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Mugwort Plant Juice, Seawater Storage, Chicken Manure Timing

March 23, 2025 · by Drake Weinert

Drake opens with a story: a day off spent at a friend's ranch in the Puna district butchering a cow, and old 2009 footage of his first Korea trip with Master Cho, Dr. Park, and legendary farmers Mike and Liz. From that trip: mugwort plant juice mixed with soju or vodka for disease prevention, and seawater stored in a buried vat that keeps up to four months, as long as no bubbles form.

A member asked about trouble loading Office Hours on the KNF Support site. Drake says the site may flag a viewer as a bot if they are not logged into YouTube, and asked for screenshots to reproduce the bug. He also admitted the site's video index has not been updated since December 22.

Watching Master Lee's poultry training footage, Drake covers a lightweight Korean weeding hoe (sharp, fragile, never pry with it), a combined soil probe reading temperature, moisture, pH, and EC (0.16 in this field), and why roots, not tillage, hold moisture in soil. Deep, soft soil lets heavy rain soak all the way down; hard soil just sheds it.

Master Cho grows corn five years straight in the same plot, using IMOs and chop-and-drop or roll-crimped cover crop instead of rotating crops, with no monocrop sickness. A living rye cover crop outperforms straw mulch by building roots into the ground while it mulches. Chicken manure stinks more than cow manure because it is more nitrogen dense; Drake says wait until plants are actively growing before applying it. Master Cho's nutrient cycle chart tracks a pepper plant's carbon-to-nitrogen needs from dormancy through fruiting. For the how-to on turning manure into IMO, Drake points viewers to Poultry Training video 7 of 10, around the 2 hour 17 minute mark.

Questions answered

  • 12:42 Can mugwort plant juice help with disease? — Mix mugwort plant juice with soju or vodka and drink it for prevention, though Drake says it's not medical advice.
  • 13:28 How do you store ocean water long term? — Bury a vat and store it underground; it stays good about four months as long as no bubbles form.
  • 17:44 Trouble loading KNF Support office hours page? — Drake said the site may flag you as a bot if you're not logged into YouTube; he asked for screenshots to reproduce it.
  • 24:03 What is that little pointed hoe Master Lee uses? — A lightweight Korean weeding hoe, great for hand weeding but fragile, so never pry or lever with it.
  • 25:25 What does the soil probe measure in the field? — Temperature, moisture, pH, and EC together; this field read an EC of 0.16.
  • 34:03 Does tilling help soil hold moisture? — No, roots hold moisture, not tillage; forest soil stays moist under leaf litter because of roots.
  • 35:30 How does soil depth affect heavy rain runoff? — Hard, shallow soil sheds rainwater; deep, soft soil lets heavy rain soak all the way down.
  • 36:51 Can you grow the same crop repeatedly without monocrop sickness? — Yes, add IMOs and cover crop each cycle and you can grow the same crop for years without crop failure.
  • 37:39 Does nature actually rotate crops? — No, nature reseeds the same plants in the same spot year after year; rotation isn't how natural systems work.
  • 41:02 How does living rye cover crop compare to straw mulch? — Living rye builds soil faster than straw because its roots keep growing into the ground while it mulches on top.
  • 47:16 How can you tell how nitrogen-rich manure is? — Smell it; chicken manure stinks and burns your nose because it's nitrogen dense, cow manure is milder.
  • 48:39 When should you apply chicken manure to plants? — Wait until the plants are actively growing before adding it, rather than putting it down right away.
  • 49:20 What is Master Cho's nutrient cycle chart showing? — It tracks a pepper plant's carbon-to-nitrogen needs through dormancy, growth, fruiting, and back to dormancy.
  • 54:21 Where can I see how Master Cho makes IMO from manure? — Skip to Poultry Training video 7 of 10, around the 2 hour 17 minute mark.

Topics: mugwort, plant juice, seawater, imo, cover crop, rye, chicken manure, cow manure, nutrient cycle, soil ec, korean hoe

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 I Ching: Hexagram 41, Decrease
  2. 6:50 Butchering a cow with old KNF friends
  3. 8:22 2009 Korea trip: Master Cho, Dr. Park, Mike, Liz
  4. 11:55 Mugwort plant juice with soju for disease
  5. 13:28 Storing ocean water in underground vats
  6. 17:44 KNF Support website bot-detection issue
  7. 24:03 Master Lee poultry training: Korean weeding hoe
  8. 25:25 Soil probe: temperature, moisture, pH, EC
  9. 34:03 Roots vs tillage for holding soil moisture
  10. 35:30 Deep soft soil vs hard soil in heavy rain
  11. 36:51 No monocrop sickness when using IMO
  12. 41:02 Living rye cover crop vs straw mulch
  13. 47:16 Chicken manure vs cow manure smell test
  14. 48:39 Timing manure application to growth stage
  15. 49:20 Master Cho's nutrient cycle chart for pepper
  16. 54:21 Making IMO from chicken manure (reference clip)
  17. 56:24 Wrap-up and sponsor thanks

Transcript

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

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