Beef Aminos, Coral Calcium, and IMO Troubleshooting
Drake opens with the I Ching's Inner Truth reading, then ties it to natural farming: work with the soil's trillions of microbes instead of forcing plants with chemicals.
Questions cover magnesium in pregnancy-phase citrus and tomatoes, chubby versus skinny growth stages, and timing leaf, puberty, and fruit sprays weekly. He gives IMO4 rates of 3 to 5 pounds per tree, LAB tea dosing of 200 ml per 55 gallons, and seawater math: 30 grams of sea solids per liter for full strength.
Substitution questions dominate: beef aminos for fish aminos, apple cider vinegar for brown rice vinegar, 190-proof vodka diluted to 35% for tincturing, and rye, wheat, or parboiled starches instead of rice for IMO. He also covers coral as a calcium source for KNF structure, bone biochar, and stopping protector sprays two weeks before harvest to protect sweetness.
Viewer photos of IMO and JMS collections get reviewed live: filling boxes two-thirds full with rice, burying boxes in rich soil to keep critters out, and reading smell as the guide for cool-temperature JMS fermentation.
Questions answered
- 7:00 Should I wait for OHN before making IMO3? — No, go ahead anytime; OHN is only an added benefit, not a requirement.
- 8:20 Citrus trees always in pregnancy phase with yellowing new leaves — how do I keep magnesium up? — Make an FPJ from a magnesium-rich plant, and IMOs in the soil will find magnesium naturally over time.
- 14:52 How much IMO4 do I put around my trees? — About 3 to 5 pounds per tree, sprinkled around the drip zone.
- 16:55 Can I make a large batch of tea using just KNF Protectors (LAB)? — Yes, but include nutrients or the protectors will steal them; for 55 gallons use about 200 ml (0.2 liters).
- 18:45 Can I replace fish aminos with beef aminos since I'm far from the ocean? — Yes, it's a good substitute, especially the brains; pull the bones out when finished.
- 19:42 What's the sugar cap on top of KNF Fuel for? — It's just a starter dose that dissolves once — don't keep topping it up or you'll add too much sugar.
- 21:07 Will C90 sea salt at 4 grams per gallon make seawater? — That only makes diluted seawater; full-strength reconstituted seawater needs 30 grams of sea solids per liter.
- 24:30 Can I use apple cider vinegar instead of brown rice vinegar? — Yes, any fruit vinegar diluted to about 5% works fine as a KNF cleanser.
- 32:27 Can KNF structure and reproduction be made from a plant source? — No, but calcium can come from coral, which many people don't think of as an animal source.
- 34:10 My bone biochar vinegar didn't turn amber — is that a problem? — Color isn't the real indicator; a properly finished structure should taste sour and pucker your tongue from the phosphorus.
- 36:18 At what stage of fruiting should I stop using KNF Protectors? — Stop spraying protectors in the last two weeks before harvest or they'll pull sugars out and reduce sweetness.
- 38:34 Critters keep getting into my IMO collection boxes — what do I do? — Bury the box in rich soil, cover it with leaves and a basket or roof, and consider cats or traps to keep animals out.
- 47:13 Can cheap JMS microbes go bad while fermenting in cool temperatures? — Your nose knows: sweet or sourdough smell means it's good, rotten egg or vomit smell means it's gone anaerobic.
- 51:20 Can I use a different grain like rye or wheat instead of rice for IMO? — Yes, any hulled or cracked starch works — parboil it soft enough for microbes to penetrate but not mushy.
- 54:50 Should I add water to dandelion FPJ if I'm not getting much juice? — No, don't add water — that turns it into vinegar; add more sugar instead if you want more juice drawn out.
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
- 0:00 Intro and Welcome
- 2:10 I Ching: Inner Truth
- 4:20 Cooperating With Life Instead of Forcing Growth
- 7:00 Citrus in Australia; Making IMO3 Without OHN
- 8:20 Magnesium, FPJ, and Pregnancy-Phase Trees
- 9:40 Chubby vs Skinny Growth Stages
- 13:00 Timing Leaf, Puberty, and Fruit Sprays
- 14:52 IMO4 Rate Per Tree
- 16:55 LAB Protector Tea for Large Batches
- 18:45 Beef Aminos Instead of Fish Aminos
- 21:07 Making Seawater From Sea Salt
- 24:30 Vinegar and Alcohol Substitutes to Save Money
- 30:30 Reading an IMO Collection Photo
- 32:27 Coral for KNF Calcium and Structure
- 36:18 Protectors and Fruit Sweetness Timing
- 38:34 Keeping Critters Out of IMO Boxes
- 47:13 Cheap JMS Microbes: Temperature and Smell
- 51:20 Substituting Grains for Rice in IMO
- 54:50 Dandelion FPJ Ratios, No Water Added
- 1:01:50 Pure KNF Foundation and knfsupport.com
Transcript
Auto-transcribed with Whisper. Click any timestamp to play from there.
