The Science of Biodynamic Agriculture By Hugh Lovel Biodynamic Agriculture is a comprehensive method of self-sufficient agriculture that produces exceedingly nutritious food. It grew out of Rudolf Steiner’s agriculture lectures which were given in response to the chemical methods introduced in the mid nineteenth century. Steiner’s understanding of the roles of carbon, nitrogen…
Boron’s Role in Silica Uptake
Dear Andrew, To the best of my knowledge, chemists and ag scientists doing research on the mechanism of boron’s working in plants has been few. It has been widely observed, discussed and research that boron is necessary for the uptake of calcium. I myself spent 30 years figuring out how boron worked, and I…
Boron’s role in sap uptake
I realize Marschner doesn’t make the role of boron very clear. I refer to Marschner’s second edition on silicon, pages 417 – 426. Marschner classifies silicon as ‘beneficial’ rather than essential. Boron he considers essential, pages 379 – 396. Although he acknowledges their close similarity, he doesn’t make the connection I do. And Marschner is,…
Steiner Agriculture Lecture One Biodynamic Preparations
I talked about how the spraying of BD preps sews an organizational field where the sprays are applied, and this sucks the latent (nascent, chaotic) forces from disorder into more organized activity. The 500 is sprayed–generally in the evening as the dew falls–on the soil in large droplets so it is absorbed. It can be…
Homemade Phosphorus Fertilizer
Verily, bones should never be wasted, and phosphorous fertiliser production as part of a self-sufficient operation may require burning them. Gardeners may find they can process left over bones through their wood heaters. In general, burned bones may come from almost any source, and some will burn more easily than others. Burnt bones can be…
Definition of Biodynamics
WHAT IS BIODYNAMIC AGRICULTURE? BIODYNAMIC AXGRICULTURE: Bio (life) dynamic (processes); Biodynamic agriculture involves working with life processes. This does not mean physical substance or chemistry are ignored. The biodynamic approach to agriculture emphasizes life processes which have potent organisational (syntropic) effects to engage minerals and chemical reactions. The use of what are called ‘biodynamic…
Making Rain
The Dallas/Austin Drive and RAIN Shabari and I flew in to Georgia from Australia and after less than a week of settling in at Bird’s Nest, planting gardens and preparing for the Weston A. Price convention we drove out to Dallas. The Weston A. Price convention was awesome with something like 1,500 attendees and…
Biodynamic Tree Paste
Biodynamic Tree Paste© By Hugh Lovel In the US back in the 50s and 60s most highways were 2 lane rural affairs, and on our family’s summer vacations it was common to see orchards where one or another sort of lime wash was painted on the tree trunks up at least to the first limbs….
Replacing Soil Nutrients: A failure of Observation
Steve Solomon in Tasmania writes: Friends, I have put Tiedjens “Olena Farm” into the ag library at soilandhealth.org and am working on his “More Food From Soil Science” right now. It should be online in a few days. There is also a small collection of Tiedjens articles (and related items). If anyone has any other…
Soil Fertility: How to achieve; more discussion on Boron and other minerals; Biodynamic application
Re: boron application w/ prep. 500 or 501/Too much boron? Dear Michael, I need to thank you for correcting my mistake in treating borax the same as solubor. That was a mistake and I acknowledge it. I like your idea of lacing the horn preparations—particularly horn clay if you make that—with a…
Quantum Agriculture 