Biodynamic agriculture

Fertilizers

Steiner prescribed eight different preparations for fertilizers which were allowed for use in biodynamic agriculture, and gave great details of how these were to be prepared. The substances are numbered 500 through 507, whereof the first two are used for preparing fields whereas the latter six are used for making compost:

Related Topics:
Fertilizer - Compost

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Field preparations

Field preparations, for stimulating humus formation:

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• 500: (horn-manure) a humus mixture prepared by stuffing cow manure into the horn of a cow, bury this into the ground (40-60 cm below the surface) in the autumn and let it decompose during a winter.
• 501: prepared by stuffing the horn of a cow with powdered quartz, dispose it into the ground at summer and retrieve it in late autumn.

Both 500 and 501 is used on fields by stirring the contents of a horn in 40-60 litres of water for an hour and whirl it in different directions every second minute. About 4 horns are used for each hectare of soil.

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Compost preparations

Compost preparations, used for preparing compost:

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• 502: Yarrow blossoms (Achillea millefolium) are stuffed into urinary bladders from Cervus elaphus, Red Deers, placed in the sun during summer, buried in earth during winter and retrieved in the spring.
• 503: Chamomile blossoms (Chamomilla officinalis) are stuffed into small intestines from cattle buried in humus-rich earth in the autumn and retrieved in the spring.
• 504: Stinging nettle (Urtica dioca, and the whole plant in full bloom) is stuffed together under ground surrounded on all sides by peat for a year.
• 505: Oak bark (Quercus robur) is chopped in small pieces, placed inside the skull of some domesticated animal, surrounded by peat and buried in earth in a place where lots of rain water runs by.
• 506: Dandelion flowers (Taraxacum officinale) is stuffed into peritoneum from some cattle is buried in earth during winter and retrieved in the spring.
• 507: Valerian flowers (Valeriana officinalis) is extracted into water.

One to three grams (a teaspoon) of each preparation is added to a dung heap by digging 50 cm deep holes with a distance of 2 meters from each other, except for the 507 preparation, which is stirred into 5 litres of water and sprayed over the entire compost surface. All preparations are thus used in homeopathic quantities, and the only intent is to strengthen the life forces of the farm, i.e. the preparations fulfill spiritual goals and nothing else.

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