Seed balls make gardening fun, easy and accessible! They help pollinators and can help grow endangered trees or plants and you can garden with seed balls all year!
If you have a vision of green fields a-buzz with bees and butterflies. Or maybe you are sick of seeing the dry eroding barren soil on the abandoned areas that you pass everyday. Seed balls might be the solution.
Seed balls make it easier to plant seeds, especially if you are sowing small seeds that are difficult to see and handle. Coating seeds with clay also protects them from being washed away by rain or eaten by birds. India’s Monsoon season makes seedballs a great way to plant a large no of trees. Please remember to come back and water and take care of your trees once monsoon is over. Tree Guards are needed until the tree is strong enough to survive cows or other animals. Ideally plant in an enclosed space like a school or designated park or garden.
Ingredients
Equal parts compost and dried clay - take 250 gms each for 10 Mango Seeds
10 Mango Seeds - these are the largest seeds
You can use 2-3 Ball, Jamun, Neem or any other locally grown fruit tree or indigenous tree seed
Water to mix
Tray to mix in
Tray to dry in
Carboard box to store
Old Newspapers
Mix the dry clay and compost together and sprinkle enough water to make a tough dough consistency. Make the dough into balls for smaller seeds and flatten the balls for larger seeds like Mango - add 1 single seed for Mango in centre of the flattened ball and 2-3 of the smaller fruit or other seeds. Coat the entire seed with the dough and reshape the circle
Let the seed balls dry for 1 day in the son
Store in layers in cardboard boxes separated with newspaper
Drop in plating areas when it is raining
You can also make a small depression where you drop them but this is not necessary.
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