Biodynamic preparations – buy them or prepare them yourself?

[Rhys]

Charles

I read your May monthly update where you talked about applying Biodynamic Preparation 500 to your garden.

I’ve done reading on the subject in the past and it all sounded terribly difficult to create the stuff yourself.

Do you buy your preparations and if so, would you recommend any reliable suppliers??

Also, what sort of water sources do you use when you make them up??

[charles]

You are right its difficult for gardeners so I buy it from the BDAA and its not too pricey.
You are supposed to use well water or rainwater which has stood a while but mine was recent rainwater. More than that, a good state of mind seems important to me.

[Hawfinch]

I also bought from the Biodynamic Association. They were very helpful and efficient. Making your own preparations is rather difficult, I wouldn’t know where to get the cow horns to start with. And as Charles writes, it really isn’t expensive buying from them.

[Steve]

Charles,

You make brief mention of using Preparation 500 in your Veg course book and also make reference in your most recent news update. Have you evidence of it’s efficacy because you appear to have a philosophy very much based on fact.

[charles]

The biodynamic preparations are something I feel to be highly worthwhile, but have no statistical evidence about.
The anecdotal reports from thousands of farmers suggest they have strongly beneficial qualities for soil and plants. But the way they work appears to be outside the realm of contemporary scientific measurement.
I come across scientists who are maddened by biodynamics because they cannot measure its effects or how it works: one professor declined to review my Myths book because it mentions biodynamics. Actually the Myths book has no mention of biodynamics but does mention planting by the moon, which is a separate thing altogether.

[Rhys]

Charles

I guess one way you could test BD500 would be to do a new 2 bed experiment with BD500 or no BD500 after you start new beds with 6 inches compost.

One thing people do say is that you only see the effect of root/fruit/leaf days on soil which is ‘alive’, so I suppose you could see if radish/carrot etc sowings are only affected by root/non-root days if you treat soil first with BD500.

The real question is how many seasons of BD500 you need before the soil is ‘alive’. My hunch would two or three, but it might be quicker….

[charles]

If I had more time, it would be fascinating.
Actually my soil is alive, I know that. Most if not all soil is alive, with all of the micro and macro organisms, but with what energies is another matter.
Since our current version of science cannot measure some of this energy, it’s a contentious subject! Yes, a two bed trial would be good, just to see.
Anybody else fancy a go at that?

[Rhys]

Yes, there is alive, as in teeming with micro-organisms, worms, fungi etc, which most readers here will enjoy; and ‘alive’, a word of indeterminate definition used by early biodynamics practitioners to imply some form of responsiveness to cosmic forces of the soil and, through the soil, of plants sown/planted there.

Perish the thought that you imagined me saying that your soil is not teeming with healthy organisms. Having attended one of your courses, I would have been denying the evidence of my own eyes to contend thus.

I always thought it presumptuous as a minion to frame the terminology for experts, but if by using standard literature terminology I am causing offence, then perhaps in future I shall have to….

Or just stop contributing of course, especially if I have now served my purpose…..

[charles]

Words have so many meanings!
Rhys, heaven forbid that you stop contributing, your observations are always interesting, and have the benefit of increasing perspective too.
Also who are experts? That is a tricky word!

[Stringfellow]

Time….so much to explore but so little time to experience it.

Do keep posting Rhys; I appreciate your input and it is a shame that other knowledgable regulars are more distant nowadays. Probably off exploring somewhere….

[Steve]

Charles,

Can I ask what prompted you to start using these preparations and what results/changes/improvements have you experienced?

I must confess I am intrigued with the philosophy of BG but I have just commenced working on a plot that presently has had it’s first manure/compost mulch and so I am looking forward to seeing the results, this coming growing season.

[charles]

The bd preps are one of many things I do to improve growth, along with no dig and compost mulch, so it’s difficult to attribute results.
I have visited some excellent b.d holdings over the years and the anecdotal weight of evidence suggests that it’s worth pursuing.
Being more precise than that is difficult!
Whatever, the main thing for me is always feeding soil organisms, and not disturbing them.

[Author]

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