1:00 Well, hey, good morning. Sorry. No, no, there's sound. I, uh... Oh, man. Tell ya. getting everything up and getting everything going all on time it's nothing like running a live show when you're oh all right well welcome to april 24th sunday hello from america all the way to
1:47 jamaica all the way around the world thanks for joining in our korean natural farming office hour get started with a little bit of higher guidance to help us find and center ourselves before we jump into it. So today is talking about inner truth. And what it says is through openness and gentleness, the correct solution is reached. So arriving at the correct solution to a difficult situation requires a receptivity to inner truth. Unless we are willing to put aside the strong emotions of our ego and devote ourselves to discovering what is right, there can be no hope
2:36 of progress at this time. Help only comes when we invite it with a sincere and innocent attitude. The I Ching teaches us a simple but effective method of influencing difficult people and arduous situations. It advises us first to lay aside our prejudice, our feeling of being wounded, angry, or in the road. Second, to understand the position of others and the lesson of the sage is teaching us with this situation. Even when another is truly out of line, it is only by accepting this and remaining balanced that you can make it possible for
3:22 positive change to occur. Gentleness and understanding create in others an unconscious willingness to be led. The superior person therefore avoids the use of anger and force in trying times, knowing that they only prolong conflict. It is far wiser to accept that each experience we have is necessary for us to learn something about ourselves and the higher laws of life. The greatest openings come when we meet difficulty with acceptance, gentleness, and a desire to understand the lesson underneath.
4:10 so before we jump into it i'm going to pull up some questions here but that inner truth is definitely one of those things that we have to do with natural farming for sure um you know if you try to force things you try to um make it happen without just letting nature and connecting with earth with god with all of the microbiome. We're more, instead of where traditional farming, you're like going to put a plant in the ground and then throw chemicals and force it to grow. And, you know, if a plant's not doing good, you're going to throw all these chemicals at it and like force and change.
4:57 Natural farming is so much more subtle. It's so much more easy to engage what's already happening and saying, instead of I'm going to force the plant to grow, how can I cooperate with trillions and trillions of other life forms that are already out there trying to do their best to grow our systems? So that's what I want to focus on here, the inner truth, not forcing things but connecting and making them better and if you start with that premise you will have a much easier time to do all the natural farming and to get those things together so um
5:46 so let's see here i got i got a bunch of questions um this week coming in um and even yeah so let's see hope you guys had a good um holiday this this past week was earth day the other day um didn't anyone plant a tree you know actually on earth day i i cut down some trees i uh not not completely i didn't kill them but i pruned a whole bunch. I just chopped and dropped a whole bunch of trees and made, made room for, um,
6:34 for what was growing out there. So trying to make room for my garden coming up this spring season. So, uh, let's see here. If I go like this and, um, I'm going to bring up this email here and I want to just get started here. Berlin, who's down in Australia, she's down in New South Wales. They've been starting natural farming down there to just a couple months ago on their citrus citrus orchard. And, um, if you remember back in 2000, um, they had that, those huge fires, um,
7:24 and, um, that took them out and there you go. You guys can read this a little bit here. Um, so they're, they're really trying to get their, um, their natural farming together. And, um, you know, she, she's waiting for OHN to make IMO three. And let me tell you, it's only an added benefit. There's no need to wait to, um, to get your OHN to make the IMO. You can just go for it. Um, anytime it just gets better. You know, it got to function as a medicine, a purifier, a biostimulant, but it's really, um, the microbes plus the food, plus the cleanser
8:10 and all the rest of the ingredients that go in, you'll be good. Okay, so she's asking this question that's real common here in citrus farming that says, the trees always seem to be in the pregnancy phase, flower, fruit set, and fruiting. Yet the new leaves are appearing and then turn yellow. I'm trying to keep the nutrition up on them, but not overdo it. We have the winter season arriving soon. How do I keep the new leaves green without magnesium? I am foliar spraying them weekly with the pregnancy recipe. I also drip irrigate with sea salt.
8:50 Okay, so the magnesium and how to get that is make a fermented plant juice out of something that aggregates magnesium. and I'm sure a quick search on the internet would reveal you know plants that are high in magnesium those are great candidates to add for food and that will start to add magnesium back in and then also as your IMOs start to get into the soil they will find the magnesium in the earth so increasing your IMOs but when you say the trees always seem to be in the pregnancy phase. This is true with a fair amount of plants that if you look at, like for instance,
9:39 tomatoes, where they go and they'll throw out a fruit flower, then that'll start to fruit and then it's always have fruit and flowers on it while it's trying to grow. But you will notice there's about a two-week cycle that's happening. And the same is true probably for the citrus. Like for instance, I have a lime tree here that is always flowering and fruiting simultaneously. But you will notice that when new leaves are coming out, they'll start to put tiny little leaves. And what we call this, right when it, like you'll notice
10:21 the tiny leaves are coming out. And then what happens is those things spread out. And then there's tiny little leaves and they spread out. And it's more clear on a plant like a tomato, which is growing faster, which is always in these growth stages, or something like a papaya tree that's also going through these always flowering, always fruiting, always growing at the same time. But these all fit into a similar group of plants, like a class of plants that are always going through these, but they usually are rotating on a two week or a certain cycle where what you're
11:00 wanting to do is to look at the leaves. And when they're just starting, like the very tips of the plants, when they're just like, when they're just starting to grow like that, and they're just like, they're putting out a bunch of things. That's what is called a cumulative growth stage. And that's what I call chubby growth. So it's trying to chub up and trying to get chubby because it's growing all these plants right here. And then those things go and they stretch out. And when they're in the stretching period, that's more of the reproductive growth. So even though,
