Chamomile preparation 503

What is the chamomile preparation (503)?

The chamomile preparation (503) is the second of the six compost preparations. Made from the flower heads of true chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) and matured in a cattle intestine, it is added to compost in the smallest amounts. In the biodynamic understanding it works with calcium and regulates nitrogen: it is meant to make the manure "more stable in nitrogen" and, above all, to produce healthier plants.

While, according to Steiner, the yarrow preparation (502) works mainly in the potassium process, chamomile specialises in calcium. Both belong to the same ensemble of manure additives and are used together. Within the series, 503 is the preparation meant to order the calcium balance and keep "harmful fructifying effects" away from the plant.

Chamomile as a plant

True chamomile germinates in light and is usually annual. Compacted, silted soils give it the best conditions for germination, because capillary water rises to the surface there. The seedlings grow into a dense bush with feathered leaves and many-branched shoots, which bear a yellow flower head with a white ray of petals and the characteristic scent at their tips. It flowers from early to late summer and can appear in masses. With its fine, spreading roots it loosens compaction and brings structure to the topsoil.

Identifying the right species matters: use true chamomile, recognisable by its hollow receptacle and its particular strong scent, not the similar-looking scentless or garden chamomile, which according to Steiner is "of no use". The chamomile that grows wild along paths and railway lines, and is also used for chamomile tea, is the right one.

Steiner's description in the Agriculture Course

In the fifth lecture of the Agriculture Course, Steiner placed chamomile directly beside yarrow. It too contains sulphur "distributed in a homoeopathic dose", but "in a different quantity, because it also has to process calcium". The difference lies in the process: "Yarrow develops its sulphur force mainly in the process of potassium formation … Chamomile, however, also processes calcium", and so precisely what "can contribute essentially to keeping those harmful fructifying effects away from the plant, to keeping the plant healthy".

Unlike with yarrow, for chamomile "the bladder is fairly insignificant", while "the substance of the intestinal walls is of greater importance". This determines the casing: instead of a bladder, cattle intestines are used. Steiner was convinced that this gives "a manure that is, first, again more stable in nitrogen than other manure", that also "enlivens the earth so that it can have an extraordinarily stimulating effect on plant growth", and that produces "above all, healthier plants".

Why cattle intestine?

The process between kidney and bladder that matters for the yarrow preparation plays no part with chamomile. What counts here is the substance of the intestinal wall, the organ in which digestion comes into the most intense contact with the plants eaten. The small intestine (jejunum and ileum) of the cow is used; according to practical advice (Jörg Spranger), the first, spiral part of the large intestine is also suitable. The finished preparation overwinters in the intestine in the soil, decomposes partly, but keeps its characteristic scent.

Making it step by step

Obtaining and preparing the intestines. The intestines should ideally come from slaughter on the farm. Since slaughter rarely coincides with making the preparation, they are squeezed out, inflated with an air pump without washing or turning them inside out, tied off, dried under a roof or in the sun and stored safe from insects (a strong bag or aluminium box, with a little essential oil against moths). They are not frozen.

Collecting chamomile flowers. Pick the flower heads as they open, on sunny mornings; for larger quantities, from the start of flowering (around the end of May). A small picking comb has proved useful. Dry the flowers on a frame covered with gauze or on paper in an airy, shady place and keep them in small bags until autumn.

Stuffing the "sausages". From late September to mid-October, moisten the dried flowers with a tea made from fresh chamomile plants or dried flowers and stuff them firmly into pieces of intestine 20 to 50 cm long, like a sausage filling, using a funnel and a stuffing tube. Tie off one end beforehand and close the other at the end with a loop for hanging. Dry the sausages for a few days so that the skin closes firmly; buried fresh, the casing rots too quickly and attracts animals.

Burying over winter. The chamomile preparation is also buried in autumn and stays in the ground over winter. Steiner placed particular value on the site: soil as rich in humus as possible, in a place "where the snow lies for a longer time" and the sun shines on it, so that "the cosmic-astral effects" can act as fully as possible. Elder twigs, a slatted frame or two clay pots placed opening to opening protect against mice and foxes.

Recovering it in spring. From around Easter to the end of April, dig up the sausages carefully, slit the casing, take out the contents, crumble them and dry them quickly in an airy, shady place. The remains of the casing, with chamomile and soil still attached, are themselves still effective as a preparation and can go into liquid manure, slurry or the compost heap.

Quantities

Wistinghausen reckons about 250 g of fresh or 25 to 50 g of dried chamomile flowers per hectare to be manured. For a farm of 20 to 30 ha, about 4 to 5 kg of fresh or ½ to 1 kg of dried flowers and 1 to 2 m of intestine are enough. Experience shows that there is "never enough" chamomile preparation, so it is worth making plenty. A finished portion measures only 1 to 2 cm³.

Effect in the compost

According to Steiner, the chamomile preparation makes manure "more stable in nitrogen than other manure" and enlivens the earth "in an extraordinarily stimulating way"; above all, it produces "healthier plants". In the biodynamic tradition, 503 is regarded as the preparation that orders the calcium balance and stabilises decomposition. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer assigned the compost preparations 502 to 507 as a whole to strengthening plant growth. The functional assignment to calcium is a biodynamic view, not a chemical analysis of effects.

Use

Like the other compost preparations, 503 is placed as a small lump in a hole made in the compost heap and used as a series together with the other five (502, 504, 505, 506 and the liquid valerian 507). One portion is enough for about ten cubic metres of manure. Store it separately, in peat or coir, cool and frost-free (see storing the preparations).

In context

Chamomile is known as a medicinal plant, but this entry is about its role in the compost preparation, not about health claims for people. Steiner's reasoning (processing calcium, sulphur as the "bearer of the spiritual", cosmic-astral effects) is a spiritual-scientific concept reported here; the assignment to processes is biodynamic tradition. For Demeter farms, using it is compulsory (see Demeter certification).