Seedballs
With our research partners and leaders in the field we are pioneering SETs for ecological restoration. See more about our Seedpod Research and Fabrication Facility below, or here.
Each seedpod is a multi-layer coating that protects the seeds from disease, desiccation, and predators.
We utilize established priming technologies to increase germination rates and regulate latencies. One of our primary research goals is to significantly advance enhancement technologies with precision layering in order to regulate the amount of air and moisture available to the seed inside the seedball.
Seeds need to breathe and drink, at the right time, and in the right amount.
If appropriate to the ecosystem in which they are being cast we also inoculate the seeds with beneficial microbes and fungi to integrate the emerging root with the living soil where complex exchanges and communication networks enhance growth. These microorganisms can be gathered directly from soil at the seeding site and reproduced at the SRFF. This process ensures no invasive microbial or fungal species are introduced into the soil and integrates the seeds with its ecosystem from the start.
Stratification, scarification, and additional enhancement strategies can all be tailored to the specific variables of the species, the soil, and the micro-climate into which they are dispersed.
Ecoballs: the key to biodiverse restoration
Ecoballs contain the seeds of an entire ecosystem. From grasses, shrubs, and understory up to the canopy of the dominant species, an ecoball may have anywhere from 10-100 seeds inside it. Every seed in an ecoball is native to that ecosystem and works symbiotically with the other seeds, the fungi, and the microbial life in the soil to regenerate entire ecosystems.
Ecoballs: the key to large-scale restoration
Ecoballs contain the seeds of an entire ecosystem from grasses, shrubs, and understory up to the canopy of the dominant species. An ecoball may have anywhere from 10-100 seeds inside it. Every seed in an ecoball is native to that ecosystem and works symbiotically with the other seeds, the fungi, and the microbial life in the soil to regenerate entire ecosystems.
Ecoballs: the key to large-scale restoration
Ecoballs contain the seeds of an entire ecosystem from grasses, shrubs, and understory up to the canopy of the dominant species. An ecoball may have anywhere from 10-100 seeds inside it. Every seed in an ecoball is native to that ecosystem and works symbiotically with the other seeds, the fungi, and the microbial life in the soil to regenerate entire ecosystems.
More about seedball recipes in our Open Source pages here.
Primary materials:
Compost – the primary ingredient, houses the seeds and provides nutrients.
Clay – provides minerals and acts as a binding agent.
Site soil – introduces the seeds to the beneficial microorganisms (BMOs) and life already present in the soil they are to grow (recent research shows one teaspoon of healthy soil to contain more microorganisms than all the human beings to have ever lived.)
Hydrogel – provides slow-release moisture, critical to restoration in arid and semi-arid regions.
Non-toxic predator repellent – seeds are delicious and most creatures love them. We continue trialing non-toxic repellents like cayenne pepper – read more in our Open Source here.
Fungi often live inside the plant and are more a part of the plant than roots, branches, or leaves. They also function as an essential trading partner whose bodies extend from deep inside the plant to deep in the soil, delivering water and minerals to the plant in return for sugars and carbohydrates created by photosynthesis brought down from the leaves.
Fungi also function as a communication network for the ecosystem as a whole and deliver infochemicals – messages – in real time.
New View: Plant-fungal associations are more than associations. Fungi often live inside the tissue and cell interiors so densely that it may be more accurate to say fungi and plants “inter-are.” Often, and in the plants all around us everywhere, there is more fungi in a plant than there is plant in the plant.
NESTED BIOMES
The concept of nested biomes exists throughout the natural world. In our body for example, our digestive microbiome is nested inside us, and neither of us can live without the other.
In the natural world inseparability is the norm. Yellowstone showed science that when we remove the wolves, the forest disappears. Nested biomes enable living systems to function; it is also how living systems function optimally. Animals inter-are with our environments, just as our gut microbiome inter-is with us. Living beings and natural systems on Earth co-evolved into nested biomes interbeing with each other.
INTERBEING IS HOW THINGS REALLY (INTER)ARE.