11:37 you know, it's called leaf growth and pregnancy and reproduction in those names, it's also the leaf growth is also that accumulative growth, that chubby phase of growth where things are putting on and it's getting like chubby like this, it's just like a kid. You'll see it, you know, a toddler will get a little chubby and then they'll go through a growth spurt and they'll grow. And it's the same thing. If you can notice that it's in. So this is one of the hardest things to translate has been master chose trying to put this in a vocabulary because there's, it's hard to describe
12:11 because we don't really have a name for it besides like, you know, chubby or a cumulative or, or leaf growth. It's growing those leaves. And then the reproduction phase of it is actually when it's stretching and it's called the skinny growth. So even though you think reproduction, you know, things would get chubbier, it's not that case. It's the reproductive, that is the stretching or the using of that stuff. And so in the growth phase, if you're really able to tune into your lime trees, your tomatoes, your papayas, these things that are always in these stages,
12:52 you will notice that it starts to go and grow chubby and then stretching. And so when it's chubbing up like that and it's starting to be chubby, that's when it needs the leaf growth spray. That's when it needs the, you know, the vegetative spray because it's growing vegetation. When it's starting to reach out and stretch, that's when in the reproduction, the growth. And I'm sorry, this is confusing. It's not like I, it's confusing for Master Cho too. People go sit there and they'll be like, what is he saying? And, but if you can understand that concept of
13:27 what I'm saying, like a cumulative growth and then stretching growth, and those are the two differences between chubby and stretching. So leaf and then reproduction, reaching out and, you know, reproduction might make you think it's just about the fruits. It's not, it's, it's that reaching growth. And, um, you know, it's hard to just put one name on that phase, um, to, to say what it is because it also has to do with your fruits and the sweetness and the stage. And the nutrient cycle is one of the more complex things. But if you can understand that you'll,
14:03 you'll, you'll really be better at it, chubby and then reaching. So those are the two. And then your reproductive is happening when your plant is going through flower phase. So in a lime, It's almost like you could go out one week and spray a leaf spray, the next week spray the reproductive spray, or excuse me, the changeover, the puberty spray, and then the third week spray the fruit spray. And if you alternated each week doing that, you know, and you had the time and energy to do it, you had an easy sprayer where you could just throw your solutions in and drive
14:37 through or just spray them with your hand sprayer, get that super efficient, you will have beyond good growth. Um, so, um, and then, um, Berlin is also asking, um, how much IMO4 do I put around my trees? And the answer is it's about five pounds per tree, um, between three to five pounds per tree that if you spread that out and, um, you know, an easy way to do it is to take, um, kind of like a bucket or, um, you know, it's a load, like a, um, a, like almost like a tennis can thing or, or a tall jar with the IMO and then just walk around like this and you'll sprinkle it
15:25 out in the area around the drip zone. And, um, it is worth doing with lower temperatures. I know down in Australia, you guys are headed into, um, you know, winter right now. And so it is worth doing because during that winter time when things slow down those microbes will start to penetrate into your soil and of course if you can spray them with the soil solution on top and and feed them especially after you spread them feed them a couple weeks in a row they'll penetrate down so just around the drip line walk around the tree like a donut i've showed a couple videos of that
16:02 here of me doing it and real easy to do. So great, great time to do that. Let's see here. Then we get, no, this is someone trying to do ads. um so brayland is there um then we got a question here um so i'll answer stonemason's one since you're here live right now what's up stonemason how's it in indiana and also thank you for the donation got that um really appreciate it man um it's it's huge um thanks for thanks for kicking
16:49 down, it always, that's, you know, put you in the priority queue and answer your questions here. Can I make a large batch of tea just using the KNF police and the nutrients the same way I would make a liquid IMO? 55 gallons, how much LAB culture should be added? Yes. Yes, totally. um it's just like an em spray it's it's it's super effective the one thing you know i when i talk about the can of police also called can of protectors is that you know if you put them out there without payment they will get angry and start to steal nutrients but if you're putting
17:30 them out without other nutrients you should be 100 good on doing that and making a tea that way is really good. And so instead of IMOs, just using the lacto and the KNF protectors. And basically, for a 55-gallon barrel, you'd use around 200 milliliters, roughly. And that'll get you there. So 0.2 liters and, um, that'll get you there. Um, yeah. Um, yeah. And, um, to encourage mushrooms, if you want them in an area,
18:17 um, spraying the, spraying the nutrients, um, out on the soil, um, getting those out there, uh, your mycelia will bloom, um, but it's growing year round and it's only, uh, popping during certain seasons. So, excuse me. Okay. So I'm going to go and answer, uh, Kristen Springer. Um, she asked, uh, she's up in Saskatchewan, um, sub Canada. Uh, and, um, so she's, she's far from the ocean. And so she's asking about replacing the fish fish aminos with beef aminos. Totally go for it. It's a good idea. You know, using their meat,
19:09 some of their guts is okay. You know, there's a lot of good stuff in there. Their brains are really good to put in there. And then when you're done, pull out those bones and use them for something else. um and yeah no it's it's actually it's a good thing to do um and people have been asking about the sugar cap on top of these um um you know the sugar cap on top of the fuel and don't worry it's not supposed to remain dry. And don't keep topping the cap up. Just set it once and it'll get wet and it'll dissolve. It's just the sugar cap is just to start. It's not like that thing when I crack
19:58 mine open years later, there's a sugar cap. There's all the sugar is completely gone. Like it's supposed to go away. So don't top it up. You'll add way, way too much. And thanks for the super chat, Jennifer. Awesome. Yeah. Thanks for supporting. This is great. Really appreciate you guys, um, getting, getting some donations and all that keeps me going. Um, and yeah, also all, all of the, so, um, George is asking a follow-up on this, that all, all of the beef parts are good. The fat flesh brains, whatever, whatever parts, um, you know, I mean, whatever you got left,
20:36 you can throw in there. Um, you know, if you're not going to eat it or whatever, um, just throw it in with some equal parts of sugar and it should go. Um, and someone's asking, uh, about the, uh, mega profit farming book. Um, and I think I'm sold out on that. So I'll have to, I'll have to get back to you on that there. Um, okay. And so, um, her second question here is she sourced some C90 sea salt and will it make seawater at four grams of gallon? And, um, if you're going to try to, if you're going to try to make seawater back from sea solids, it's 30 grams per
