Fukuoka method for single seeds?

Single seed application seems like it would work so well.

I am thinking about doing it for trees, whichever will work best. I have procured many hedge apple seeds for a hedge row

. Dropping single-seeded clay balls with hedge seems like it would work fine.

But what about vegetables? Flowers? The general rule is to make an amount of seeds in proportion to the clay and compost material, but I have many types of plants, but fewer seeds of each.

I simply don't have the wherewithal to start the plants indoors. Dropping them on the ground with everything they need to start sprouting sounds more appealing to me.

Does anyone have experience with this? Thoughts? Comments?

Thank you.

I think you should try it, and I think that's what Fukuoka taught us: to experiment and see what works. And when something doesn't work, we try something else, and if something unintentional accidentally works, then we start doing that intentionally.

I've made little seed balls by hand and put a few seeds in each, but I guess that's the hard way to make seed balls. But I guess that's what you have to do if you don't have many seeds.

However, if you start planting your vegetables and flowers, then you could start saving their seeds and have many more for next year. It's not that hard to save seeds because instead of putting them in compost buckets, we can put them on towels to dry.

https://youtu.be/oi38cQMORQY
About a minute into this video, this lady puts two seeds in clay balls. Later she's able to dig out the sprouts with the balls still intact somewhat with the roots growing out of them.

She's not throwing them on the ground like Fukuoka, but it seems pretty reliable with just two seeds per ball.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience in this before I invest my seeds into an experiment.

So I tried the single seed balls and found that the root systems grew in the clay balls and had a very hard time growing into the ground. It made for very weak plants that fell over and died. I'm going to try again with multiple seeds.

I'm not sure why there would be a difference. But the effects of the Fukuoka method are evident. I am certain the method would surely work for me. Maybe my efforts were not broad enough or the single seed is a bad idea to begin with.

I haven't been making seed balls because I quit having success with them, but I've been studying the Greek natural farmer off and on. And since he teaches about seed balls, I've been assuming that I would return to using them someday. I've been doing better by using another person's seed tray or just moving weeds out of the way, putting seeds directly on the dirt, and covering them up with compost unless their seed packs say don't cover. That also helps me find the seedlings later, but I imagine one day or year, I'll figure out how people farm with seed balls. I did have lots of success with radish seed balls. I decided to thin out a bunch of them because the pack said those closer than an inch. They came up probably at least a couple months ago, and they're still coming up a little despite the heat. It's funny how many of my plants have a significant delayed effect when it comes to germination. I've given up on many only to see them as tall plants a month later.

Some of the radishes bolted in this heat and attract butterflies. Most of them didn't form much of a root, but some of them finally are. Back then, I wasn't trying to water my garden, but in these drought conditions, I have decided to keep my plants from dying of thirst. I was transplanting tomatoes and other stuff without digging into the dirt, putting compost around the plants' roots, but I've decided to quit that, too, because Fukuoka used to dig holes when transplanting trees.

Fukuoka's seed ball is for seed protection and seed competition. You protect your seeds inside the clay ball. The clay ball will spread out after some rain to kill some weeds or grass allowing your seedball to germinate and compete. There are many alternatives. You can cut the grass and use cardboards to kill/supporess the grass first a month or 2 prior to sowing your tree seeds. After killing or suppressing the grass. you can add some half composted tree leaves and straws to further suppress the grass and allow your tree seeds to germinate and outcompete the grass and weeds. But many fruit tree seeds need stratification. So, timing is very important. You need to sow your seed in fall.

Here is a picture of my best radish. It grew from a big seed ball full of various radish seeds. We're planning on harvesting this radish and its greens tomorrow. Surprisingly, bugs have left the leaves alone. I chose radish because they're good for soil.

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It rained today. The mulch is just a bunch of weeds that I finally chopped down a month or two ago. It's working well. A balsam and tomato plants are in the background.

Here is a picture of an okra plant and some clover. I planted them by putting their seeds on the dirt and covering them with compost, but I would use any organic soil. It looks like the clover will act as a living mulch.

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I used the sticks to mark where I planted seeds. By this point, I'm not spreading weeds apart to plant seeds; I'm spreading apart mulch. I think the okra seeds had more compost than the clover seeds, so I put some main crop seeds on dirt, cover with a little compost, sprinkle the clover seeds, and then put a little more compost on top.

Lastly, here's my first orange tomato. Many of my tomato transplants have thrived without much water. I'm letting them sprawl like Fukuoka recommended. This is a better boy, and it hides its tomatoes much better than a beefsteak. Shown are two pieces of found bamboo that I'm using to prop up tomatoes.

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Bamboo is pretty handy, and there are some clumping varieties that are not invasive. One thing about natural farming is that some plants may be too domesticated to just throw to the wild, but if our plants go to seed, then they probably get wilder, year after year. My Brandywine is not doing as well. I took all of my transplants, put them on the ground, and put compost around them. (https://piconic.co/p/kete/288862411555999744) As the days went by, I shored up the compost up as necessary, but I don't transplant like this anymore. Most of the beefsteaks didn't make it. They might have needed water or caught a disease, but they collapsed.