Please help me, experienced seedball-makers! I would like to make seedballs according to the instructions on this site: http://www.pathtofreedom.com/pathproject/gardening/seedballs.shtml
but I’m having trouble finding dry terra cotta clay. Does anyone know where to find it or know something I could use as a substitute?
it looks like ground up terra cotta, imho. got any broken flower pots?
thanks for the link, tho. that’s the most succinct description of seedballs i’ve ever read. it makes me want to really explore that website.
I know that you can extract clay from the soil to use with seedballs. I remember reading how to do that somewhere, I will search around the internet… but you may have to order the red terra cotta somewhere, like from an art supply shop.
I have always used the native clay in my area. Good sources of clay are along or close by areas of moving water such as rivers and streams. Growing up on the coast here in NC I can vouch for a lack of clay in the sandy soils. But with effort it can be located in the sub layers of woodland soils in that region. I do not know why any one would recommend a particular type of clay. Some will mold better than others because of sand content. To screen clay of foreign materials let it dry, then pulverize it, and winnow it.
For more information on seedballs google Masanobu Fukuyama. His book, The One Straw Revolution, is a must read for anyone interested in natural gardening and farming. I also reccomend Tom Brown’s feild guide, Living with Mother Earth, for guidence in wotking clay in general. For insperation read, The Man Who Planted Tree’s, by Jean Giono.
I am busy with stuff right now but I promise to get back to the forum soon and join in with the discussions in this section. This is a topic close to my heart and I am so glad to see these threads on this great forum.
Don’t forget to scatter herb seed and wild food plant seed when hiking. You never know. the mouth you feed may be your own. Peace.
[quote=“micpet, post:4, topic:344”]I have always used the native clay in my area. Good sources of clay are along or close by areas of moving water such as rivers and streams. Growing up on the coast here in NC I can vouch for a lack of clay in the sandy soils. But with effort it can be located in the sub layers of woodland soils in that region. I do not know why any one would recommend a particular type of clay. Some will mold better than others because of sand content. To screen clay of foreign materials let it dry, then pulverize it, and winnow it.
For more information on seedballs google Masanobu Fukuyama. His book, The One Straw Revolution, is a must read for anyone interested in natural gardening and farming. I also reccomend Tom Brown’s feild guide, Living with Mother Earth, for guidence in wotking clay in general. For insperation read, The Man Who Planted Tree’s, by Jean Giono.
I am busy with stuff right now but I promise to get back to the forum soon and join in with the discussions in this section. This is a topic close to my heart and I am so glad to see these threads on this great forum.
Don’t forget to scatter herb seed and wild food plant seed when hiking. You never know. the mouth you feed may be your own. Peace.[/quote]
Thanks! This is very helpful! I don’t think it’s too hard to find clay here in Ohio, I know that I can easily find it in the woods along the creek banks at my parents’ house, as I use to make sculptures from it when young! I know there are some issues with the pruity or different types of clay being the best for seed balls (drying out too slow/fast, cracking, mold, etc may be some issues)…
yeah, most of Ohio is pretty clayey. i remember Fukuoka recommended red clay (which is a bit harder to find in Ohio, but ridiculously easy farther south in Tennesee), but i was never very certain about why and whether it was really that important.
I’ve been getting into planting the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash), and was thinking that this might be possible to do with seedballs. They might need to be a little large, but otherwise it would be quite like the mounds that the seeds have traditionally been planted in. Does anyone know of this would work, or if it would pose any particular problems?
You know, I’ve been wondering the same thing lately.
The one thing that I’m most concerned about is of the beans overwhelming the corn. When I plant the Three Sisters, I plant the corn 1-2 weeks before the beans & squash, cause once the beans come in, they tend to grow explosively!
Still, I’ll probably try a few next year and see how it goes.
I planted a little three sisters patch in my yard this year. The regular way, not using seedballs. I planted all three at the same time. The bean seeds were bad and never came up. I have to keep an eye on the squash because it will try to climb up the cornstalks and pull them down.
I’m ashamed to say that I still have not made seedballs. How hard is it to get the clay to the right consistency? I keep putting it off because of that.
I’ve tried making them, but I must be missing something. I think maybe the clay content is off. Not sure, I’ll need to keep playing with it.
I planted a 3 sisters patch this year too. I planted the corn first, when they got to 6" I planted the beans & squash. I used runner beans (2nd time I’ve planted them here) and they haven’t done very well. The corn took longer to get going that I expected, but did pretty decent after a few weeks. About half the corn harvest was lost to insects tho’. The squash has done well. I pulled off about 15 lbs of small winter squash yesterday, and there’s still a few more that haven’t quite ripened up. The yield isn’t as high as I’d wanted, but I largely neglected the plants this year, so I guess I’m happy to harvet anything!
Lessons for next year:
*Place the corn better (I had a few plants that weren’t getting enough sun/heat)
*Start the corn earlier (I think)
*Use a taller corn (I used a very short 4’-5’ corn, but I think I want to use a taller one, partly for biomass, and partly to support the beans better)
*Use a different bean (Runner beans just don’t seem to do well for me for some reason. On the other hand, I have had success with beans more widely used in this area)
*Include a couple of summer squash plants in with the winter squash (Waiting can be hard! 
)
Ah! Sorry… completely off thread…