Last year I put on seedbombing for a few farm folks. I've not been around the farm much, but I'd love to start coming by again and if you'd like to make an event for seedbomb-making I would definitely be down.
If you're interested in just making them on your own, I will give the following suggestions:
Use a terracotta air dry clay. I got a massive amount of it from the artist supply store up on 45th for fairly cheap last year and we barely used 1/3 of it. It's a nice brown color, breaks up easily after drying, and is easy to work with.
Mix in some compost. Besides the obvious reason of giving your seeds some help when they find a home, the compost is good for drying out and breaking up the clay. You probably want a 50/50 clay to compost mix (don't be afraid to overuse the compost, more is better!) and not too damp on the compost. Things like horse poop or dry leaves are good because they help the clay dry out faster so your seeds don't start putting out roots while the bombs are sitting out to dry.
Use a mix of hardy/ medium hardy seeds. It's still fairly early in the growing season and only the sort of plants that can overwinter are good for making seed bombs NOW. That said, if you want to make seed bombs full of seeds of peppers or basil or other fair-weather plants, wait until their sowing season is in flux to actually make the bombs. The timeline of seedbomb making is Day 1: Make bombs, set out in sunny place but NOT too warm. (Once again, seeds get confused and having gotten wet during the making process, will try to go to seed). Day 2: Make sure bombs are dry, stick in fridge until you use them. Use by Day 7.
Another note on seeds. Include something like radishes that will forcefully put down roots as this helps break the clay bomb faster. Seeds like respiration most of all when they are sown, and being encased in a clay ball doesn't help (but is another reason why the compost is good!) Another good thing to remember is that it's very likely these seeds will be in competition when they do put their roots down. So choose seeds that work well together. One grows up, one grows sideways, one grows down, that kind of thing. Finally, try to stick with PNW natives and try to make sure you're not seedbombing a nasty invasive, no matter how tasty it is.
Cheers!
Jamie B.
On Thu, 24 Feb 2011, Sophia Mehl wrote:
> Hi there!
> Last year around this time I believe a few farm folk put up
> something on the listserv about seedbombing. I'm interested in trying
> to organize some seedbombing myself and was wondering if anyone who's
> done that before could maybe help me out/offer some advice on how to
> do it, or maybe if someone knows the people who did it last year they
> could just let me know who they are so I could get in touch with them
> directly? Thanks so much!
> Sophia
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