Making and Using Seed Pellets
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ต.ค. 2019
- This Q&A is pulled from a collection of questions posed to me by students of my Online Permaculture Design Course (PDC). Learn more with my free four-part Masterclass series, here:
www.discoverpermaculture.com/...
Question:
Can you show us seed pellets being made? That would help me understand how much slurry per seed I think. I'm also not sure I grasp how many seeds should be per pellet, and how we distribute them evenly over an area. Is this all done with machinery? How many pellets should I make for 1 acre?
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I was quite intrigued by this and really enjoyed the comment about “ War on degradated soil”
I absolutely love this idea! Made food, not war ❤
this is the kinda guy that i could become best friends with
Hope to see an update of Greening the Desert II for 2019. Have followed this faithfully for all these years. Good job!
I like your idea for spreading the seed balls I wish military would do that
In this video, Mary has several questions about making seed pellets for reforestation or soil restoration. She wants to understand how to make these pellets, how much slurry (a mixture of seeds and clay) to use per seed, and how to evenly distribute them over an area. The speaker explains that the approach depends on the specific environment; for deserts, you need sturdy seed balls that won't break down until a significant rain event, while different mixtures are needed for subtropical regions or damaged ground.
The process involves mixing seeds with damp clay, potentially adding a bitter tea to deter animals from eating the seeds, and then rolling them into seed pellets by hand or with machines. The speaker demonstrates this process with cow pea, grain sorghum, and molokhia seeds. Once dry, these seed pellets become hard like marbles and can be dispersed using various methods, including fertilizer spreaders or even military equipment like helicopter gunships.
The speaker also suggests the idea of using military resources to reforest poverty-stricken countries by "bombing" their deserts with seed pellets, turning them into edible forests. The video concludes with a demonstration of testing a seed pellet by submerging it in water to check its durability.
Was shocked to hear you say molokhiyya at 2:29 (but then I remembered your history in the Middle East haha). I grew up eating it and it is one of my favourites! I miss it terribly.
Great idea, If we could get people on this planet to listen, more creative Ideas the faster we can green the planet again.
I have a different take on this in mind, I'm not sure how well it would work. Instead of clay, I would use a slurry of cardboard from egg flats to be pressed and dried into half shells, perhaps containing fertilizer, and/or minerals. The 'yolk' would be soil with microscopical fungi and seeds, and possibly more ingredients like bio-char. The 2 halves could be glued together with honey, clay, or some other natural glue. Depending on the season, you could add a clay shell and a char powder to deter animals from eating it. Would this all be overkill? The idea behind this approach is to have the shell dissolve as soon as possible and retain moisture. I feel like clay on its own may pull moisture away from the seeds if conditions aren't right.
Seems like over kill. I would use Elmer’s or hide glue, honey might attract something. A clay ball isn’t going to dry enough to kill the seeds very easily.
So interesting you’ve posted this video I was thinking of doing this earlier on and how effective it could be.
So much great information.
Great idea - I'll try that ! In the 18th and 19th century in various parts of the UK, canons were used to fire tree seeds across valleys - and it worked well ! Not sure how much clay was used, but something must have been used - I've heard talk of a barrel being used, that split open upon impact ? The trees do look good 250 years later ! Derbyshire valleys were one place - Scotland too.
I had no idea! That is so cool.
Cob would probably work
Explosives were used to make the holes for planting trees in Canberra, Australia.
Love the food gun idea! I didn't think the seeds would be preserved in moist clay - perhaps that they would start germinating? mmm
Fascinating. :)
:-) another great video buddy
:-) another great video my friend.
💕✌✌💐
Wow Geoff I got goosebumps thinking of bombing deserts with forests
I think Thailand has been using helicopters to plant from the sky.
@@theresadailey5809
Oh OK doesn't surprise me!
Thai people are naturally pious I think😉✌
With Geoff speaking about re-tasking military action. I heard an interesting statement the other day. If just 60 days of global military spending was set aside (approx. US$ 300 billion). We could restore all the worlds farmland to regenerative agriculture and make a good start on restoring all the degraded lands back into functioning ecosystems. Not sure how true this statement is, but the figures probably come close. Humanity is very confusing.
Seed planting drones!
The war on soil 🤯
I've known about this method for a while and my husband and I were considering using it in our annual garden. But it just hit me that we probably have an area where this technique would work even better. We've been sowing a chicken forage cover in our back yard to increase the diversity for them and had been using a seed spreader. The problem is that we would have to time the broadcast just before the rain and often times the wild turkeys and crows would eat most of it. I like the idea of using a tea to cover the smell. I wonder how much this method would help our germination rates. And I like the fact that the seed balls will hold up until the next rain. We may have to play with it, though I think hand rolling would be time consuming. I have seen people use tarps to roll the seed balls more efficiently.
I saw someone making a clay and seed mixture and pushing it through a wire mesh, like chicken netting. Out came the even sized blobs, which I think they then rolled a bit more.
You could also try making them in a mould maybe long sausages that you chop up or in mini muffin tins or ice cube trays
I saw a video today where the seed balls were covered in charcoal powder to deter wild animals. That could work for you.
There is a TH-camr called Mr Beast who is heading up a project to plant 20 million trees to celebrate a subscriber milestone and heaps of other TH-camrs are helping spread the message. A youtuber called Mark Rober has a video that shows drone technology being used with seed pucks to plant on difficult terrain. It's so cool!
Can you use clay to preserve seeds for storage? Make a bunch of seed balls to save for later or for conservation? Or does the clay hurt the seeds and make them crack as it dries?
Correction; devastated soils.
why use multiple different seeds per ball?
Jack Higgs I guess it’s for a variety not putting all your eggs in one basket I guess in case one fails
@@sweetvuvuzela4634 Thought so, thank you :)
Multiple kinds of seeds, create a polyculture. Polycultures work together to restore landscapes. Monocultures examples are corn fields, soy fields, almond orchards, etc. Anywhere where one main crop is favored over diversity. Nature doesn't do monocultures.
When the different varieties germinate, they help each other out, and ensure that at least something will grow where the pellet or seed ball lands.
I've used up to 16 different varieties of seeds in my seed pellets and cover crop seeding. Where the goal is to get something growing where nothing is, anything is better than nothing.
Also, think of it as building a "seed bank" where there isn't one. Sometimes the seeds will germinate after multiple years in the ground when conditions for that particular seed are favorable.
James Kniskern makes more sense different habitats and companion planting
@@jameskniskern2261 great explanation thank you!
Great 👏 Simple as fukuoka seed bombs.
Excellent video thanks from Enfield United Kingdom genius make Land great again abundant animals and birds will come again as well use weapons of destruction to good use.
Not sure the pellet would resist the firing of a minigun, it would probably collapse..