permaculture

["Steve Diver" <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>]

The following is a series of seed topics and resources:

*Seed Balls at Jim Bone's "Light Writings" web site
*Earthseeds company that sells pre-made seed balls
*Seed treatments
*Reiki-vibrated seeds from Hands of Light Seeds company
*Seed finder links on the web
*Organic/Non-GE Seed Sources

==============================================
1.
As a starting point, check out the very informative web page
by Jim Bones on seed balls.  It features awe inspiring photographs,
earth restoration concepts and practices, wisdom from Masanobu
Fukuoka, and cool web links.

Note:  There is 30-minute video titled "The Seed Ball Story."

Jim Bones' "Light Writings" web page:
http://www.seedballs.com/

[Agriculture - Art - Biodiversity - Earth Education - Fukuoka -
Nature - Seed Balls - Watersheds - Wilderness]

Seed Balls: A New Tool for Revegetation (Table of Contents)
http://www.seedballs.com/tblcon.html

Page 1.   Seed Balls - Preface: New use of old ways, a tool for
revegetation.
Page 2.    Seed Balls - Masanobu Fukuoka, Sensei of Natural
Farming.
Page 3.   Seed Balls - I. What they are and how to make them.
Page 4.   Seed Balls - II. How to apply them.
Page 5.   Seed Balls - An introduction - Part A.
Page 6.   Seed Balls - An introduction - Part B.
Page 7.   Seed Balls - III. A word of caution.
Page 8.   Seed Balls - Sources of materials.
Page 9.   Seed Balls - The von Bachmayr Rotary Drum.
Page 10.  Seed Balls - The Seed Ball Story, an instructional
video tape.
Page 11.  Seed Balls - Research, applications and related
subjects.
Page 12.  Seed Balls - On A Green Mountain, a visit with
Masanobu Fukuoka.
=========================================
2.
As a follow-up to making seed balls at Jim Bone's web site,
it turns out there is a company that makes and sells seed balls.
Thus, if you need a quick fix and there's no time to mix your own,
this company's product may come in handy.

Earthseeds
http://www.earthseed.com

The wildflower and native seeds they incorporate into the
seed balls are regionalized for different parts of the country.

These for-sale seed balls might be just the thing your local
city council or school board would fund for roadside
beautification and ecological restoration.
===========================================
3.
Seed treatments can be viewed as the first step towards
an organic-biodynamic-alternative farming system that relies
on natural processes and biological inputs to fuel the production
cycle.

Seed treatments include biodynamic preparations, hydrogen peroxide,
biostimulants (seaweed, humic acid, urine, compost teas, BD preps),
bacteriazation (bacterial inoculation), mycorrhizal inoculation
(symbiotic fungi), and others types of microbial inoculation,
aryuvedic plant-based extracts, clays, soils, and vibrational
methods (magnetism, Reiki, radionics, homeopathy).

Note:  listing the seed treatments is the easy part.  Locating
and summarizing information on rates of application, soaking
times, and expeceted results is another matter altogether.  That
is to say that all of the above are done somewhere or another,
but printed results are scattered and obscure.
============================================
4.
Hands of Light is a seed company that features Reiki-vibrated
seeds, Sonic-bloom-like audio tapes, books and bulletins on
subtle energy gardening, and foliar feeding products.

Hands of Light Seed Company
http://www.liteweb.org/hol/

Note:  The website listed here is active but perhaps out-of-date
because the address for HOL in the 1999 HOL Seed List is
different.

Website address:

Hands of Light Seeds
6482 Piney Woods Road
Riner, VA  24149

1999 HOL Seed List Address:

Hands of Light Seeds
2135 Denniston Ave
Roanoke, VA  24015

Depending on which way you get to the website, you can find a
series of informative on-line articles on subtle energy gardening
by Don Elwood.  The articles provide sufficient background to gain
an understanding of this unique approach.

Gardening With Subtle Energies, Articles 1-7
http://www.liteweb.org/articles/holart1.html
http://www.liteweb.org/articles/holart2.html
http://www.liteweb.org/articles/holart3.html
http://www.liteweb.org/articles/holart4.html
http://www.liteweb.org/articles/holart5.html
http://www.liteweb.org/articles/holart6.html
http://www.liteweb.org/articles/holart7.html

In addition, Elwood is the author of several books:

*Quest for the Light
*Holistic Gardening:  A Scientific Approach for Gardening with Love
*Spiritual Gardening at its Best, Quest for the Navoti Spirit
*Knocking at the Gate, The White Gold Adventure


Certainly the Sonic-bloom-like and Reiki-vibrated seed treatments
of Don Elwood stretches the imagination of most Westernized models
of agriculture. The fact that Elwood is an aerospace engineer
skilled in conducting experiments and recording data adds
credibility to the extraordinary results he's obtained with these
seed treatments, however.

Several years ago when I first started corresponding with Don
Elwood, he explained that one of the driving forces behind his
research had to do self-sufficient food production.  Whereas modern
organic farming and gardening systems still rely quite heavily on
shipments of specialized products like rock phosphate, rock dusts,
seaweed etc., there may come a time when we are forced to utilize
resources that exist on site.  Juxtaposed against Y2K and
Beyond predictions, the alchemy of on-site clays, minerals, and
resources sounds like a very good idea.
=============================================
5.
For those needing access to extensive seed listings, seed companies,
and seed links....  see the following two sites.

Seed Quest
http://www.seedquest.com/

Seed World
http://www.seedworld.com/seedworld.html

Also see:

Anderson's Library Plant Information On-Line
http://plantinfo.umn.edu/default.asp
========================================
6.
For access to organic, un-treated, and non-genetically modified
seeds, see the ATTRA seed list.....

Suppliers of Organic, Non-GE, or Heirloom (O-P) Seeds
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/altseed.html

Also see:

The Heirloom Gardening Page
http://www.webslnger.com/wethepeople/
============================================

Feedback to the list on field trials with seed balls and
seed treatments would be good. 

Regards,
Steve Diver