Asked by daniildanzig ·September 25, 2020 ·19.7k readers

Hemp or other alternatives for IMO 3

Hello! In the level 2 course on YT, Drake tried using hemp in the 2nd video as a substrate for IMO3. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find the next video in the series, so do not know if that experiment worked out or not. Hemp is a really cheap resource here, and it would be awesome if we could use it in this process. Also, for non-tropical growers, what have been some successful alternatives to wheat mill run for you? Thanks! D

imo3 hemp alternative

The answer

dagoofman · Sep 30, 2020 ✓ Marked as the answer

the main thing to think of is u want Carbs and Carbon at a 50/50 to 60/40 ratio to make IMO3 the Carbs r food the Carbon is the hotel if u think of it like this u will find 100s of alternatives and the ones that r cheapest or even better free are the best to use for u - one of the greatest ideas of natural farming is the ingredients r not really specific its use what u have - chris trump uses nut shells and nut left over from his nut farm drake iv seen use grain and wood chips iv most recently used cracked corn and grains (old chicken feed from a friend) and hardwood lump charcoal ( for my BBQ ) its about remembering Carbs n Carbon and use what u got

From the KNF library

From the KNF library Drafted by Claude from Office Hours and the books · Sep 2026 · 3 sources

Cho's Solutions gives the IMO3 substrate by volume: 1 part wheat mill run to 1 part wood chips, with optional 5% biochar, moistened to 60% moisture content. (Cho's Solutions, p. 18) That answers the follow-up on volume versus weight.

The Hawaii study used 22.68 kg of wheat mill run "or a carbohydrate source." (Unravelling the Mysteries of KNF, p. 58) It puts moisture at 65-75%, which differs from the 60% in Cho's Solutions. (Unravelling the Mysteries of KNF, p. 58) (Cho's Solutions, p. 18)

The same study says the process varies from farm to farm with local materials, but the principle stays the same. (Unravelling the Mysteries of KNF, p. 56)

The library does not say whether the hemp trial worked. It does not cover hemp as an IMO3 substrate or cold-climate swaps for wheat mill run. Drake can speak to his own hemp results on a call.

Sources

p. 56 Unravelling the Mysteries of KNF · “the process of collecting and culturing microorganisms may vary farm to farm due to locality and availability of materials and supplies. However, the principle remains the same.”
p. 58 Unravelling the Mysteries of KNF · “22.68 kg of wheat mill run (or a carbohydrate source), 20 L of fish pond water”
p. 18 Cho's Solutions · “1 part wheat mill run 1 part wood chips optional 5% biochar Moisten to 60% moisture content”

2 more answers

lvanderb · Oct 9, 2020 ✓ Marked as the answer

I was watching a YouTube video made more recently, now that Chris Trump is in Idaho? At any rate, he stated that his latest favorite for IMO3 is crimped oats. Not free for me in Southwestern Ontario Canada, but doable and that's better than wheat bran (quite cheap here, relatively speaking). Crimped oats is naturally carb plus carbon, I'm pretty sure, and if it gets too hot (I'm not allowed to make IMO until spring, lol...hubby thinks it's just pointless now that we're headed into winter), I can cover with wood chips. I still have to make OHN. I'm thinking maybe it's a good idea to start this all in the fall, so I have time to make some of the longer process inputs.

daniildanzig · Sep 30, 2020

Thanks for your response! Is that ratio by weight or volume? TIA