Biodynamic Farming

What is biodynamic farming?

• Learn the basic principles to biodynamic farming.

• Preparations 500, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507.

• Learn what they are & how to apply them to improve your soil.

Biodynamic farming is a form of organic farming were you use biodynamic preparations of fermented herbal & mineral preparations as compost additives or field sprays.

In biodynamic farming uses a holistic approach in relation to the soil, plant, animals. Biodynamic farming includes organic agriculture's emphasis on manures & composting plus farming without the use of artifical fertilizers as imput into the biodynamic farming system.


Biodynamic farming conceives of the farm as an organism, a self-contained entity with its own individuality. "Emphasis is placed on the integration of crops and livestock, recycling of nutrients, maintenance of soil,crowing cover crops and the health and well being of crops and animals; the farmer is apart of the whole system."


Steiner prescribed eight different preparations to aid in fertilization of a biodynamic farm and wrote down in detail how the preparations were to be prepared. The prepared substances are numbered 500 through 507, where the first two are used for preparing fields whereas the latter six are used for making compost.

Field preparations, for stimulating humus formation:

• 500: (horn-manure) a humus mixture prepared by filling the horn of a cow with cow manure and burying it in the ground (40-60 cm below the surface) in the autumn. Then retrived the following autumn. 


• 501: Crushed powdered quatrz prepared by stuffing it into a horn of a cow and buried into the ground in spring and taken out in autumn.501 in biodynamic farming is used as afungal spray in the wet season over the plants. (mixture of 1 tablespoon of quartz powder to 250 litres of water) The mixture is sprayed under very low pressure, in the early morning to prevent burning of the leaves.


• Both 500 and 501 are used on fields in biodynamic farming by stirring about one teaspoon of the contents of a horn in 40-60 litres of water for an hour and whirling it in different directions every second minute.

Compost preparations

• 502: Yarrow blossoms (Achillea millefolium) are stuffed into urinary bladders from Red Deer (Cervus elaphus), placed in the sun during summer, buried in earth during winter and retrieved in the spring.

• 503: Chamomile blossoms (Matricaria recutita) are stuffed into small intestines from cattle buried in humus-rich earth in the autumn and retrieved in the spring.

• 504: Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) plants in full bloom are stuffed together underground surrounded on all sides by peat for a year.


• 505: Oak bark (Quercus robur) is chopped in small pieces, placed inside the skull of a domesticated animal, surrounded by peat and buried in earth in a place where lots of rain water runs by.

• 506: Dandelion flowers (Taraxacum officinale) is stuffed into the peritoneum of cattle and buried in earth during winter and retrieved in the spring.

• 507: Valerian flowers (Valeriana officinalis) are extracted into water.

• 508: Horsetail (Equisetum)

In biodynamic farming with compost when adding each preparation ( one to three grams)there are added to the compost heap placing them down 50 cm & 2 meters apart.


The 507 preparation however, is sprayed over the compost haeap. (Mix 5 litres of water with the 507 preparation).


Pest & Disease in biodynamic farming are seen as inbalaces in the soil. when it comes to weeds in biodynamic farming you collect the weed that is the problem then burn the plant material. once collecting the ashes they are then spread out over the field. thus trying to block the influence of the weed making it infertile. this method by steiner in biodynamic farming is the same for pest as well you just repeat the process.example with feild mice you collect the skin of the mice then burn & spread out over the paddock that you a carry out biodynamic farming on.