21:29 liter. So that would be times four for a gallon. It'd be 120 grams per gallon of salt going back in. So if you're just diluting four grams per gallon, what you are making is diluted sea salt seawater so you do so you don't need okay um i think i'm back sorry i just had a crazy power failure here and um yeah so interesting yeah okay well it is back so interesting thing here and then someone's telling me I should remove the personal data from the message well
22:20 guess what if you email me it's you know it's pretty public there you gotta expect this and um just you know pulling up the email getting back into this um it's always funny you know um i tell you what it's it's funny i watch people on youtube and the the creators talk about this it's like you can get um so much positive stuff but if one person talks about like some negative thing it really just cuts at you and when someone tells me i should take out the personal stuff it's just basically like the whole thought I have is just like, I should just not do this at all. Why,
23:06 why am I even doing this? You know, it's like this, uh, it's an interesting thing of like, you know, when you're volunteering to do something, it's, it's kind of hard to take criticism on a lot of stuff. And, um, I, you know, it's, it's, it's folks like that, where it's like, if you're gonna, um, say some negative stuff, it's like, I just want to ban you from this. It's like, why, why are you even tuning in if you're, if you're not going to be positive, or maybe, maybe you're trying to make a constructive criticism and maybe I'm taking it wrong, but, uh, it's, it's interesting. It's always,
23:39 it's always, uh, you know, when you're trying to put yourself out there for these things to, to get out there. So, um, let's see, where, where was I on this? Got Kristen's questions. There we go. Okay. So we'll jump back to that. So the C90, yeah. So anyway, if you're going to make sea salt or seawater from sea solids, 30 grams per liter, and then usually dilute that one to 30. So if you're just going to make diluted seawater, one gram per liter or four grams per gallon, and that's ended up diluted already. So, okay. So, and she's asking here, I'm going to go back. Well, okay.
24:24 Maybe there's a phone number. Maybe I won't even pull this screen up. I'll just do it without it. And it says, I have no access to brown rice vinegar, so I'm considering using a concentrated apple cider vinegar with the mother in it and diluting it with reverse RO or distilled water to get 5%. Yep. Absolutely. That's a comparable product. So if you can't get brown rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar, any vinegar made from a fruit fits into the KNF cleanser there. And let's see. Yeah, drop down. Let's see here. I want to pop this up.
25:09 I notice most people that also do online live streams and stuff, They almost always have like someone else to kind of run the tech. Whereas for me, it's like I'm running the tech and the show at the same time. And it's like, it's always this challenge here. I'm trying to balance out and get my chat up here. I just had to completely reconfigure my whole software to bring it back because for some reason it wasn't going in. Sorry. Sorry about getting knocked offline. um okay anyway so finding my inner truth trying not to force things trying to just find peace
25:56 within why am i here what am i doing what is my inner truth i think it is to help people around the world do natural farming you know come back to that find that what is that truth try not to fight against it here get knocked offline hey must be god trying to tell me something. Maybe I shouldn't be on the internet doing things, but look at all these people joining in from around the world, helping them out. That's really what I'm trying to do. So, um, would white vinegar be, no question number four here, would white vinegar be acceptable to extract,
26:30 um, the reproduction in the structure? And absolutely. I always use white vinegar. is absolutely awesome. Question number five, thoughts on buying 190 proof vodka and cutting it with distilled water? Yes. Save money, buy really concentrated stuff and dilute it down to 35% and then go for it and tincture. Um, and it's not beneficial to tincture at a higher proof like 80 you know um um you know 80 alcohol which proof and percent it's always um you know proof is half of what the percentage is um so just dilute it down to 35 and you'd be great right there
27:22 um so yeah so thanks i hope um hope your um the plant juice goes well for you and all that uh works out um okay let's see here um do we got any yeah negative spreads faster than positive oh that's true you you can get a thousand people to come out and protest something and it's very hard to get a single person to come out to build something um the negative does spread
28:10 faster. So, um, and since I got a question on this and it's something that I love and I want to talk about this for a second is, um, this one here, how, how do you feed my pigs on the internet? and the answer is you go to mypigs.com and here's here's bb taking a nap it looks like the camera just turned on here at 9 30 um right now i'm having some um power issues up at the barn where it's like and see this this other cam's not even on um but the key right now is lucky pig
29:05 and let's see if I feed her. I doubt, I doubt she's going to wake up and maybe the relay is not even online. Nope, it's not. Okay. So anyway, it's a work in progress, but the Twitter works now and the Twitter is tweeting. So if you want to follow it on Twitter and just get updates. It's at ChompCam, and I got this working so that it is coming directly from my Raspberry Pi, which is tweeting now, so that's pretty cool. But it's been a kind of a project that's been taking more of my time than it probably should, and it's not nearly
29:52 as popular as I thought it would be. We're at 60 tweets with only three followers, and thanks to So thanks to those folks that are doing that. It's good. But let's jump back to questions here. And, oh, I'm not supposed to show these. Yeah, that's right. Transition back. And thanks for reading this. Yeah. Let's see here. Okay. Okay. So, yeah. so he wanted to show some pictures of his IMO and let's so I will jump over here to look at these and so I'm looking at a picture of his IMO
30:39 collection and this one looks really good now you know you got enough sugar in there some of these little bubbles in there might indicate activity but it looks like he used some granulated sugar there, but looks to me normal storage. And then this one here where it's kind of getting moldy up above, you might want to add a little bit more sugar and keep that rice under. The whole point is to take these microbes that are here and to have them have the water pulled out and have them go to sleep. If they are up above where they are able to access like this area here where it's
31:21 able to access in this mold here. It's better if you added a little more sugar and or get that underneath so that the sugar will pull out the water and they will go to sleep completely. Yeah. Okay. And then Stone Mason saying his daughter just did a college photography project on IMO and speech on collecting and breeding them. That's awesome. That's the stuff we need being taught at colleges and getting those things into the people, the students. You never know how you're going to change someone's life and make it better by just teaching them these things.
