Regan Demesne Kilmore

1
Biodynamic Wine Growing
2
R E G A N K I
L M O R E
D E M E S N E
3
B Y L A N D S
4
When Orion and the Dog Star move into the
mid-sky, and Arcturus sees the rosy-figured
dawn Hesiod 8th C BC
5
Historical references

• In ancient Greece and Rome wine was a cultural
  symbol of death and regrowth.
• Louis Pasteurs understandings of alcoholic
  fermentation changed the nature of wine growing
  and winemaking
• Scientific and rational agriculture replaced
  spiritual approaches with N K P

6
Rudolph Steiner 1861

• The Agriculture Course, June 1924
• Koberwitz, former Eastern Germany
• a series of 8 lectures to farmers
• became the foundation for the Biodynamic method
  of Agriculture

7

• The best sound a vine can hear is the noise of
  the wine-growers feet
• Nicholas Mills
• Rippon Vineyard Central Otago NZ

8

1. The Soil
2. The Vine
3. The Cosmos

9
The Soil
10
Conventional Organic Biodynamic
11
A system of manuring will maintain and
sustain the humus content, microbiological life,
and earthworm activity of the soil. Peter
Proctor Grasp the Nettle
N leaf growth P root development, respiration,
photosynthesis K sap flow and photosynthesis
12
Biodynamic Compost Preparations 502 507

• Combine with forces or processes and
  substances to vitalise ordinary compost into
  biodynamic compost.
• 4 elements of nature earth, water, air and warmth

13
Biodynamic Compost Preparations 502 507

1. Yarrow
2. Chamomile
3. Stinging nettle
4. Oak bark
5. Dandelion
6. Valerian

14
Biodynamic Compost Preparations 502 507

• Yarrow The lungs
• Chamomile The stomach
• Stinging nettle The liver
• Oak bark The brain
• Dandelion The self
• Valerian The blood

15
502 Yarrow (lungs)

• Breathes in cosmic influences.
• Connection to sulphur and potassium.
• Contains potassium and selenium.
• Potash forming

16
503 Chamomile (stomach)

• Digestion
• Contains sulphur
• Works on calcium and potash
• Prevents malformations

17
504 Stinging Nettle (liver)

• Cleanses
• Decomposed organic matter into mineral
• Makes compost and soil sensitive
• Intelligence and awareness

18
505 Oak Bark (brain)

• Reigns in excess
• Protects, heals
• Tannic acid give insecticidal properties
• Calcium (living form) for health and growth
• Prevents fungal attack
• Prevents excess vine vitality
• Raises pH without lime

19
506 Dandelion (self)

• Inner body, or the self
• Holds the other energies together
• Perfect potassiumsilica relationship
• Silica draws in outer planets cosmic forces

20
507 Valerian (blood)

• Warmth
• Concentrates phosphorous in the soil
• Attracts light for photosynthesis

21
Preparations 502 - 507

• Dont worry about the detail
• Concentrate on the principle
• Aim for balance
• Quality is more important than quantity

22
The vine must be made to struggle, but not to
the point of serious stress. So balance is
important.
Mme Lalou Bize Leroy Domain Leroy, Burgundy
23
Maria Thun Barrel Compost Spray

• Called cow pat pit in Australia and NZ
• Improves soil quality
• Repairs chemical soil damage
• Activates decomposition and microbial processes
• Aerates soil and improves soil structure
• Balances and stabilises soil nutrients
• Stimulates formulation of humus

24
Spreading biodynamic compost

• On soil in autumn when the earth breathes out
• Worms take compost into the topsoil
• Roots busy in autumn
• Lightly turn topsoil after spreading

25
How cow pat pit is used

• Sprayed in soil in Autumn when the earth inhales
• Used as a primer before solid compost and Horn
  Manure 500
• Spray two times a year to every 2 years
• Aim to get soil in balance by Spring

26
Cow pat pit raw materials

• Cow manure
• Biodynamic preparations 502 507
• Basalt (ground)
• Grains (ground)
• Eggshells (or dolomite or bentonite)

27
Cow pat pit preparation

• Insert solid biodynamic compost preparations
  separately into mixture
• Stinging nettle (504) in the centre to represent
  the sun
• Liquid valerian (507) sprinkled on top to warm it
  up.
• After 27 days dig and aerate with spade
• Two weeks later use on soil
• Looks very rich, dark, fine earth with a clean,
  earth smell

