Compost preparations

What are compost preparations?

The compost preparations are six biodynamic preparations numbered 502 to 507. Unlike the two field spray preparations, they are not sprayed onto soil or plants but worked into compost, farmyard manure, slurry and other manures. There, in the biodynamic understanding, they guide the process of decomposition and shape the quality of the finished compost. They are therefore also called manure preparations.

The key point: the six preparations work as an ensemble that belongs together. Rudolf Steiner introduced them together in the Agriculture Course (5th lecture, GA 327), with one continuous idea: manure should not be "improved" with mineral additives but endowed with living forces that enable it "to pass the corresponding liveliness on to the earth". This is why the compost preparations are almost always used together; the only exception is the liquid valerian, which goes over the surface at the end.

The six preparations at a glance

Each preparation is assigned a medicinal plant, an animal casing (except nettle and valerian) and, according to Steiner, a particular process:

This assignment follows Steiner's description in the 5th lecture and is biodynamic tradition, not a chemical analysis of effects.

Why six preparations, and why these plants?

Steiner chose five medicinal plants (yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion) and completed them with valerian. Each plant stands for the ability to carry a particular substance "within the living": yarrow sulphur together with potassium, chamomile calcium, nettle iron as well, oak bark calcium in a particularly "ideal" structure against a rampant tendency to disease, dandelion silicic acid, and finally valerian warmth through its connection to phosphorus. Together the six preparations cover a range that touches the essential processes of decomposition, nitrogen binding, plant health and silica uptake.

Steiner regarded the five solid plants as hardly replaceable; he expressly named the nettle as the case for which a substitute would "hardly be found in another plant species". If necessary, the plants could also be used dried.

Steiner's continuous idea

With all six preparations Steiner followed the same principle: "stay within the living" and do not "go into inorganic chemistry". Yarrow orders sulphur with potassium, chamomile processes calcium and makes the manure "more stable in nitrogen", nettle makes it "inwardly sensitive" and "reasonable", oak bark works against plant diseases with its calcium, dandelion mediates silicic acid, valerian warmth.

Steiner spoke of a "secret alchemy" in the organic process that could, for example, transform potash and lime into nitrogen under the influence of hydrogen, an image for the living transformations that the preparations are meant to set off. His conclusion in the 5th lecture: "In future, instead of being treated with chemical trifles, manure must be treated with yarrow, with chamomile, with stinging nettle, with oak bark and with dandelion", with valerian as the sixth component. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer later summed up the overall effect of the 502 to 507 series as a general strengthening of plant growth.

Making them at a glance

The solid preparations follow a common basic pattern: flowers of medicinal plants (for oak bark, the outer bark; for nettle, the whole herb) are collected, filled into the respective animal casing and entrusted to the earth for a season: yarrow over summer and winter, chamomile and dandelion over winter, oak bark over autumn and winter in running water, nettle for a whole year without a casing, surrounded only by peat. In spring they are recovered, dried and stored separately. Valerian is made as fermented flower juice. Details are in the individual entries; the making is regulated bindingly in the Demeter standards.

Use

The five solid preparations (502 to 506) are placed as small lumps in holes made in the compost heap or manure pile; the liquid valerian (507) is diluted and sprayed or poured over it. One set consists of one portion of each (about one cubic centimetre, two to three for valerian) and is enough for about ten cubic metres of solid manure or up to 20 m³ of slurry or liquid manure. They are added as soon as organic matter accumulates, as early as possible, and again after turning or pumping. The preparations are stored separately from each other, each surrounded by peat or untreated coir, cool and frost-free (see storing the preparations).

For farms that lack the individual preparations, there is the combined preparation, a dried mixture made from the compost preparations with cow manure. Maria Thun's cow pat preparation and the "Mäusdorf decomposition starter" intensify the effect of the compost preparations over the land or guide decomposition.

Effect

In the biodynamic understanding, the compost preparations steer decomposition, stabilise the nitrogen balance, improve humus formation and contribute to plant health. In the Darmstadt long-term fertilisation trial, preparations together with composted manure increased the humus content and biological activity of the soil. The effect shows mainly at the level of the whole system and depends on site and management (see biodynamics and science). The individual process assignments (sulphur, calcium, iron, silica, warmth) are a biodynamic view.