32:11 You know, one class could change your whole life. Okay. So, so I'm going to jump over to Anne's question here. And she says, for about a year, I've been applying KNF solutions to her mango orchard in India. Wow. That's awesome. Thanks to your videos you've shared online. Cannot thank you enough for your persistence. Yep. Even after a power failure back, really trying to show up, even though sometimes I'm like, oh, the power failed. Maybe I can just end it for today. No, I'll be back. Only got a few more minutes, 15 more minutes here anyway. So really appreciate it. Definitely a sacrifice.
33:01 So she has a few questions. The structure and the reproduction, can this be made from a plant source? No. Real simple, no. Although the calcium you can make from coral, which I don't think most people consider that living. And just like, you know, how vegans don't necessarily think about all the microorganisms they're eating and all the plants, you know, all those things that they're eating. Coral, also people don't think of it as living. They think of it as a rock. And so you can get old coral and, um, and use that for your calcium. So if you're going to make KNF reproduction,
33:44 it can actually be made from coral. So if that's a plant source, although it's not, it's an animal source, but, um, so are a majority of everything. Um, when you think of it, you know, you got, you got microbes living in you, so do plants when you eat those. Um, so if you're trying to, you know, be vegetarian or something, um, you know, you're eating animals anyway, sorry to break it to you um and then she's saying i made a biochar of the bones in a retort really good idea that's what george was doing the other day super good idea um but when you
34:18 mixed it with the cleanser the color of the vinegar did not turn amber that's okay um if your bones were really well charred it probably should have um and no it um it the it's not it's It's not so much the color of the solution because the color, it's hard to tell. So if you're making can of structure, which from the charred bones and you're putting those into vinegar, it should be the taste at the end and it should have a sour taste that makes your tongue pucker, pulls it up and it's not the vinegar anymore. It's the sour from the phosphorus that you're tasting.
34:58 and if you are checking the pH of the finished structure I don't know what it is I should actually pH test mine and find out what a what a true good finished batch is but I would imagine it's going to come up to be more neutral and then lastly she or not lastly second to lastly she's asking here I have different fruit trees which I make vinegar from can we mix these vinegars can citrus vinegar be used on mango trees what should the acidity of the vinegar be and the answer is absolutely yes mix your mix your
35:45 vinegars, they should be fine. Citrus vinegar should be fine on mango trees. All that, the citric acid should have been somewhat shifted to become like acetic acid. And the acetic acid is much more digestible versus the citric acid. And I would imagine it's broken down that way. And the acidity of the vinegar should be below 2.5 if it's a true vinegar. Um, and then she's asking lastly about the protectors, uh, at what stage of fruiting should you not use the protectors to ensure sweetness? And so just not using it in the last two weeks.
36:30 So if, if I have like a nice fruit and I spray a bunch of KNF protectors on them, they are going to suck the sugars out through and pull and eat all those through the cell tissue and your fruit will end up not being as sweet. That's what she's talking about. So if you're prior to two weeks before you're gonna harvest, you should be fine to use the protectors. If you're using it that last time, it could make it a little bit less sweet. So good questions. Thanks, Anne. Hope everything's going great. Love the mangoes, all the things you're doing out in India and all that.