28
Cover crops

• Stimulate humus formulation
• Used to bring elements like N and CO² from the
  atmosphere the soil
• CCs also
• Biodiversity in monocultural vineyards
• Provide shelter for beneficial fauna
• Protect soil from erosion
• Improve soil structure (chicory and lucerne)
• Competition for weeds (clover)
• Force lateral or shallow vine roots deeper

29
Cover crops

• Why do biodynamic farmers sow cover crops instead
  of leaving natural soil cover?
• Cover crops provide greater nutrients than weeds
• If you want to grow wine you must compensate
• Vines are perennial plants
• Weeds are left in place, mowed, mulched or
  ploughed

30
The Vine
31
The Vine Preparations

• Steiner devised three further preparations used
  as sprays
• Horn Manure (500)
• Horn Silica (501)
• Horsetail (508)

32
First Use of 500 and 501

• Use horn manure (500) before starting with horn
  silica (501) when converting to biodynamics
• Encourage strong root system (500) before
  developing upper part of plant (501)

33
Horn manure (500)

• Grass is energised in the cows stomach
• Cows give powerful force and energy digesting the
  grass
• Grass is released as manure
• Manure is buried in cow horn for 6 months over
  winter
• 501 Stimulates the soil but is not a fertiliser
• Contributes to veins taste of place, terroir and
  soil

34
Raw Material 500

• Cow dung from pasture grazed, pregnant or
  lactating cows, cow horns of native breed should
  have previously calved
• Collect fresh cow pats in Autumn
• Make preparations immediately
• Bury filled horns at autumn equinox in a shallow
  pit in well drained earth, horn facing down

35
500 When Ready

• Dig up in Spring equinox
• Should be slightly loose, dark brown, smell of
  humus rather than manure
• Can be mixed with Cow Pat dung, chamomile, willow
  or nettle tea, horn clay
• Spray on soil in large droplets
• Penetrates soil more easily after light rain
• Can keep for 36 months well stored in a dark
  place surrounded by peat

36
Horn Manure 500 Benefits

• Builds soil structure and humus
• Attracts and stimulates beneficial soil life
• Mycorrizal fungi interface between vine and soil
• Brings energy and life to roots
• Stimulates deeper stronger root growth
• Stimulates release of soil trace elements
• Helps regulate leaves by lime and N in soil
• Increases water holding capacity
• Stimulates generation of seeds

37
Ideally, biodynamic agriculture should bring
about a balance between the calcium and silica
forces, between inward growth and outer form,
between dark and light, between the tangible
and the intangible, between the inward pull of
gravity and the outer pull of the
cosmos Rudolph Steiner
38
500 Polar Opposite to 501

• Horn Manure 500
• Acts on calcium or lime processes (terrestrial),
  in dark earth, roots
• Calcium works from inside out
• Horn Silica 501
• Horn silica acts on silica processes
• Silica works from outside in
• Growth above and drawn to light

39
When to Apply 500

• 500
• Filed horn with 500 soil through winter solstice
  (days are longest) to spring equinox when the
  earth exhales and atmosphere above brightens
• During a root period when earth is breathing in
  during the descending moon in the afternoon

40
How Often to Apply 500

• 2 to 4 times a year
• Once or twice late Autumn after harvest when
  earth breathes in
• Again once or twice in early spring as first
  shoots appear before earth breathes out
• 60 to 120 grams (1 horn) into 30 120 L water
  for 1 ha vines

41
Horn silica 501

• Silica makes up nearly 50 of earths crust
• Clear relationship between light and heat of the
  sun
• Sowers millions of tiny mirrors over the vines,
  intensifying the suns effect
• Brightens both the vines and the soil

42
Raw Material 501

• Quartz in crystalline form ground into a fine
  powder
• Can be collected any time
• Ground down to fine powder during winter
• Mix powder with water into dough-like paste and
  fill horns
• Bury in shallow pit in good earth, open site
• with Spring equinox or Summer solstice Moon in
  front of an air/flow sign
• Underground all Summer when earth forces directed
  outwards to cosmos

43
501 When Ready

• Dig up at Autumn equinox or Winter solstice
• Spray over tops of vines and on leaves as fine
  spray
• Keep in glass jar, in light, sunny position
• Growers in hotter climates such as Australia (and
  specific regions within Australia) are wary of
  over-using horn silica and burning the vines

