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IMO4 Turning Times, JADAM Cover Crops, Diagnosing Bad IMO

July 28, 2024 · by Drake Weinert

A question about the GAPS diet sends Drake down a long gut-health rabbit hole: helminthic therapy, hookworm life cycles, and the history of medical leeches (London's Royal Infirmary used 50,000 leeches a year in 1831; the FDA licensed leeches as a medical device in 2004). He keeps coming back to one point: balance, not elimination, is the goal in guts and soil alike.

On IMO4: turn the pile 2-3 times a day for the first 3-5 days, then once or twice a day until it finishes around day 11, keeping it under 120°F. A well-fed IMO4 heats up within 12-24 hours, faster than IMO3's roughly two days, because it starts with far more microbes already established.

Back in JADAM slides 56-62, Drake covers growing your own ground cover and leaf mold instead of buying organic matter, with orchard and greenhouse examples using rapeseed and sedan grass, chopped and dropped in place. Cover crop delays early flowering, blocks chilling, freezing, and overheating, cuts soil compaction, raises mineral content, and stops erosion. He contrasts this with Young Sang Cho's Madag method: mix raw ingredients in autumn, apply Jadam microorganism solution, till it in, and let it break down over winter, instead of building and turning a compost pile. He also points out a photo of bad IMO with a crusty actinobacteria layer, the result of a pile running over 120°F without being turned.

Shorter answers cover Solid LAB (a bokashi-like solid form that's easier to mix into feed), fermenting hemp with sugar before tincturing for CBD, and a note that GCM (gelatinase-chitinase microbes) works but was mostly sold as a fertilizer scam, and that IPMO wasn't invented by any one person.

Questions answered

  • 8:55 How does the GAPS diet relate to restoring gut and soil microbiome? — Drake ties it to Suzanna's talk: the GAPS diet resets a damaged gut microbiome much like restoring life to depleted soil.
  • 13:05 What is helminthic therapy and does putting parasites in you help gut inflammation? — It's intentionally infecting yourself with hookworm-type parasites to fight inflammation; Drake isn't a fan but says balance, not elimination, may be the real lesson.
  • 16:09 How often and how hot should you turn an IMO4 pile? — Turn it 2-3 times a day for the first 3-5 days, then once or twice a day until it finishes around day 11, keeping it under 120°F.
  • 26:20 Is there anything to old leech-therapy medicine? — London's Royal Infirmary used 50,000 leeches a year in 1831, and the FDA licensed leeches as a medical device in 2004, so it's not pure myth.
  • 39:37 Should you ferment hemp with sugar before tincturing it for CBD? — Drake thinks yes: fermentation opens the plant's cell walls gently so the tincture pulls out more without bursting cells like grinding does.
  • 42:43 How do you find a channel's live stream on YouTube? — Open the Subscriptions tab; a subscribed channel shows a small live dot next to its name when it's streaming.
  • 44:50 What are the advantages of Solid LAB? — It behaves like bokashi in solid form, making it easier to mix straight into feed.
  • 52:25 What is JADAM's rapeseed and sedan grass cover cropping about? — Drake shows fields intercropped with rapeseed and sedan grass, chopped and dropped for organic matter grown right where it's needed.
  • 56:02 What does a wild grass cover crop actually do for a field? — It delays early flowering, blocks chilling and overheating, cuts soil compaction, raises mineral content, and stops erosion.
  • 59:00 How do you tell if an IMO pile went bad? — A crusty burnt layer means it ran over 120°F without turning and grew actinobacteria instead of the microbes you want.
  • 1:00:57 How does Young Sang Cho's Madag method replace composting? — In autumn you mix raw ingredients, spread them, apply Jadam microorganism solution, and till it in, letting it break down over winter instead of building and turning a compost pile.
  • 1:03:42 Does GCM (gelatinase-chitinase microbes) work, and who invented IPMO? — Drake says GCM works but was mostly sold as a fertilizer scam, and nobody 'invented' IPMO — it converges from tuning your own IMO process.

Topics: imo4, jadam, cover crop, sedan grass, rapeseed, gcm, ipmo, gaps diet, gut health, solid lab, bad imo, composting

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 & Foundation Announcements
  2. 4:42 I Ching Reading: Gradual Development
  3. 8:55 GAPS Diet and Gut Health
  4. 13:05 Helminthic Therapy: Hookworms in the Gut
  5. 16:09 IMO4 Turning Frequency and Temperature
  6. 26:20 Leech Therapy History and Uses
  7. 36:31 In Search of Balance Documentary
  8. 39:37 Fermenting Hemp Before CBD Tincture
  9. 42:43 YouTube Subscription Tips
  10. 44:50 Solid LAB Questions
  11. 50:15 JADAM Slides Resume: Leaf Mold and Ground Cover
  12. 52:25 Cover Crops: Rapeseed and Sedan Grass
  13. 56:02 Benefits of Cover Crop and Wild Grass
  14. 59:00 Diagnosing Bad IMO
  15. 1:00:57 Madag Method vs Composting
  16. 1:03:42 GCM and IPMO Discussion
  17. 1:05:01 Closing and Sign-off

Transcript

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

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