What really are seedballs?
Let me start off by saying that planting seeds is just fine, it’s good, it helps. All we want to do here at Beebombs is bring the bees back and anything that contributes is beerilliant in our opinion.
This post is about Beebombs though and all seedballs in fact. I’ll try to help explain today why they are a thing and why we think they are a very good thing. Why you should use seedballs and how they can help #bringthebeesback
Seedballs Re-discovered
Seedballs were re-discovered by a Japanese Microbiologist in the 1930s. Masanobu Fukuoka is now thought of as the father of natural farming in the modern age. Working for the Japanese Government in the 1930s and tasked with improving productivity, Fukuoka became interested in ancient, natural farming techniques and after years of study began to advocate seedballs as a way of eradicating labour intensive and harmful tilling processes whilst improving germination rates. Fukuoka went on to become a world renowned philosopher and natural farming guru. He wrote a fantastic book called 'The One Straw Revolution' for anyone interested in this fascinating man and his vision.
Seedballs in historical natural farming
Seedballs are not a new thing and I certainly didn't invent them. In fact, they've been around for 1000s of years.
They were notably used by the ancient Egyptians to replenish the farmland after the annual Nile flood. We also know the Japanese used them for millenia but this natural farming technique was seemingly lost with the mechanisation and modernisation of farming across the world. They have been rediscovered though, and it's to the resourceful Japanese we turn for the re-invention of seedballs in the 20th century.