44
Horn Silica 501 Benefits

• Influence seem in upper (cosmic) part of plant
• Allows leaves and shoots to enhance use of light
  and heat
• Improves photosynthesis
• Augments plants assimilation of atmospheric CO²

45
Horn Silica 501 Benefits

• Encourages light or Summer processes to
  strengthen plant against fungal or insect attack
• Augments ripening, raises sugar (baumé) levels in
  both sap and crop
• Allows crops to keep longer once picked

46
When to Apply 501

• In spring stimulates vines upward growth towards
  the sun in 2 ways encourages cell division and
  fruitfulness (consistent crop and reserves buds
  for following year)
• Avoid during flowering (inhibits fruit set)
• Moon-Saturn opposition in months before ripening
• Ascending moon under Leo favours seed ripening
  and stable yields
• End of ripening pushes vine into Autumn mode
• After harvest leaves falling, to ripen shoots ad
  prevent disease in leaf stem opening

47
When to Apply 501

• Spray early morning as vines warm up
• 2 to 6 grams in 30 to 300 L water
• Dynamise for 1 hour
• Spray within 3 hours of dynamising
• Can add 508 Horsetail (Equisitum)

48
Horsetail 508 (Equisetum)

• She-Oak or Asuarina Stricta is used in Australia
• 70 silica relates to light
• Strong sulphur component is antifungal
• Counteracts excess moon influence in soil that
  encourages fungal diseases
• Treats vines directly not via compost
• 100 g p/ha
• Stir 20 minutes
• Fresh 508 preparation fine spray on vines
• Fermented 508 droplets sprayed on soil

49
Horsetail 508 (Equisetum)

• Concentrated concoction diluted as needed
• Use as often as needed between Spring and Autumn
• Use in Summer during flowering mid morning when
  flowers open and receptive to solar forces
• Spray before strong lunar influence or wet
  weather
• Reduction in need for sulphur dust for Powdery
  Mildew or oidium
• Reduction in need for Bordeaux Mixture (copper
  sulphate, lime, water) for Downey Mildew

50
Celestial bodies

• Inner celestial bodies closest to the sun (e.g.
  our Moon, Mercury and Venus) favour the calcium
  force
• Outer planets (e.g. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn)
  bring silica influences
• Biodynamic calendars show the position of the
  planets
• Moon-Saturn opposition reinforces the action of
  horn silica 501

51
Horsetail 508

• Supplants horn silica
• Creates a downward movement
• Works to push fungal level down off plants into
  the soil reducing risk of fungal attack

52
The Dynamics of Biodynamics practical level

• Preparations are first stirred dynamized in
  water
• dissolves substances and helps microbes multiply
  fast
• Stirring makes links the solid and the liquid
• Stir one way (whirlpool) then the other mirrors
  N-S poles influence on water in motion

53
The Dynamics of Biodynamics spiritual level

• Spiritual level - vortices are life giving, bring
  spirit into water and preparations, water becomes
  dynamic carrier of life energy
• Outside in draws in energy, inside out disperses
  energy from within
• Changing direction undergoes chaos (imprint of
  the cosmos)

54
Stirring methods

• Stir by hand
• Electrically powered machine
• Flow-form fountains
• Flow form vortices are spread horizontally
• Bucket form vortices are spread vertically

55
Weeds, Pests Diseases
56
Weed Control

• Mulching
• Weed tea - apply and correct missing nutrients
• Weed ashing - when weeds have set seed, collect
  seeds, leaves and roots, spread ash on ground
• Sow cover crops

57
Pest Control

• Read and understand message pest is sending is
  it a beneficial predator?
• Appearance of pests from poor soil management
• Removing pest from ground habitat seeks new
  habitat in vine canopy
• Pest ashing - burn and spread pest pepper (or
  dynamise spray) to discourage pests

58
Disease Control

• Prevention not cure
• Prune and shoot positioning so bunches hang
  freely
• Manage new shoot growth to precent excess shade
  and humidity within vine canopy
• Use dusting sulphur, lime sulphur or Bordeaux
  Mixture to control Powdery and Downy Mildew
  (approved for Organic and biodynamic vineyards)

