The Way Of Nature

When I visited Masanobu Fukuoka and pressed him for details on how to make seed balls he finally replied with some irritation, that making seed balls is easy, but choosing the right seeds is the real problem. I believe he was referring to the same issues addressed by the Native American farmer. What must be intuitively understood and deeply respected before meddling in the forces and processes of Nature is the spiritual essence of a place. This requires reverence and humility and a willingness to be taught by Nature. We cannot achieve this by intellectual thinking or imposing our incomplete knowledge on the infinite reality of being. We may, however, be able to find harmony by surrendering our arrogance to the superior powers of Nature. As Masanobu Fukuoka advised, ask with an open heart and "Nature will teach you."

Two things of urgent importance everyone should understand are one, that "beyond the year 2005 the energy required to find and extract a barrel of oil will probably exceed the energy contained in the barrel," and two, "that a net deficit of organic matter currently exists to naturally feed the world's human population". We are oil dependent and it is running out. We have extinguished three quarters of the growing power of the earth's soils and choked the oceans in the process. There may no longer be enough organic matter to sustain each of us, even if all the trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers of the planet were shredded and spread as mulch or compost. In face of truth, how utterly hopeless to do anything but grow more plants that transform carbon from sunlight, air and water into roots and stems, leaves and flowers, to feed our starving world. I asked some children who were discussing their future in life how they remain cheerful. "If it's too late," one replied, "why waste my time being sad? And if it's not too late, maybe I can make a difference." Grow soil, grow plants, grow life, and we can each make a difference.

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Make Thousands Of Seed Balls Per Hour ~ A Revolutionary Approach To Large Scale Seed Ball Production

This Von Bachmayr Drum, designed and made by Alfred von Bachmayr, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is capable of making thousands of half inch (one centimeter) diameter seed balls per hour by nearly continuous process. A seed, soil, clay, mix is introduced into the rolling drum, water is sprayed in, and then the seed balls are "harvested" periodically as they "grow" to the desired size.

With this collapsible machine, one trained operator, under optimum conditions, can make enough seed balls for one acre in one day. Find out how seed balls can become a practical tool for your reclamation and agricultural work. No matter what form of growing you practice, you have to plant the seeds.

Seed balls offer the most site specific application of soil nutrients and amendments possible, and present a common organic denominator for all forms of growing. Modular task drums are available for making seed balls, compost, soil mix, and building materials. Drive options include gasoline, electric, steam, wind, water, pedal and animal power to name just a few. Desktop models made to order.

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Von Bachmayr Rotary Seed Ball Drum
Desired rotation rate is about 35 to 45 RPM.

(C)1997 Alfred von Bachmayr

Alfred von Bachmayr, Architect & Designer
1406 Bishops Lodge Road
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
Tel: 505-989-7000 - Fax: 505-984-1479

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here's another seedball page:
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/sces/seedballnz/

[mre420]

"Seed balls don't get planted. They are simply scattered about the site you wish to re-vegetate. They can be thrown, rolled, fired from a slingshot or dropped from a helicopter!" (from the seeballnz site)

[joe6pack]

hmmm... I've heard of a similar technique used in the UK - called "seed bombs"

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here's something similar I found in an organic gardening magazine a couple months ago:

Boil a tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with a cup of water, cool, pour into a sandwich bag. Gently add germinated seeds of your choice. To plant seeds snip off the corner of the bag and squeeze the seed-gel mix onto the prepared soil.

apparently the cornstarch holds some moisture, enough to get the plants off to a good start

[caddis]

Days are getting longer and that makes the tickle in my balls stronger....

more seed ball jazz.

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC14/Fukuoka.htm

[caddis]

Before throwing your balls all over creation make sure you're not adding any invasive species. Check local ag extension, or college for list of no-no species in your area.
Kinda takes the God like experiance of spreading different forms of live into an area though.

http://www.geog.ubc.ca/~brian/florae/invasives.html