Working with the preparations in April — application and making
The busiest month for the preparations — horn manure and horn silica on grassland, arable land and in the garden, valerian as frost protection in orchards, and the full making cycle.
April is the busiest month of the biodynamic year. The soil warms up, the crops get going, and for the first time since autumn application and making go hand in hand: horn manure and horn silica go out onto the land, while the preparations that matured over winter are taken out of the ground and the next ones are set up.
Two rules of thumb guide you through the month. Soil comes before light — horn manure 500 as the soil impulse goes first, and horn silica 501 as the light impulse follows about two weeks later on the young shoots. And: weather and soil condition come before the calendar. The points below are time windows, not fixed dates.
Grassland and arable land
- Grassland: horn manure and horn silica for each new growth — first the soil, about two weeks later the light.
- Cereals: horn silica from the three-leaf stage and at stem elongation; horsetail tea (508) when there is fungal pressure.
- Soil: horn manure on freshly cultivated land — dynamised for one hour, applied at the end of the day.
Vegetable garden
- Horn manure at soil cultivation, sowing and planting — stirred for one hour, applied in the evening in large drops on moist soil.
- Horn silica on the young shoots — stirred for one hour, finely misted in the morning, at leaf formation and fruit set.
- Horsetail tea preventively when there is fungal pressure; barrel compost (stirred for about 20 minutes) on prepared beds.
Vines and fruit
- Valerian (507) as frost protection: dynamise for 10 to 20 minutes and apply to the blossoms on the evening before expected frosty nights when there is no wind — especially before the Ice Saints in mid-May.
- Horn silica on the young shoots after bud burst, horn manure on the soil.
- Horsetail preventively when there is a risk of fungal disease.
Making
Lifting — matured in the soil over winter:
- Horn manure (500): lift the horns filled in autumn.
- Chamomile (503) and dandelion (506): open the sheaths from the end of April to the beginning of May.
- Oak bark (505): take it out of its storage in water and mud.
Setting up — for the summer:
- Horn silica (501): fill horns with ground rock crystal and bury them.
- Yarrow (502): fill into the stag's bladder and hang it up in a sunny place.
- Chamomile flowers: collect and dry as soon as the first ones are in bloom.
Wistinghausen and Walter Stappung describe the full making process in detail; stirring is covered in more depth in Stirring the preparations.