As I experiment with compost teas my better half decided to go down the biodynamic compost route. My role was to locate and assemble the ingredients. It would be a small heap shaded throughout the day and well clear of my regular compost heaps which include manure from stables – a possible contaminant. I provided 3ft stalks from flowering vegetables for the base, I scythed my plentiful high growing grasses for the “green” material and carried to the assembly area three 5 gal buckets half filled with chicken litter and poop. I also produced 4 intact leaf bags gathered from neighbors the previous fall, which would be the “brown material”, and with my bobcat transferred a mix of well rotted (3 year old) wood chips and soil, which would provide the covering material. I connected a hose to a rainwater tank. Then I stood back and watched.
Next was adding the rainwater.
With a crowbar I made 6 spaced holes in the top to a halfway depth. Into each hole a different preparation was added: #502 yarrow; #503 chamomile; #504 stinging nettle; #505 oak bark; and #506 dandelion. The preparations were purchased from JPI (the Josephine Porter Institute). The first 5 preparations were in powder form, the sixth #507 valerian was a liquid which we added to a gallon of water, stirred vigorously and half added to the sixth hole.
The remainder of the valerian solution was sprayed onto the heap.
Finally the heap was crowned with the soil decomposed wood chip mix and then covered with some plastic bags to slow evaporation and retain warmth. And that was it for the time being.