SEED BALLS FOR
GREENING INDIA
“Don’t expect anything,
just make seed balls,
Nature will teach you.”
- Masanobu Fukuoka Copyright 1996 C. R. Jeavons,
courtesy of Jim Bones's Seed
Balls.com
IMAGINE FARMING WHICH INVOLVES…
…no Tillage
…no Fertilizer
…no Pesticides
…no Weeding
…no Pruning
…remarkably little Labour
DIFFICULT? ISN’T IT?
THE NATURAL FARMER…
Masanobu Fukuoka, a microbiologist from Japan,
describes ‘No Cultivation’ in his book ‘One Straw
Revolution’. He believes that cultivation and ploughing
are soil’s biggest enemies. He accomplishes high yields
by careful timing of his seeding and careful
combinations of plants (polyculture).
Natural Resource Management is a set of practices
pertaining to maintaining natural systems integrity.
‘Natural Farming’ is the best route to move in that
direction.
HOW TO MAKE SEED BALLS
STEP 1: INGREDIENTS
One part - dry mixed
seeds
Three parts - dry compost
with fungi and soil
microbes (plant compost,
not animal manure)
Five parts - dry red or
brown clay, finely
powdered and sifted
STEP 2: MIXING INGERDIENTS
First, mix seed mixed with dry compost.
Then, add clay to the above mix. Blend
everything together well. Next, mix water onto
the mixture while stirring. Spray just enough
water to allow the mixture to stick/bind
together.
Take a pinch of the finished mixture and
roll (in the palm of your hand) into pennysized round balls.
STEP 3: DRYING
Put seed balls in the sun to dry
completely for a day or two.
Use used paper, cardboard, straw,
etc for storage.
STEP 4: SCATTERING
Broadcast seed balls onto area to be
revegetated. Water or wait for rain to
allow seeds to germinate. A minimum
application seeks a scatter density of
at least 10 seed balls per square metre,
to establish trigger points from which
the vegetation can spread.
STEP 5: RESULT
With rainfall the clay coating melts and the seeds
germinate where the ball has landed. The seed
balls will stay put until the seedlings have a
chance to put down roots. The seed balls will
absorb moisture from the ground, the dew and the
rain and will sprout when conditions are right.
Many seeds will grow from a single seed ball and
the plant most suited to the micro-conditions of
that site will prevail.
BASIL SEED
BALLS
1. Seed balls are simply scattered direct onto ground, and
not planted.
2. They could be useful for seeding dry, thin and
compacted soils.
3. For reclaiming derelict ground.
4. This method takes a fraction of the time or cost of
other methods to cover large areas and is also very
applicable in small areas.
5. Seed balls are particularly useful in dry and arid areas
where rainfall is highly unpredictable.
www.primalseeds.org
SEED BALLS PROTECT SEEDS FROM1.
Winds…which blow them away
2.
Birds and rodents…which eat them
3.
Hot sun…which bakes their vitality out
4.
Excessive rain…which carries them off
Bangalore seed ball campaign gets rolling
…
Bangalore: It just takes one seed to set the ball
rolling — that's the idea behind the seed ball
campaign started by a Bangalore-based NGO,
Alt Tech Foundation, to clean the city's air.
The seed ball campaign will enable the reforestation that we all are trying to do.
The campaign was launched on June 5, World
Environment Day, with corporate houses,
schools and citizens eagerly participating in the
programme.
Indigenous varieties like neem, honge and
sampige are some of the seeds chosen.
SOURCE: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/blore-seed-ball-campaign-getsrolling/12561-3.html
TRUE SOLUTION…
"When a decision is made to cope
with the symptoms of a problem, it
is generally assumed that the
corrective measures will solve the
problem itself. They seldom do.
Engineers cannot seem to get this
through their heads. These
countermeasures are all based on
too narrow a definition of what is
wrong. Human measures and
countermeasures proceed from
limited scientific truth and
judgment. A true solution can
never come about in this way."
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• C:\Documents and Settings\u306014\Desktop\Google Image Result for http-www_tve_org-images-janus-uploaded-MakingHayWithClay2_jpg.htm
• http://www.pathtofreedom.com/pathproject/gardening/seedballs.shtml
• C:\Documents and Settings\u306014\Desktop\SEEDBALLS for greening India\Seed balls
for greening India.htm
• C:\Documents and Settings\u306014\Desktop\Google Image Result for http-westbynorthwest_org-artman-uploads-seedballs2_jpg.htm
• http://www.ibnlive.com/news/blore-seed-ball-campaign-gets-rolling/12561-3.html
THANK YOU
ESHA AGARWAL
PGPRM
ROLL NO. 14