THURSDAY, JAN 26, 2023: NOTE TO FILE
Module 3-17
Seedballs
The wide ranging use of Seedballs was rediscovered by the Japanese Natural Farming pioneer Masanobu Fukuoka as he sought solutions to green the deserts. Historical attempts to seed vast areas via aerial methods proved ineffective for various reasons, primarily due insects and rodents eating the seeds, which in turn caused a proliferation of rodents. Fukuoka analysed these approaches and enhanced an ancient technique to coat the seeds within a clay ball with compost, which rodents would not eat. This method has been successfully tested by Fukuoka and other researchers, and written about in the book, “Sowing Seeds in the Desert”. The seedball methodology has been successfully replicated and enhanced by several development agencies around the world.
The construction of seedballs of between 10 to 80 mm proved successful when made with a 50/50 mixture of clay and compost and watered with nutrient rich worm tea and/or effective micro-organisms. More recently, bits of biochar and mycelium have also been added to the seedball mix. The dispersal of these seedballs, usually by hand and sometimes aerially, would see them roll into suitable niches where they would wait until the perfect conditions manifested, usually the first rains. Thereafter, the first rains would moisten the seedball, allowing water infiltration, thereby sparking the seed(s) to grow, and burst forth in a dissolving seedball making a nest of compost, biochar and mycelium, the perfect ingredients to flourish in nature. A development agency which is successfully using seedballs, is Seedballs Kenya, whose experience is documented in this short video (5 mins).
In recent years, drone technology has been developed using paintball gun methods to drill the seedballs precisely where planned, for example, along swales, a food forest plan, etc. The efficiency and cost effectiveness of drones have the potential to cover vast areas with seedballs as part of massive reforestation programmes. However, despite this potential, one also needs to ensure that such impressive technology is used for good intentions and not to replace destroyed forests with plantations, but rather, to plant guilds of trees that can grow symbiotically into a forest, such as shown in the short video (2 mins) from Dronecoria: Open Source Restoration.
Plate 4.12: Seedballs, source, Seedballs Kenya
Module 3, lesson 18
