The IMO#3 all mixed with soil and compost and laid over a bed of the allotment. After being covered in a layer of dried hay it was also covered by cloches to protect it a little more from the rain and attention from curious animals.

Hopefully 🤞 by next weekend it will covered in white fuzz & I’ll have made my first IMO#4. It will also have inoculated the bed it’s on prior to that being planted up or sown.

IMO#4 is a living soil amendment containing a broad spectrum of minerals and diverse local biology. I’ll store this in containers and it has a variety of uses.

I’ll add it in small quantities before I add any compost or mulch to the soil. It can be added to beds prior to seeding or planting or added to inoculate a compost pile. It can also be applied as foliar feed or soil drench.

#KoreanNaturalFarming #KNF #RegenerativeAgriculture #Allotment #Gardening #SoilHealth #Biodiversity #SoilBiology #Soil #GrowYourOwn #PeatFree #Compost

That’s the IMO#3. Nine days in the temperature is now falling below 40°C it’s maintained a high enough (I hope) heat and I’ve just peeled back the hay outer layer for a peek and look at all that white fuzz!

Today has to be IMO#4 making day. It’s the only chance I have in the coming days to do so. I’ll take it all up to the allotment this morning and mix it with an equal quantity of soil and compost, adding litres of rainwater and some FPJ, humic acid, basalt & gypsum, crushed eggshell, brown rice vinegar, vermicast, dried kelp and anything else rich in biology I have to hand.

#KoreanNaturalFarming #KNF #SoilBiodiversity #Gardening #SoilHealth #RegenerativeAgriculture #SoilBiology #Compost #Allotment

Two initial jam jars of a mix of chopped nettle leaves and brown sugar have made half a jar of fermented plant juice (FPJ) and the two jars of nettle material are now covered in homemade apple cider vinegar to make further distillations of FPJ. I should be able to repeat this process several times. A little of this FPJ goes a long way.

I dilute the nettle FPJ 1:1000 to use as a soil drench but mostly as a foliar feed throughout the growing season to provide the plants with a plant available, broad spectrum mineral amendment. I’ll also make a comfrey FPJ which I’ll use more with plants when they are fruiting.

#KoreanNaturalFarming #KNF #Gardening #Allotment #SoilHealth #GrowYourOwn #RegenerativeAgriculture

This photo was taken earlier this morning with an outdoor temperature of 2°C. I’ve no idea for how long or how much more heat the pile will build to but the indigenous microorganisms are doing their thing and feeding off the bran. The pile felt very toasty on a chilly spring morning.

#KoreanNaturalFarming #KNF #SoilBiodiversity #Gardening #SoilHealth #RegenerativeAgriculture #SoilBiology #Compost #Allotment

Peeling back the layer of hay there are small strands of white fuzz appearing on the surface of the bran inoculated with IMO#2. It’s not heated up as high or as fast as I was expecting but it was up to 25°C this morning after unexpected overnight rain and a low outside temperature of 5°C.

#KoreanNaturalFarming #KNF #IMO #Biodiversity #MicroOrganisms #Gardening #SoilHealth #RegenerativeAgriculture #SoilBiology #Soil

I had a go at making some IMO#3 today.

Indigenous Microorganisms (IMO) are captured & cultured by burying a box of cooked rice in the ground surrounded by leaf litter and fungal matter. White fuzz forms on the rice , this is IMO#1, add this to brown sugar and ferment it & you have a refrigerator stable IMO#2.

I added a tablespoon of IMO#2 to approx each 15 L of rainwater and mixed into bran until I had the right moisture level (i.e. when I squeezed the bran in my hand I had one or two drips of water between my fingers).

I used 35 kgs of bran. This should now heat up to 40°-50°C, will need turning to avoid going hotter. In a week this should be covered in white fuzz (IMO#3). 🤞

I’ll then add equal quantity of soil to the bran and again this should grow a white fuzz in a week. This will be IMO#4 and the end of the process. This can be stored and used as a biologically rich soil amendment.

#KoreanNaturalFarming #Gardening #SoilHealth #Soil #Allotment #Biodiversity

The Nettle Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ) 2023 vintage is underway. Easy to make: just combine chopped nettles with brown sugar and as it ferments add a weight to keep the nettles submerged under the liquid.

Ferment for several days then separate the liquid from the solid material. Extract further FPJ by adding apple cider vinegar to the solid nettle material, this can be done several times.

Useful as a shelf stable plant amendment containing broad spectrum minerals and nutrients in a plant available form. Dilute 1:500 to 1:1000 with rainwater and use as either a foliar spray or a soil drench. (A tablespoon of FPJ per 10L watering can is approx 1:500).

#KoreanNaturalFarming #RegenerativeAgriculture #Allotment #Gardening

@tickfoot Thank you for sharing the #KoreanNaturalFarming fermentation information. Small batch fermentation of nettles looks easy enough for almost every garden. Nettle plants are aggressive in our area. #Zone4b. The nettle underground runner is a championship sprinter.

I've written about a simple, low-cost method for extracting and converting the calcium from eggshells (or clam or oyster shells) into a plant accessible form that's shelf stable for years.

→ Eggshell takes ages to naturally breakdown into something plants can actually use
→ Calcium uptake requires proper watering
→ Calcium insufficiency often presents as blossom end rot.

https://tickfoot.sensorstation.co/handbook/knf/water-soluble-calcium.html

#koreannaturalfarming #permaculture #gardening