Keys To Building a Healthy Soil - Organic - Permaculture and Polyculture

If I had 5000 acres I would try to emulate this North Dakota rancher.   NO-till,, no chemicals, use of poly-culture cover crops and livestock.  Even if you aren't doing large scale farming there is some good info.

Biodynamics is the last thing Gabe Browne would ever do.  He's rock solid permaculture, but doesn't go anywhere near that biodynamic stuff.

I think you may be misusing the term "bio-dynamic"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodynamic_agriculture

Gabe is the man no doubt biodynamic nope 100% science just watch his YouTube clips

David

I changed the title.  

I wasn't thinking of the hocus-pocus part of biodynamics but  the connection of "soil fertility, plant growth, and livestock care as ecologically interrelated tasks"

To be fair to biodynamics, a guy named Pfeiffer went into the science behind the mysticism in the early 20th century. Straight Steiner-method biodynamics is big on the mystical spirituality, but not so much on explaining the mechanics behind why some of the practices are beneficial. Pfeiffer sought to remedy this.

I think that there's a lot to be said for biodynamics, as long as you leave the pseudoscience and energy rays and numerology out of it.

I never got a straight answer on this, but the burying of a manure-filled cow horn might, for instance, act as a microbiological "seed" or nursery for soil life, in much the same way as biochar does.

Planting according to a lunar schedule might sound silly, but changes in gravitation cause tides. Is it so far-fetched to think that water uptake by plants might be made more efficient at high tide conditions?

Not to mention the fact that biodynamic planting schedules also tend to put the seed in the soil before seasonal rainfall, so that germination happens in conjunction with natural patterns, rather than fighting against them.

My go-to for the last couple of months has been Bryant Redhawk's two threads on soil. I will find them and post a link. No biodynamics there, just soil science.

-CK