Goodness, Gracious Great Balls of… umm… Seed.
Continuing along our seedy theme, we have previously looked at direct seeding with a trailer mounted direct seeder, this month, Seed Balls.
Seed balls are a fairly simple way of getting seed into an area to (hopefully) germinate after a good rain event, they’re best going into areas of bare ground either after a fire or some other disturbance and only really recommended when you have plenty of seed.
Making seed balls is easy, you’ll need: some powdered fire clay (available from bbq/heating/hardware), a little slow release native fertiliser, a bit of “bulking agent” (in this case some crushed charcoal, some seed and water (and some rubber gloves are a really good idea too).
Dry ingredients into a bucket and mix them.
Add water and stir (if it’s too wet add some more clay), grab a bit and roll into a ball
Onto a tray and let them dry.
In this case the seeds used were a mix of Cooba (Acacia salicina), Western Golden Wattle (Acacia decora), False Sarsaparilla (Hardenbergia violacea), Silver Leaf Cassia (Senna artemisioides), Sticky Hops (Dodonaea viscosa ssp angustifolia, cuneata and spathulata), Blakely’s Red Gum (Eucalyptus blakelyi) with all but the Blakely’s Red Gum being heat treated (though normally I’d heat treat only half of the seeds just as a bit of an insurance in case of a dry period following germination).