59
Disease Control

• Spray during dry weather so protects as barrier
• Never spray on wet grapes because upsets yeasts
  and starts berry fermentation
• Precents vine wood diseases
• Biodynamic pruning paste - cow manure whey and
  diatomaceous earth /clay, seals crevices where
  fungals diseases may overwinter

60
Biodynamic Remedies

• Teas put plant in boiled water then soak
• Decoction put plant in water then boil
• 500 Urticae (500 nettle willow teas) for fan
  leaf viruses and weak vines
• Chamomile tea tempers stress of heat, cold,
  rain and drought

61
Biodynamic Remedies

• Nettle tea
• an astral plant, contains K, Mg, C, and Fe all
  stimulate vine sap
• soothes chlorosis
• repletes and liberates Fe in soil
• smell acts as insect repellant
• mix with Bordeaux mix leaves softer faster

62
Chemicals

• Pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, herbicides
• Calculated 142 g chemicals per 750 ml bottle of
  wine
• _at_7,000 bottles per Ha
• 20 spray treatments per year
• X 400 L of liquid 1 T per Ha per year
• X liquids added 20 to 40 T per Ha per year
• 1 T chemical spray diluted at 120 or 140
  strengtht is needed to treat 1 Ha of vines

63
The Cosmos
64
We shall never understand plant life unless we
bear in mind that everything which happens on
the earth is but a reflection of what is
taking place in the cosmos
Rudolph Steiner
65
Cosmos

• There are 4 lunar cycles linked to the moons
  relationship with the sun
• Synodic (the sun)
• Apogee-Perigee (the earth
• Sidereal (the stars)
• Ascending descending (plane of the ecliptic)

66
Synodic (moon sun)

• 29.5 days moon and sun phase cycle
• Waxing (new to full moon)
• Waning (full to new moon)
• Felt through medium of water
• Waxing increase in moisture content of earth and
  atmospheric humidity (plant growth and fungal
  diseases)
• Waxing good time to apply compost spray,
  weed/pest ashes absorb easier

67
ApogeePerigee (moon earth)

• Ellipic
• 27.5 day period
• anomalistic month cycle
• Perigee Moons closest point to earth winter
  mood water realm, encourages fungal diseases
• Apogee moon furthest away from earth summer
  mood growth up and away

68
Sidereal (stars)

• 27.3 days 12 astronomical constellations and
  zodiac
• Sidera Latin for star
• Sequence recurs every 9 days, each 12 different
  between 0.5 and 3.5 days
• Earth Taurus, Virgo, Caprocorn
• Air Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
• Water Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio
• Fire Aries, Leo, Sagitarius
• Vine fruit/seed crop relates to fire sign, so
  time vineyard work to coincide with fire rhythm

69
Ascending Descending Moon (planes of the
ecliptic)

• 27.3 days moons rise and fall and rise
• Compared to sun 365 days
• Ascending rhythm of the moon invokes a
  Spring/Summer mood
• Descending invokes an Autumn/Winter mood
• When ascending earth breathes out. Plant growth
  concentrates above soil, sap flows upwards
• Descending earth breathes in. Plant growth
  concentrated underground, sap flows down

70
Moon Saturn Oppositions

• Celestial bodies stand opposite each other in the
  sky at 180 degrees
• E.g. full moon faces the sun
• E.g. moon faces Saturn

71
Biodynamic Status

• Difficult to time daily vineyard work precisely
  to favourable aspects of biodynamic calendar (and
  avoid unfavourable aspects)
• Therefore compromise 2.25 days average moon in
  front of each constellation
• Do not have to work to biodynamic calendar for
  B-D status
• B-D status awarded if preparations are used in
  sufficient quantity (not on when they are applied)

72
Demeter International

• Founded 1997
• Coordinates activities of individual Demeter
  Biodynamic certification programs worldwide
• 18 member countries (not Australia but includes
  NZ)
• Australia recognised by Demeter but federal
  government control biodynamics here

73
Demeter

• Greek Goddess of fertility
• Protector of all fruits of the earth
• Earth mother Da Mater. Roman name is Ceres
• When her daughter Persephone was kidnapped by
  Hades (Pluto) the god of the underworld, nothing
  grew on earth.
• Persephone was only returned by Hades for 6
  months of the year
• Persephone brought spiritual forces to earth
  manifest through plants
• This human consciousness (spirit) and development
  of agriculture (matter) are inextricably linked
  in biodynamics