Stinging nettle preparation 504

What is the stinging nettle preparation (504)?

The stinging nettle preparation (504) is the third of the six compost preparations and the only one made without an animal casing: the whole flowering plant (Urtica dioica), surrounded only by a layer of peat, is put into the soil for a full year. It is added to compost and farmyard manure in the smallest amounts and, in the biodynamic understanding, is meant to make the manure "inwardly sensitive" and "reasonable", so that it holds nitrogen and does not decompose in the wrong way.

Steiner gave the nettle preparation a special place. The stinging nettle, he said, is "the greatest benefactor of plant growth" and can hardly be replaced by another plant; it is the one case of which he said in the fifth lecture that a substitute "will hardly be found in another plant species in the same way".

Stinging nettle as a plant

The stinging nettle grows in semi-shade between shrubs, under trees and especially where there is surplus nitrogen; if you dig where it grows, you find dark, loose, humus-rich soil. It grows upright to 1.50 m, with a firm, fibrous, square stem and toothed, heart-shaped, pointed leaves. The flowers of this dioecious plant are inconspicuous and hang in clusters. The leaves carry fine stinging hairs with a silicified tip that breaks off on contact and releases a burning cell sap.

According to root studies, its strong, far-reaching roots form one of the densest root networks ever observed. Through its rhizome, the nettle spreads in wide clumps. In biodynamics it is seen as a plant that benefits soil, plants, animals and people: it improves soil structure, draws off excess iron and nitrogen effects and, as an extract (nettle tea or liquid manure), is a widely used plant strengthener.

Steiner's description in the Agriculture Course

In the fifth lecture of the Agriculture Course, Steiner singled out the stinging nettle: it is "a jack of all trades, it can do an enormous amount". Like yarrow and chamomile, it carries sulphur, which "orders and processes the spiritual everywhere", but it also "carries potassium and calcium onward in its radiations and currents" and in addition has "a kind of iron radiation that is almost as beneficial to the course of nature as our own iron radiations in the blood". Hence his famous image: the nettle "really ought to grow around people's hearts", because in its inner organisation it is "similar to what the heart is in the human organism".

Added to manure, the preparation makes it "inwardly sensitive", so that it "does not allow anything to decompose in the wrong way and … release its nitrogen". Steiner spoke of the soil being "permeated with reason" through Urtica dioica: the manure becomes able "to make the earth into which it is worked reasonable as well", so that the earth individualises itself towards whichever plants are wanted. In the question-and-answer session Steiner made clear that the perennial Urtica dioica is meant and that the leaves can be used along with the stems: the whole flowering herb without the root.

Why no animal casing?

Unlike the other compost preparations, the nettle needs no organ as a casing. Steiner had it simply buried in the earth "without a deer bladder, without cattle intestines", but added "a light layer of … peat dust", "so that it is somewhat separated from the soil itself". The preparation is thus entrusted directly to the processes of the earth, which fits Steiner's picture of the nettle as a plant especially related to the earthy. The peat layer separates the decomposing herb from the mineral soil and regulates moisture.

Making it step by step

Harvesting. The stinging nettle is harvested at the start of flowering (in Central Europe usually in June). On a still day you can recognise the start of flowering by the male flowers bursting open in hot weather and releasing small clouds of pollen. Early in the morning, mow with a scythe just above the ground and leave the herb to wilt until the afternoon.

Burying with peat. Dig a pit (as for the other preparations, without waterlogging). Pack the wilted nettles so that they are enclosed at the sides and on top by at least 5 cm of peat before the soil goes back on top. Bundles, a coarse-meshed sack or a bottomless wooden box surrounded with peat and filled with firmly pressed nettles have all proved useful.

A year in the ground. The herb stays in the earth for a whole year, through winter and summer, before the pit is opened again. The heavily decomposed nettles then lie in a dark, firm, relatively thin layer.

Recovering it. Remove the peat layer carefully and put the finished, crumbled preparation into its container. Line the empty pit with peat straight away and fill it with freshly mown nettles; it can serve the same purpose for years.

Quantities

Wistinghausen reckons about 500 g of fresh or 50 to 100 g of dried nettles per hectare. For a farm of 20 to 30 ha, about 10 to 20 kg of fresh nettles and ¼ to ½ a bale of peat are enough. Since the preparation is needed in quantity and should be used generously, it is worth making a larger amount. As with the other solid compost preparations, a finished portion measures only 1 to 2 cm³.

Effect in the compost

According to Steiner, the nettle preparation is "a substance of enormous effect" that makes the manure "reasonable": it becomes able to hold nitrogen and avoid wrong decomposition, and passes this order on to the earth. In the biodynamic tradition, 504 is regarded as the preparation that balances the iron, potassium and nitrogen processes and gives the manure "sensitivity". Ehrenfried Pfeiffer assigned the compost preparations as a whole to strengthening growth. These functional assignments are a biodynamic view, not a chemical analysis of effects.

Use

The nettle preparation is placed as a small lump in the compost heap or manure pile together with the other compost preparations. The five solid preparations (502 to 506) and the liquid valerian (507) form a series that works together; one portion is enough for about ten cubic metres of manure. The nettle preparation may be used generously.

In context

Steiner's images (the nettle as the "heart" of nature, its "iron radiations", the soil "permeated with reason") come from his spiritual-scientific world view and are presented here as the original concept, not as a scientific description of effects. The functional assignment (iron, potassium, nitrogen) is biodynamic tradition. For Demeter farms, using the compost preparations is compulsory (see Demeter certification).