Skip to main content
← Back to Office Hours

IMO Turning and Storage Tips, BMW Water Oxygenation

Drake opens by remembering Master Cho, who died this week at age 93 after several strokes and years in a care home. He shares a photo from the family's remembrance and the story of Master Cho's Chinese civilian award for designing a no-smell pig pen ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

On the farm, Drake shows two 275-gallon drench tanks that catch roof runoff, get dosed with stored fish amino acid, lactobacillus, and occasional seawater (about 10 gallons per tank), then drain through 2-inch pipe onto the pasture. A new weather station at pureknf.org now tracks rainfall, humidity, and solar radiation; this week it logged 1.84 inches of rain.

The rest of the hour rewatches Master Cho and Master Lee turning IMO at Master Lee's farm. Master Lee uses a hiller-blade machine to throw piles into hills, then shovels the burnt, clumpy edges into the center to homogenize. Good IMO smells like rich forest floor; charred, asphalt-smelling material means the pile overheated. Finished IMO should stay slightly moist, get stored in baskets raised about 10 centimeters (3 inches) off the ground for airflow, and not be stacked more than three baskets high or held too long before use.

Master Lee also runs mixed chicken feed through a homemade trommel sifter to remove stones, and demonstrates his BMW (bacterial mineral water) unit, which drops well water about 3 meters onto stones inside a shielded, insulated column to oxygenate the water and keep out algae.

Questions answered

  • 3:43 What happened to Master Cho? — Master Cho passed away this past week at age 93, after multiple strokes and years in a care home.
  • 23:00 How is the farm's drench tank set up? — A 275-gallon tank fills from a roof gutter, gets dosed with stored fish amino acid and lactobacillus, then drains through 2-inch pipe onto the pasture.
  • 26:06 Do you add minerals to the drench tank? — Drake sometimes dumps about 10 gallons of seawater into the 275-gallon tank before draining it out.
  • 27:27 What's new for research on the farm? — A live weather station at pureknf.org now tracks rainfall, humidity, and solar radiation; it logged 1.84 inches of rain this week.
  • 32:11 Why do microorganisms multiply so fast? — Master Cho taught it's because they want more offspring, the same principle of respecting and multiplying that runs through nature.
  • 35:17 How does Master Lee turn his IMO piles without breaking a sweat? — He built stall walls and uses a BCS-type hiller machine to throw the pile into hills, then shovels the edges back to the center.
  • 39:55 Why isn't the IMO on the edge of the pile good? — Edge material turns anaerobic and grows the wrong microbes, like actinomycetes, instead of the ones you want.
  • 40:35 How do you know if IMO turned out right? — Good IMO smells like rich forest floor; go smell leaf mold in a forest to learn the target smell.
  • 44:15 What does bad, overheated IMO look like? — It turns dark and charred because that part of the pile got too hot and wasn't turned in soon enough.
  • 46:14 What material should you use to make IMO if you're not sure? — Use rice mill run like Master Lee, or build a custom blend as long as it has enough carbon, fats, and oils.
  • 47:53 How should finished IMO be stored? — Let it rest and cool, keep it slightly moist, but don't hold it too long or it forms hard lumps.
  • 49:30 How do you store IMO baskets to keep them aerobic? — Set baskets on sticks about 10 centimeters (3 inches) off the ground so air flows underneath and the bottom doesn't go anaerobic.
  • 53:33 How does Master Lee keep stones out of chicken feed? — He runs the mixed feed through a homemade trommel sifter to remove stones before feeding the chickens.
  • 56:42 What does the BMW machine do? — It oxygenates well water by dropping it about 3 meters onto rocks inside a shielded, insulated column, which also blocks sunlight so algae doesn't grow.

Topics: imo, bmw, fish amino acid, lactobacillus, drench tank, seawater, master cho, master lee, weather station, chicken feed, imo storage

KNF Office Hours is a free live Q&A every Sunday at 9 AM HST. Bring your question to pureknf.org/learn/questions or join live.

In this episode

  1. 0:00 Welcome and greeting
  2. 0:30 I Ching reading: Progress hexagram
  3. 3:43 Remembering Master Cho, who passed away
  4. 23:00 Farm tour: drench tank setup
  5. 26:06 Adding seawater minerals to the drench
  6. 27:27 New weather station at pureknf.org
  7. 30:39 Rewatching Master Cho and Master Lee teach IMO
  8. 32:11 Why microorganisms multiply
  9. 35:17 Master Lee's hiller machine for turning IMO
  10. 39:55 Spotting bad, anaerobic edge IMO
  11. 40:35 Smell test for good IMO
  12. 44:15 Burnt, charred IMO from overheating
  13. 46:14 Substrate choices for IMO
  14. 47:53 IMO storage and moisture tips
  15. 49:30 Basket storage with airflow underneath
  16. 53:33 Trommel sifter removes stones from chicken feed
  17. 56:42 BMW: oxygenating well water over rocks
  18. 1:00:19 Wrap-up and thanks

Transcript

Auto-transcribed with Whisper. Click any timestamp to play from there.

Share