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Noni Plant Juice, IMO3 Storage, DIY Water Softener

Drake covers noni plant juice, comparing home-made KNF juice to a store noni product selling for $152 a gallon, and explains why traditional jar-fermented noni (left to sweat whole) smells bad compared to the fermented plant juice method, which takes about five days instead of months.

He breaks down Dr. Zach Bush's ION gut supplement, made mostly of humic and fulvic acid and water and sold for $72 for 32 ounces, against buying bulk fulvic acid (around $27 a pound, or $225 for 50 pounds) and making your own. Susanna Goodmanson's PureKNF monthly meeting on gut health and the GAPS diet also gets a mention.

On IMO: keep IMO3 under 120°F while cooking, store it in breathable burlap sacks, and use it before it ages into IMO4, or moths and maggots move in. Yeast isn't a core KNF recipe because it occurs naturally in fermented plant juice and other solutions, but Cho's book lists it as Recipe 11.

For pests, Drake recommends an herbal solution over plant juice: boil mint in water until it reduces by half, then dilute roughly 1:100 with soap and spray. The Madaj deep dive returns to water softeners, a soap-suds test for hard water, Master Cho's DIY inline resin softener, leaf mold microbe counts, and cover crops like rye and vetch that build fertility instead of stealing it.

Questions answered

  • 6:23 Jen from Maui asked about trimming her noni tree for plant juice — Yes, noni makes a great plant juice, and you can make it at home for a fraction of the $152-a-gallon store price.
  • 13:14 Marty asked about keeping IMO3 temperature in check — Keep IMO3 under 120°F while it's cooking.
  • 14:05 Is jar-fermented noni (letting whole fruit sweat) a good method? — Drake isn't a fan — it smells like rats and tastes like puke; he prefers the fermented plant juice method instead.
  • 16:26 What was covered in the PureKNF monthly meeting? — Susanna Goodmanson shared seven years of using lactic acid bacteria serum and the GAPS diet to restore gut health.
  • 18:53 How does Dr. Zach Bush's ION gut supplement compare to KNF? — It's mostly humic and fulvic acid plus water, selling for $72 for 32 ounces — Drake says you can make the same thing far cheaper at home.
  • 27:36 How do you keep maggots out of IMO3? — Store it in breathable burlap sacks and use it before it ages into IMO4, or moths and maggots move in.
  • 28:19 Is yeast one of the core KNF recipes? — No — yeast occurs naturally in fermented plant juice and other solutions, though Cho's book gives a standalone yeast recipe, Recipe 11.
  • 35:34 Would a mint plant juice help dissuade pests? — Better to make a mint herbal solution — boil mint in water down by half, then dilute about 1:100 with soap and spray.
  • 38:20 Can IMO be used against fruit flies (IPMO)? — Yes — Drake points to Chris Anthony's and Stephen Cornett's work on IPMO for fruit flies.
  • 43:05 Why use a water softener for sprays? — Hard water keeps nutrients from spreading on the leaf; a soap-suds test shows whether your water is soft enough.
  • 45:19 How do you build a DIY water softener? — Master Cho's kit uses an inline ion-exchange resin filter that hard water passes through before spraying.
  • 50:31 How many microbes are in a gram of leaf mold soil? — Cho's slide counts roughly 30,000 protozoans, 50,000 algae, 400,000 fungi, and billions of bacteria per gram.
  • 53:26 What's the simple seedling treatment with leaf mold? — Dilute microbe-rich leaf mold soil in water and set seedling trays in it; roots pull in visible microbes within days.
  • 55:30 How should you manage soil temperature in summer? — Black plastic can push one-centimeter soil to 114°F, while soil six inches down stays near 86°F — mulch instead of plastic keeps it cooler.
  • 58:27 Do cover crops like rye and vetch steal nutrients from trees? — No — chop and drop them and the nutrients recycle back into the soil, building fertility instead of stealing it.

Topics: noni, imo3, imo4, fermented plant juice, water softener, fulvic acid, humic acid, gaps diet, mint, cover crop, madaj, yeast

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 Intro & I Ching: Breakthrough
  2. 6:23 Noni Juice: DIY vs Store-Bought
  3. 13:14 IMO3 Temperature Limits
  4. 14:05 Traditional Jar-Fermented Noni vs FPJ
  5. 16:26 PureKNF Meeting: Gut Health & GAPS Diet
  6. 18:53 Zach Bush's ION Product vs DIY Fulvic Acid
  7. 27:36 Covering IMO3 to Prevent Maggots
  8. 28:19 Yeast in KNF Solutions
  9. 35:34 Mint: Plant Juice vs Herbal Pest Solution
  10. 40:24 Back to Madaj: 5000 Years of Soil
  11. 43:05 Water Softener Basics & Soap Test
  12. 45:19 DIY Inline Water Softener
  13. 50:31 Microbes in Leaf Mold Soil
  14. 53:26 Seedling Treatment with Leaf Mold Water
  15. 55:30 Summer Temperature Management
  16. 58:27 Cover Crops: Rye and Vetch
  17. 1:03:20 Closing & Next Week Preview

Transcript

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

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