Applied Biodynamics — Issue 011 (Spring 1995)

Applied Biodynamics Issue 011 (Spring 1995) centers on two practitioner accounts of direct seeding, JPI’s institutional transition, Hugh Courtney’s argument for adding compost preparations early, spring food writing, and reflections on preparation work.

Direct seeding at two market-garden scales

Charlie Townsend and Rick Walker answer the same five interview questions: what direct seeding means, whether they use biodynamic seed, seed soaks, compost or preparations, and a planting calendar. Their answers make two working systems easy to compare across scale, tools, seed soaks, compost, and preparation use.

Townsend describes about 7½ acres in Texas managed with a tractor, fall disking, ridge-tillage beds, cover crops, and direct planting behind a sweep that exposes fresh soil. Without a loader he does not make or spread compost. He instead reports winter applications of BD 500 horn manure and Barrel Compound, monthly Barrel Compound when field access permits, and spring BD 501 and BD 508. He reports improved university soil-test results compared with his first 1987 sampling while this cover-crop and preparation routine was in use.

Walker describes an intensive operation of slightly under one acre with fifteen beds. Ten beds are about 4 by 195 feet and five are 4 by 100 feet; lack of cold storage limits what he can harvest for Saturday market. He loosens soil about 12 inches deep without inversion, estimates four hours to fork one long bed, and applies roughly twelve wheelbarrow loads—or thirty five-gallon buckets—of compost to a 750-square-foot bed. He reports light composting two or three times per year, shallow tillage only when soil is dry, and seeding within a few days of spraying.

Walker modifies Earthway seed plates and uses perforated can lids to control sowing density. He reports greater than 95% germination from saved seed and describes seed soaks, dusting wet carrot seed with high-calcium limestone to make visible pellets, and using planting calendars when market timing permits. He also reports using BD 500, Barrel Compound, the BD 502–507 compost preparations, BD 501, and BD 508 horsetail. His account supplies specific bed dimensions, compost quantities, soil preparation, sowing tools, and crop observations for growers to adapt to their own conditions.

Early compost preparations and observed heap differences

Hugh Courtney argues for placing the biodynamic compost preparations in a pile early in its development. He quotes Maria Thun on comparable manure heaps with and without the preparations: the prepared heaps warmed to 26–30°C during the first week, while the unprepared heaps reached 60–70°C. In the quoted account, fungi permeated the prepared heaps after two months and red compost worms appeared two months later; the unprepared heaps reached a similar condition only after a year. Courtney presents these reported observations in support of early preparation placement. For present-day pile management, follow JPI’s current BD 502–507 instructions for placement, moisture, and temperature.

JPI’s transition and proposed permanent facility

Candace Coffin’s board report and Hugh Courtney’s “Reflections on the Past and Prospects for the Future at JPI” document staffing and infrastructure decisions. Nicholas Franceschelli was scheduled to leave the staff on March 31, 1995, and William Christopher Stearn to become assistant director on April 1. Courtney traces preparation-making from Josephine Porter’s work through JPI’s incorporation and direct assumption of the preparation program in 1992. He argues that a permanent building is needed for production, education, and research and proposes community “barn-raising” work parties and fundraising.