37:09 It sounds like it's great things happening. happy to help you out with these questions so um jump back the live chat because you guys are here with us and um i like so um oh yeah and yeah thanks post up yeah you guys show your data yeah thanks i'm glad you guys are here um okay so joe was saying i started doing knf three years ago at that time i couldn't drive a stake into the five five inches into the soil three years of knf and i can drive the stake five feet down right there that's like what other reason do you need to
37:54 do korean natural farming besides that it's it's clear like you practice for a while and your soil just becomes tilthy where you can't even smash through with a stake five inches now it goes five feet. This stuff is real. It's happening. Thanks for sharing that. He's saying, and his fruits and veggies are the rave of the neighborhood. Thanks. It's really good to hear that, Joe. You know, reinforces what I do via share, why I'm out, what I'm doing. Really appreciate it that you share back. It's that kind of stuff where sometimes I'm like, what am I doing? And then I hear those
38:28 things. I'm like, yes, this is why. So thank you. And Timothy is asking, I've had problem with critters getting into his IMO collection boxes. I finally got a collection from one of my boxes where an animal didn't eat all the rice and what was left was colonized. Cool. I always, you know, I recommend, you know, some videos on the internet show people just putting the box on the surface. I recommend that you dig into your soil down into where it's still that nice rich soil you'll see it with your eyes of where you're in that top soil still digging down into that burying your box
39:05 into there then covering it covering it with back over with that dirt you've removed over the top take all the leaves make a cocoon on top of that box and then taking something like a what I use is a shopping basket not not the not the kind like not like a shopping cart but like those baskets you buy when you're only getting a few products. Those plastic baskets, I put that over the top to keep rats and things from coming out or coming in. And then I put a piece of roof on top of that to keep the rain off. So I really recommend digging down, burying it,
39:40 putting it in where animals aren't gonna be able to get to it in that same easy way. And it's only gonna be out there for a couple of days. So if you can keep the animals out in a way, that'll really help you. um, so not sure what I'm going to do, keep them out of your IMO three pile, um, cats, dogs, um, or, you know, doing, doing it in a, in a box, um, some way where you can actually kind of like build a way to keep things out. Um, also just setting a bunch of traps around the perimeter. um i you know i used to have a bunch of mice and rats up at my barn but we recently got two
40:25 rescue cats and now they live up there and i haven't seen a rat since and no evidence of them anymore so using animals against animals using the nature finding this way but also you know physical mechanical things build you know if you had the time and energy to build like a box out of wood to to support these things um you could um yeah and wire cages chicken wire he keeps critters out yeah you guys got great great uh advice here and um yeah the bottomless cage that's staked down all these things yeah these are great tips um you guys are really on it um
41:10 and then yeah sean here is saying that he's done im04 all the way up indoors um and you can definitely do it in you know throw down some cardboard underneath it um yeah all those things are are great good tips you know just you know working with nature it's hard you know if a bunch of critters are eating your stuff maybe take some more delicious food and put it outside i don't know it's probably just going to breed their population but you know what's what what is the higher power trying to teach you um yeah yeah and my in my vids in korea do show people doing in a
41:54 box like if you if you look uh let's see here um i can pull up one of these here from this um let me see um like if you look at some of the videos like um uh pastor lee did a whole bunch um let's see yeah i i i it's hard to find this stuff live while you guys are here i don't want to like have you guys look at me while I'm searching. You guys could easily search. But yeah, there's a bunch of videos back from Korea where we're doing those in a box. I was just going to
42:42 find one example for you, but it's hard to scroll through this stuff in time. I got so much content on my YouTube. And yeah, I want to thank you guys for tuning into that. Okay, so let's go back to these other questions and not get too distracted here. Okay. Jonathan was asking here, this is an interesting, so I'm going to share, I am going to share this screen. Yeah. Here just, and he was asking about his IMOs and he was concerned about the fruity smell. And there can be a little bit
43:31 of fruity smell to your IMO1. It's not necessarily going to smell like a forest floor. What smells like the forest floor is when you propagate them out. So you make propagated IMO and then when you activate them with soil. So those further steps, that's when it starts to smell like the forest floor when you grow them out. But this collection looks really good to me when I'm looking at it. You know, he said there was no mushy spots in there. When you're seeing the mycelium shoot up like that, it looks to me like the one problem with this collection is that had you added more
44:10 rice, it looks like you didn't really make fill your box up two-thirds. And so had you filled up more of your two-thirds it's not like this collection was was bad or anything but but it would have been more of this white wispy type of mycelium growing and less of this type of stuff growing had you actually filled the box up two-thirds here and put more rice in there when it's just a tiny bit at the bottom these other things start to grow and not so much this now when you're seeing this right here, this is the bacillus simplus and bacillus subtilis type of
44:48 microbes growing, which are not the microbes you're looking for. I mean, they are the microbes you're looking for, excuse me. They're the microbes you're looking for, but they're not necessarily the microbes that are the soil guys that you need. These guys are indicators that what's growing right beneath these guys are compatible with these ones. So what it's indicating right here in this area where you got this stuff growing is that right here you got really good soil good microbes and these are the compatible ones over here on this side you're
45:20 getting more bacteria more less soil oriented more microbes more like the breakdown type of microbes so you don't have this type of growth on top so when you're seeing this growth you know the microbes that are growing right here in this rice chunk right beneath here are the microbes you're looking for. And if you want to fill this whole block with these really good microbes that are these ones, you got to get that up to the two thirds. And then this thing, because here where I see it's not even against this wall. It's just like a little rice put in here. You really got
45:53 to fill it up with, with, with rice to get a nice, good collection there. So not this is actually, I mean, it's a good collection, especially when he breaks it open and you see it's all myceliated out like that. It's a good collection. Um, there is the good stuff, but you could make it even better. And yeah, where he's able to hold it up here. And then this here where you're seeing this nice white stuff, this is really, um, the good mycelia that's going in there. That's doing its thing. And so this, this to me, it looks like a really good collection. I would totally keep this.
