Published results & practical experience
A practical way to bring biodynamic preparations into your composting routine.
Pfeiffer Compost Starter is a prepared inoculant for compost materials. Published accounts describe its use in garden heaps and farm windrows, offering practical examples of the product at work.1, 2, 3
A garden-heap comparison
In a report published in English in 1967, Katharina Hanke compared two heaps made from the same plant wastes. One received Pfeiffer's B.D. Compost Starter; the other received the individual biodynamic preparations.
After five weeks Heap No. 1 was completely rotted, while Heap No. 2 was still in the midst of the process.2
This was a two-heap observation, with one heap per treatment and no untreated heap. “Completely rotted” was the author's assessment. When the finished composts were used for lettuce and kohlrabi, she observed no difference in growth or total production.2
A farm windrow routine
Patricia Smith's 2003 interview with Joe Francis describes three windrows of roughly fifty tons each, built from cow manure and hay. Francis used Compost Starter during construction and turned the material every seven days. The account reported compost ready for use after twenty-one days.3
The timing belongs to that farm's materials and management. The interview does not provide an untreated comparison or a standardized compost-maturity test.3
Put the experience to work
Use the current product instructions to prepare and apply Compost Starter. Keep track of your feedstocks, moisture, turning dates and progress toward readiness. Published experiences provide useful comparisons for your own composting routine.12
Sources for this product section
- Josephine Porter Institute, current product descriptions: Biodynamic Pfeiffer Compost Starter and Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray. Consulted September 27, 2026. These identify current products and intended applications; the historical comparisons are documented separately below.
- Katharina Hanke, "An Experiment with Dr. Pfeiffer's B.D. Compost Starter," translated by Norman Macbeth, Bio-Dynamics 82 (Spring 1967), pp. 25-26; quotation and crop observations p. 26. Reprinted from Lebendige Erde, March/April 1967. One heap per treatment.
- Patricia Smith, "Interview with Joe Francis," Applied Biodynamics 40 (Spring 2003), pp. 3-6; windrow process pp. 4 and 6; twenty-one-day quotation p. 6. Practitioner interview.
- Josephine Porter Institute, Pfeiffer Compost Starter instructions, Field and Garden Spray instructions, and preparation-instructions directory. Consulted September 27, 2026. Use the current instructions supplied for the product being applied.