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New KNF Vocabulary, Seawater Ratios, Sandy Soil Fixes

July 3, 2022 · by Drake Weinert

Drake covers plain fixes first. For sandy soil, add organic matter, IMOs, and biochar, then keep the maintenance solution going. A banana SCOBY can kickstart kombucha vinegar in about two months. For a quarter-acre food forest, use about six to six and a half gallons of solution as a foliar spray, or twenty-five gallons for a soil drench.

He pushes plain words over acronyms. Skip FPJ and FFJ. Call things food, cleanser, medicine, structure, protectors, fuel, and minerals instead. Clay and ceramic vessels work better than plastic for fermenting, since air moves through them. If fuel separates and floats oil on top, the fish was probably too fatty. Let it ferment three to six months to break down into amino acids.

For microbe collection in Hawaiʻi's wet season, cover the site with a tarp and keep collecting anyway. The Disgustingly Cheap Microbes recipe works too: water, microbes, dirt, food, and minerals in a bucket until it bubbles. For seawater, aim for about one gram of salt per liter of water, close to natural seawater's three percent salinity diluted down. Store it in five-gallon buckets out of direct sun.

Other notes: keep IMOs out of worm beds, they dry the worms out. Feed KNF protectors to pigs, cows, goats, sheep, dogs, and cats anytime, but go easy with chickens since it can drop their egg-laying rate. Ground corn alone is too dense for IMO3, blend it with wood chips. Dried kiawe beans work if moistened to about sixty percent and blended the same way. Drake closes with the old chessboard grain story, a reminder that oil use and microbe spread both grow exponentially.

Questions answered

  • 7:22 How do I deal with very sandy soil? — Add lots of organic matter and IMOs, plus biochar, then build with maintenance solution.
  • 8:08 Can I kickstart vinegar with a kombucha SCOBY? — Yes, the SCOBY just kickstarts the bacteria and yeast colony; it finishes in about two months depending on temperature.
  • 17:21 How much solution should I use on a 100x100 ft food forest? — That's about a quarter acre, roughly 6 to 6.5 gallons for a foliar spray or about 25 gallons for a soil drench.
  • 20:33 My fermenting lab is starting to smell like alcohol, is that bad? — The gases on top can smell like alcohol or acetone even when the liquid below is fine; just super-saturate it again.
  • 26:32 Can I use a ceramic crock-pot liner as a fermentation vessel? — Yes, clay and ceramic vessels breathe and are actually preferred in Korea over plastic or glass.
  • 37:09 Can KNF be used on cannabis? — Yes, check Royal Flush Farms and the Microbial Secret Society podcast, where growers detail using KNF and IPM on cannabis.
  • 41:44 When do I use KNF protectors on my crop? — Anytime the plant needs protection, like powdery mildew or heavy leaf growth; drop the term LAB and think protectors.
  • 44:48 My KNF fuel won't mix into water and separates with oil on top, why? — You probably used a fatty fish; use liquid from below, or let it ferment 3 to 6 months so the fat breaks down.
  • 48:11 Any tips for IMO collection during the hot, rainy season? — Cover the collection site with a 10x10 tarp and keep collecting anyway, since the microbes tune into that wet season.
  • 52:05 I have sea salt and water, what ratio makes a seawater substitute? — Real seawater is about 3% salinity; aim for roughly 1 gram of salt per liter of water to land near 1%.
  • 53:56 How do I store seawater at home long term? — Five-gallon buckets out of direct sunlight work well; it may even get sweeter with time.
  • 54:26 Can I mix IMOs into my worm farm's bedding? — Not a good match, the IMOs dry the worm bed out too fast, so be careful.
  • 55:32 How often can I feed KNF protectors to my animals? — Pigs, cows, goats, sheep, dogs, and cats can have it anytime, but go easy on chickens since too much can lower egg-laying rate.
  • 56:45 Does ground corn make a good substrate for culturing IMO3? — Not by itself, it gets too dense and gelatinizes, so blend it with wood chips or another bulking material.
  • 59:15 Can dried, powdered kiawe beans work as an IMO3 substrate? — Yes, blend with a bit of wood chips and moisten dried beans to about 60% moisture to keep the culture fungal, not bacterial.

Topics: sandy soil, imo, imo3, seawater, fuel, fish amino acid, knf protectors, vinegar, kombucha, cannabis, worm farm, kiawe beans

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 and welcome
  2. 1:14 I Ching reading: K'un, the Receptive
  3. 6:14 Recipe books in stock (black & white copies)
  4. 7:22 Fixing sandy soil
  5. 8:08 Vinegar with a kombucha SCOBY
  6. 10:51 Julia's pond-to-garden hose setup
  7. 17:21 Solution rates for a food forest
  8. 20:33 Alcohol smell in the fermenting lab
  9. 21:39 Supersaturation video and certification course
  10. 24:34 Accelerating compost and cover crops with IMO
  11. 26:32 Ceramic vessels for fermentation
  12. 30:13 Visit Hawaiʻi, learn KNF, stay at Ocean Nests
  13. 37:09 KNF on cannabis; Microbial Secret Society
  14. 41:44 Dropping acronyms: the KNF protectors vocabulary
  15. 44:48 Fixing oily, separated KNF fuel
  16. 48:11 IMO collection in hot, rainy season
  17. 52:05 Seawater recipe and home storage
  18. 54:26 IMO cautions: worm beds and protector feeding schedule
  19. 56:45 IMO3 substrates: corn, kiawe beans, vinegar from leftovers
  20. 1:00:42 Exponential growth and spreading natural farming

Transcript

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

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