46:23 This would be great. I'm just saying next time for an improved collection, you could do even more by filling up with a little bit more rice, but that looks like an excellent collection. So, um, yeah, thumbs up to you, Jonathan. Excellent, man. Way to go on that. Um, so let's see. Um, and then let's see here. And I got one question from George. I want to answer this one here. Um, so I've been really, really stoked with what George is doing. It's, it's amazing. I just, he sends me all these pictures and I'm stoked to see these happening and all that going on. So, okay, so he's making
47:14 some disgustingly cheap microbes. People call it JMS. A thousand liters for my friends plowed and leveled field before sowing and 500 liters for my garden. Our daytime temperature is currently 6 to 14. Now it's a little cooler. I have 140 watt heating wire inside and insulated a little foam on the outside and so seem to be keeping 5 to 7 degrees more than outside. Not sure yet with the temperature. I read 18 degrees are necessary for activity to happen. However, we wanted to check how early and how much time it would take in this climate. So yeah, with a lower temperature,
47:57 it's just going to take a little bit longer. And so the question here he asks, which is the good parts, can it go bad while it's fermenting in these kinds of temperatures? And your nose knows. so when you when you mix these things together and you first mix them it should it should just smell starchy or or like nothing then as these microbes are starting to go as they start to grow they're going to start to release off gassing of what they're doing and it should smell kind of like a sourdough or like a sweet kind of smell to it or like a uplifting smell your your nose
48:40 knows though that when it starts to smell like death or vomit or poop or rotten eggs those smells are indicating that anaerobic really nasty stuff is starting to grow so then it's useful as a fertilizer versus when it smells sweet it's useful as soil microbes to go out to your your soil so your nose knows and you have to go and smell the stuff just like you know just just like lean over the thing and smell it. If it smells good, it's still good. And so I don't have that much experience with cool temperatures because I live in Hawaii and it's almost always, you know,
49:23 warm enough here to make it happen anytime. In fact, it goes so quickly here. But I would say about three days at those temperatures, you're going to be right in your sweet spot. And again, it's all about those, you know, your good microbes are growing and then as they, then the other microbes take off and then it's, it's these waves of microbes growing. So you want to get it in the very beginning and it's better to use it earlier than later. However, it's a lot of effort to spray it, you know, get a thousand liters out there. Um, okay. And which, um, so, and another great
49:57 question here is, uh, um, is which Korean natural farming ingredients are safe to add to these, um, the Jadam microbes, the, the really cheap microbes and, um, all of them, all of them. In fact, you can, you can add them in, you can make a blend. It'll be even better. Um, it'll give them the foods they need, gives them everything they need to be, um, come to life. So I would, I would just make it, you know, you can basically substitute it in, um, any of those things, they work, they work really well. And I just, since he
50:34 included a picture I wanted to show, sharing this picture with you. Here's his little insulated tank here where he got this insulation around and then heating it up out here. So, and I think, I think it's going to work really well for you. And then, so, and he started an IMO using rice. Again, it looks like on this, you needed a little bit more. I would hit that two thirds level, just coming up a little bit more of the two thirds in here. And, um, although like, you know, you just saw in the previous one and I like the way you built this box. That's really cool. It's a lot of good airspace.
51:13 It's, it's, that's a really awesome thing. A plus on that for this box, a little bit more rice in there, but you're asking, can I use a different type of grain like rye or wheat? Um, I think, yeah, I think so. So oats, those types of things, any type of, you want to try and hull it just like this is white rice where the hulls come off. So if you're going to use a type of grain, at least make sure it's cracked or hulled so that the microbes can get through that outer shell. But yeah, use anything that you can source locally.
51:48 Here in Hawaii, we end up using sweet potatoes, ulu, taro, all these other starchy type of of materials, potatoes, any, anything. The key is to parboil it. So it's soft enough for the microbes to penetrate, but it's not too soft that it's going to get mushy. And, um, and that's, you know, yeah, but, but substitute grow it out. You'll see the microbes come in. They should be good. It looks like, uh, put up paper on the bottom. and then here you're finding this mycelium breaking it down so these guys are are up in
52:27 this surface breaking down these things and these guys are not the soil microbes you're looking for but right beneath them are so these guys break down this material and they tie into the soil microbes right below and they so wherever you find this kind of stuff you can dig right into that soil right there and that's where you want to set your box right into the soil layer this stuff is not what you want but it's it's right below there so when you see this as an indicator that's a good spot to set a box and it looks like he did dig down and look how nice and rich that soil is
53:02 so perfect dug down into this and you see what i'm talking about like up here you got this nice good stuff with the mycelia this is perfect george this is a great spot to do this and he dug down got into this rich dark soil you see how this soil is kind of balled up and living as you dig into that you set your box in there oh oh yes perfect and he set the box down and he got perfect contact with the soil this is the collection that you want this is exactly how to do it this is what um should be doing so set set that there it looks like you put the paper directly over the rice
53:40 I would put this paper instead of right here I would put it on top of your metal sheet if instead of put it because if you put that paper and the rice directly against it then that it kind of suffocates and they can't get that gas exchange the whole point of that two-thirds airspace up here is that this place in here is going to fill with a bunch of gas and they're going to communicate so if you can put that that cover on the top here it'll hold those gases in and let them communicate So that's what I suggest there for improvement. And it looks like you again did put the paper on top,
