It’s no secret that my recent introduction to the “seed balls” concept really has me fired up! While I’ve alluded to the fact that this goes beyond a simple interest in seed balls themselves (as cool as I think they are) – I have yet to explain where my kooky brain has gone from there. That’s what we’re going to look at today!
As someone who has had a lot of frustrating experiences with trying to get seedlings started (from seed) in the garden – just the idea of protecting the seeds, providing some starter nutrition for the seedlings, and helping to establish a community of beneficial microbes in the root zone caught my interest right off the bat. But I then started thinking of ways to go even further with it.
What if I mixed in absorbent, lightweight materials like paper pulp? What about other natural “fertilizers” and amendments? What if I played around with the proportions of materials to see if I could create some sort of effective, bio-active growth medium for plants? What about “worm food balls” – i.e. something like living material + paper pulp + rock dust + chick starter feed (maybe some cornstarch as a binding agent)?
It just so happens that my wife’s co-workers collect cardboard coffee trays for me – and she brings stacks of them home periodically. Normally, I simply rip them up and use them as a bedding material. What’s funny is that I’ve never previously thought of actually turning them into a paper pulp – very surprising when I think about it, since the pulp would be perfect for “homemade manure” and just generally as an optimized c-rich material for my vermicomposting systems!
It wasn’t until I started reading up on seed balls – and was particularly inspired by this site: http://kabloom.co.uk/blog/ – that it hit me!
I still wasn’t sure how readily I could pulp up the coffee trays (my hunch was that it would be incredibly time-intensive) – but I knew I had to at least give it a try! So I filled a bucket with hot water, put in a stack of the trays, threw on some dish gloves and went to work!
Long-story-short, I was pleasantly surprised with the results! I found that the trays broke up very easily in the hot water, and in no time I ended up with a nice looking slurry of paper pulp. Luckily, I just happened to have a handy dandy tray from my WF-360 bin on hand – so I even had a great way to speed up the drying process. My goal wasn’t/isn’t to completely dry out the material – but simply to get rid of excess moisture so it’s not dripping wet.
With my new pulp ready to go, I decided it was time to mix up my first batch of “seed ball” mix. Since I was in fact planning to make some actual seed balls I decided to go with the recommended 5 parts vermicompost and 1 part dry clay (purchased from a local pottery supply store). BUT, I also included 2 (or was it 3? – LOL) parts paper pulp.
Last weekend, I had some fun with my kids making up various types of seed balls so I can test them out. We used sunflower seeds, bush beans, and tomato seeds. I also coated some sunflower seeds with the paper pulp alone, so I can do some comparisons (i.e. see if the seed ball mix provides any additional benefits).
As you can see in the first image (and image below), I also created some homemade seed plugs with the mix.
Every spring – due to those aforementioned issues with getting plants to grow directly from seed in my gardens – invariably I end up starting most of my plants in peat pellets, newspaper pots (with potting soil) etc. While I am very happy that I end up with a lot more healthy, vigorous plants in the gardens this way, it tends to cost a fair bit for all the supplies, and takes up a lot of my time.
Now – I think I have a way of creating seedling starter plugs that are superior to traditional peat pellets (etc), and less expensive (of course this is in large part due to the fact that I have plenty of my own vermicompost)!
😎
I will likely need to play around with the ratios of various materials in order to find the “perfect” mix. I want something that will hold moisture really well, but not so dense that the roots will have trouble growing through it. As such, I will likely up the proportion of paper pulp in my next batch.
NOTE: Blake recommends keeping seed balls to a size not much bigger than a dime or marble (i.e. smaller than you might imagine). I myself will be creating some variations that are definitely a fair bit bigger than that – but I’ll more than likely waiting for them to dry out a fair bit before adding the seeds – you definitely don’t want to risk stimulating the germination process!
In case you are wondering about the larger, darker balls (stop your snickering, John W!) in the first image – they are not actually seed balls at all. I simply mixed some paper pulp with some vermicompost for those ones. What’s cool is they are super-lightweight and actually hold together beautifully! This may not come as a surprise to anyone who has accidentally let wet vermicompost dry out completely. My nickname for this material is “vermicrete” – and it’s well deserved!
I still think there may be some benefits to adding at least a little clay since you end up with with a smoother material, and likely seed balls that hold together better.
Once all my various seed balls (and variations) were dry (I ‘cheated’ a bit by blowing air from a heat fan at them), I tested some out for re-hydration. Even though they had a rock-like feel (albeit lightweight rock! lol), I was amazed to see how readily they wicked up water and developed a nice soft consistency!
Anyway – LOTS more testing ahead (will be making up a new batch of mix this afternoon in fact) – and plenty more updates here I’m sure. But I am very excited with the results so far!
**Worms Changed My Life & They Can Change Your Life Too! >>Here's How<<**
lol
Great idea to use paper pulp as an ingredient in seed bombs! I was thinking along similar lines myself, so I’m glad to hear that your experiment worked so well.
This might be a great eco-friendly project for some elementary school kids. I will have to try the hot water method to break down the drink trays.
I’m wondering what the clay mix is adding? For the plants I can’t see much / any benefit?
Is it just to increase stickiness?
Good deal! Keep up the good work.
so are you going to plant the seed ball directly in the ground? would you need to wet them first?