Yarrow preparation 502

What is the yarrow preparation (502)?

The yarrow preparation carries the number 502 and is the first of the six compost preparations. It is made from the flower heads of yarrow (Achillea millefolium), matured in the bladder of a red deer and then added in tiny amounts to compost, manure, slurry or liquid manure. In the biodynamic understanding it orders the sulphur and potassium processes in the manure and helps it hold nitrogen and other substances in the right amount.

Like all compost preparations, 502 does not work through its quantity of substance, which is vanishingly small, but as a force-giving impulse that, in the biodynamic view, "radiates". It is part of an ensemble of six preparations (502 to 507) that together guide the decomposition of the manure and only fulfil their full task together. Within this series, yarrow is the preparation with which Rudolf Steiner opened the list of manure additives in the Agriculture Course.

Yarrow as a plant

Yarrow belongs to the daisy family (Asteraceae). It forms a flat cluster of many small flower heads that stand almost on one level and make a differentiated white or pink "mirror" that opens upwards. The individual plants are usually connected by rhizomes. The leaf is finely feathered, the stem fibrous, firm and almost woody; in spring it rises from a dense rosette of feathered leaves.

Two qualities meet in this shape: the fine feathering of the leaves and the differentiated flowers on one side, the firm stem that tends towards wood on the other. Biodynamically this is read as potassium showing itself in the firmness (potassium is known as a catalyst in turning sugar into starch and cellulose) and sulphur, the "bearer of the spiritual", in the fine forms. Yarrow grows widely along field edges and paths; Steiner expressly advised against eradicating it there, because its mere presence has a favourable effect on plant growth.

Steiner's description in the Agriculture Course

In the fifth lecture of the Agriculture Course (GA 327, 1924), Steiner called yarrow a "marvel": in no other plant, he observed, do the forces of nature bring the use of sulphur "to such perfection". Yarrow appears in nature "as if some creator of plants had used it as a model for bringing sulphur into the right relationship with the other plant substances".

The homoeopathically small sulphur content of yarrow, which is "combined with potassium in an exemplary way", enables the plant to "radiate" its effect "over larger masses". At the same time, Steiner stressed what characterises all work with the preparations: one stays "within the living" and does "not go into inorganic chemistry". This is the core of his approach: not adding substance, but giving the manure a tendency towards liveliness "which then enables it in turn to pass the corresponding liveliness on to the earth".

Why the bladder of a red deer?

The second pole of the preparation is the bladder of the red deer (Cervus elaphus); when asked, Steiner specified in the question-and-answer session that it should be from a stag. His reasoning: red deer stand "in a quite especially intimate relationship" not so much with the earth as with the earth's surroundings, "with what is cosmic in the surroundings of the earth". The visible sign is the antlers, which are shed every year and, like an antenna, give off surplus forces and take in cosmic ones, unlike the cow horn, which holds forces back.

Steiner connected the process between kidney and bladder, which "especially preserves" what lies in yarrow, with the substance of the bladder itself. So "the deer's bladder is almost an image of the cosmos", and precisely because of that it is suited to "considerably enhance" the forces of yarrow. Anatomically, kidney and bladder are the organs that excrete dissolved salts, above all nitrogen and potash in urine; biodynamically this organic function is continued in the casing.

Making it step by step

Preparing the deer bladder. After gralloching, fresh deer bladders are inflated with a straw or an air pump, hung up in a shady draught or dried in the sun, and then stored safe from moths and flies. They are not frozen; the casing should stay "within the living".

Collecting yarrow flowers. On sunny days, pick the flower heads when all the flowers of an umbel have opened (the fruit may already be partly forming). Only the small flowers are needed, with as little stem as possible. Fist-thick bunches are practical and can be cut apart at home with scissors or a knife; for larger quantities, dry the bunches on racks and separate heads and stems later.

Filling and hanging over summer. In spring, between Easter and Whitsun and no later than midsummer (St John's Day), moisten the dried flower heads with pressed juice or tea from the fresh plant until they are like strongly wilted flowers, and stuff them into the bladder, which has been soaked briefly. The filled bladder should take on its natural round shape, packed firmly but not excessively. It is tied tightly, wrapped in netting and hung up in an airy, sunny place, for example on the south side of a building under the eaves, where it is exposed to the forces of light over summer.

Burying over winter. In autumn, from late September to mid-October, the bladders are taken down and buried about 30 cm deep. To keep mice away, line the pit with freshly cut elder twigs (mice avoid their smell). The preparation stays in the ground over winter, at the time when, in the biodynamic picture, the earth "breathes in" and is open to the cosmos.

Recovering it in spring. From around Easter to the end of April, recover the preparation carefully, "like archaeologists". Usually only the outline of the bladder can still be seen and the casing is brittle; it is best to take up some of the surrounding soil as well so that nothing is lost.

Quantities

For making it, Wistinghausen reckons about 250 g of fresh or 25 to 50 g of dried yarrow flowers per hectare to be manured (roughly the manure of one livestock unit). For a farm of 20 to 30 ha, about 4 to 5 kg of fresh or ½ to 1 kg of dried flowers and one smaller deer bladder are enough. A finished "portion" of compost preparation measures only 1 to 2 cm³; one set of the six preparations is enough for 2 to 8 m³ of solid manure or up to 20 m³ of slurry or liquid manure. The small quantities show that this is an impulse of forces, not fertilising with substance.

Effect in the compost

According to Steiner, the mass taken from the bladder has an "enlivening, refreshing" effect on manure, liquid manure and compost, by radiation, even in the smallest, widely distributed amount. It gives the manure "back the possibility of enlivening the earth" so that the earth can again take up the fine cosmic substances (Steiner names silicic acid and lead in homoeopathic doses). In this way "much of what would otherwise become exploitation of the soil can be made good".

In his trials, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer assigned the compost preparations 502 to 507 to the general strengthening of plant growth. In the biodynamic tradition, the yarrow preparation in particular is seen as the one that orders the sulphur and potassium processes and stabilises the nitrogen balance of the manure. This functional assignment is a biodynamic view, not a chemical analysis of effects.

Use

The yarrow preparation is used together with the other compost preparations: a small lump is placed in a hole made in the compost heap or manure pile, and the liquid valerian (507) is added over the surface. The five solid preparations (502 to 506) and valerian form a series that works together; one portion (about 1 cm³) is enough for about ten cubic metres of manure. They are added as soon as organic matter accumulates, as early as possible, and again after turning.

Storage

Store the finished preparation separately from the others, surrounded by at least 5 cm of peat (raised-bog peat) or untreated coir, in a container made of wood, clay or stoneware, cool and frost-free. Whether it is stored moist or dried is an open question in practice and decided individually. More under storing the preparations.

In context

Steiner's reasoning (sulphur as the "bearer of the spiritual", the deer bladder as an "image of the cosmos") comes from his spiritual-scientific world view and is presented here as the original concept, not as a scientifically established description of effects. The assignment to processes (sulphur and potassium) is biodynamic tradition. For Demeter farms, using the compost preparations is compulsory (see Demeter certification).