54:15 but it looks to me like there's paper on top that one. I would remove this paper here, then put the paper, then put this dirt. Perfect, you're doing it. That's awesome, man. And then the last thing to do is to take all these leaves and scoot them around and make this so you kind of cocoon it in this layer. So it's like a sleeping bag of leaves put on top of it. you know it's like a blanket that you put on there especially at those temperatures and it'll be even better there so um transition back here so i made some um cana food using your recipe with
54:51 a dandelion 50 brown sugar 50 of the material mass the liquid seems to be much less than when i use a one-to-one ratio smelling like dough all the time for some reason i only got this much plant juice from a kilo of dandelions. So that seems about right to me. Okay, so he's saying, does it slow down the plant juice in some way if I use a one-to-one ratio? It does slow down the microbes, and it's not necessary for the the plants um that actually to me here when i'm looking at it i mean from one kilo of
55:44 plants i'll show you guys here um so is that yeah so um yeah so so this this here he got a kilo which seems seems about right i mean here here's the dandelions the sugar in the bottom here and then right when you start to get this little bit of mold that's when it should be poured off because when you see the microbes growing here you know it's um it's growing and he's saying it's less than half a liter um yeah so yeah well it looks it looks fine to me I'm and then this so this picture here had water added
56:41 to it if you do add water it will not store at um at you know you got to use it or or it's going to turn to vinegar I mean that's the recipe to make vinegar is to add twice as much water than the volume you have. So if I had a liter, I'd add two liters of water to that, and that would turn to a vinegar. So do not store it if you've added water to it. The whole point is to add more sugar to store it. Okay, so you're adding water to this. I wouldn't add water to this at all. It's just the plant juice that comes out, and if you're able to render more juice with more sugar,
57:23 then adjust your sugar up to that level. Um, but, but there shouldn't be any water added to this. If you're adding water to this thing, the whole, the whole point of a plant juice is you're taking the juice that's inside the plant and osmotically pulling it out with sugar. And it may not be that much juice, but this, this stuff is so potent that's in there. That's what, that's what makes it so strong. Um, so, um, yeah, so, okay. So, yeah. So anyway, um, I'm not, I'm not exactly sure what's, what's happened here, but I wouldn't add, don't add any water to the, the plant juice.
58:10 that starts to make a vinegar to it. It looks like my papaya feeder just died. Okay, so, okay, so, and then I wanted to answer this question here for post-op before I take off today, because he says he's starting the IMO 3 tomorrow. Does it need airflow or it can be covered with a tarp between turnings? And the answer is that you want to put a bunch of, like, what I use is cut grass. And I put the cut grass or banana leaves or some kind of long carbonaceous grass,
58:58 straw, something like that, on top of your IMOs itself. and then you could put a tarp on top of that, but you don't want the tarp directly on top of your IMO. It will cut it off from, um, from air and that, that won't be good. But if you put a decent amount of straw on top of it to insulate it, to cover it, that's, that's good. And then put the, you can put a tarp over, but, um, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to suffocate it. If, if you're outside or something, it's best to put the tarp so that it's just like,
59:32 you know, put some like pin it so it's above, so it's not on top of your pile and cutting off the oxygen. Um, so hopefully that helps you out, um, with that and good, good luck on the IMO three. Um, it's a great, great process. Um, good fun to take it in there and get the foot spas and all that. So, um, cool. Well, um, well, anyway, um, let's see here. Well, may as well get these last little questions here. Um, do you know of any IMO3 resources that can show you how to make it with rice bran and rice holes? I get a lot of heat and some little white fuzzies, but nothing that is
1:00:22 chunking up. And that's absolutely true. It's fine. You don't need it to chunk up. You don't need it to like grow these thick things of mycelia. In fact, those are actually most likely actinobacteria and really a bad sign. So the white fuzzies, all that people, people have this idea of they get the IMO and they want it to like bloom out and like, look like it's all this microbes. It's not necessary. In fact, that stuff, it's not necessarily the best sign to see that happening while it's growing. And spent mushroom spawn is not really the greatest source of IMOs.
1:01:00 Those are going to get, you want indigenous microorganisms, not spent mushroom spawn. If you're going to use that as a medium, you're going to need to replenish those things that the microbes ate out. And sweet Clark, I'm glad you're making the KNF protectors, the lactobacillus. those are, you know, the best things. Put it in your laundry, put it down your toilet, put it in your yard, put it all over your body, give it to your animals. You're going to, your world's going to be changed. Um, this stuff is amazing. And I wish they taught this stuff in
1:01:33 schools to folks, because what more do you need to live in life? So, um, so I just want to, I want to thank you guys all for tuning in here. Just want to wrap up a little bit. And of course, give a shout out to the Pure KNF Foundation. Without them, I wouldn't be doing this, couldn't be doing this. And, you know, our office hours are posted live right here. So you can see them happening. Our newsletter is going out, can learn more. We're about to put out some more learning series. and if you want to find this recording and all the recordings, they're at office hours here,
1:02:21 which is at knfsupport.com. So knfsupport.com has all the office hours and click here, see all the office hours. And then we're working on getting these. Every time it happens, we make a table of contents. And so our later episodes, if you go back a few episodes, well, I guess I need to get here and update it, but, um, these should all have table of contents to them and they will after I get to this today. Um, it's my Sunday thing. I do my jam spend my time helping out natural farming community. So I hope it helps you. And if you find it useful,
1:03:00 you know um i guess people say like subscribe share all those things right those are the things you know i would think it would be obvious at this point but if not you know just do natural farming share it with people and uh but i want to thank you for tuning in i will catch you guys next sunday looks like it will be the um 31st and is there 31 in april i don't know but um yeah thank you and uh long live the natural farmer and uh yeah aloha