Biodynamic wines producer - Château Cluzeau

Biodynamics

Biodynamic agriculture is one of the founding trends of organic farming.

As early as the early 1920s, farmers were concerned about phenomena such as the degeneration of cultivated plants, the loss of fertility of troops or the decline in the quality of food. They then called upon Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), an Austrian philosopher and scientist known for being the founder of Anthroposophy, a current of thought that incorporated the psychic and spiritual components of the world into his scientific approach.

Rudolf Steiner then gave a series of eight lectures in 1924 known as the Farmers’ Course, where he laid the theoretical and practical foundations of this agriculture which seeks to grasp the deep nature of the land, plants and animals for work with respect for them.

It is intended to be global, with a strong quest for autonomy, and a work with all the elements and forces of nature. The crucial role of observer allows everyone to apply concrete measures to their needs on their farm. These are a matter of good agronomic and biological practices, but also be more specific to biodynamics: biodynamic preparations, herbal teas, respect for cosmic rhythms and nature…

The essential aspect of biodynamics is the use of preparations to stimulate the life processes in soil and plants. These biodynamic preparations, made from medicinal plants, cow dung or quartz crystals, are homeopathic for their energetic action, with convincing effects on the composting process, soil structuring. , the health of cultivated plants and on the food and taste quality of the products obtained

However, the influences (or forces) that are being used in biodynamics are not only physical in nature. The Moon and the planets act on one side on the development and growth of plants, and on the other hand on their maturation and their ability to reproduce. As for the distant influences of the zodiac, they are more to the animal world (as the name suggests: zoo-diaque – circle of animals) and to the processes of individualization and evolution over the long course.

Following Steiner, several researchers (including lily Kolisko, Hartmut Spiss, Maria Thun, Ernst Z’rcher) became interested in these phenomena and were able to establish privileges between the different cosmic rhythms and the processes of life: germination, growth and development, differentiation, flowering, fruiting…). In practice, these observations are translated into “seeding calendars”, with practical indications for different agricultural work: periods of sowing, planting or tillage, favourable times for pruning, harvesting or winemaking. The

Horn dung

Horn silica

Prepared horn dung

Horn dung

horn dung is the result of the maturation of cow dung in a cow horn, buried in the ground, hang throughout the winter period. Aimed at the ground, this preparation promotes life and amplifies the composition of a lumpy structure. It promotes deep root growth. It also promotes the privilege between the plant and the soil. Crops as well as resistant to dry periods and bind strongly to their “terroir”. It

Horn silica

is aimed in particular at the aerial part of the plants (differentiation force). It is obtained by a long maturation of silica powder in a cow horn, buried in the soil during the summer period. The spraying of horn silica acts as a surplus of sunlight for plants. It makes plants more sensitive to subtle influences of the cosmos, promotes photosynthesis and a positive effect on colors, flavors and aromas. It curbs too much luxury and promotes the structure of plants that become more resistant to diseases, especially cryptogamic diseases. It also improves the maturation and preservation of fruits and veget

Prepared horn dung

ables. Originally produced and tested by Alex Podolinski in Australia, prepared horn dung is horn dung in which the six preparations have been added to a particular process. It can be used in place of traditional horn dung to apply the six specific compost preparations where there is little or no use.
The popular horn dung has proven its worth in both large crops, grassland cultivation, market gardening, arboriculture, as well as viticulture and it is desirable to employer wherever possible. It replaces, in a single pass, the triple spread of dung compost followed by a spray of “simple horn dung”.

These preparations are brewed (energized) in the water for an hour before being sprayed, on the ground in large drops for the 500 and 500P, as a fine fog for the 501.
Like homeopathic medicine, the quantities used are very small: a hundred grams in a volume of 30 to 50 liters of water per hectare for horn dung; 4 grams per hectare only for horn silica.

Compost preparations

Heae composting with the contribution of biodynamic compost preparations is an important practice for biodynamicists. These six preparations are made from medicinal plants:

Preparation of yarrow

The preparation of chamomile matricaria

The nettle preparation

The preparation of oak bark

Preparing dandelion

The preparation of valerian

Preparation of yarrow

It plays a special role in the mobility of sulphur and potash.

The preparation of chamomile matricaria

It is linked to calcium metabolism, it regulates the nitrogen process.

The nettle preparation

It is related to nitrogen and iron, it strengthens the influence of the first two preparations. It gives compost and soil a kind of sensitivity and promotes good humificati

The preparation of oak bark

onIt has to do with calcium and regulates plant diseases due to phenomena of proliferation, exuberance.

Preparing dandelion

Among other things, it plays an important role with regard to silic acid.

The preparation of valerian

It helps the mobility of phosphorus in soils and forms a kind of protective heat mantle around the compost, a skin essential to any organism.

In the Farmer’s Course, Rudolf Steiner emphasizes extensively the influence of the cosmic periphery on the life of plants and animals. It evokes solar and lunar influences, but also speaks of those of other planets in the solar system, as well as more distant influences from the zodiac. There is a well-known physical dimension of these influences: it is the gravitation on Earth by the Sun and the Moon: it is this force that causes the tides and also acts on the dynamics of sap currents in the plant.