Asked by gregribauw ·April 28, 2022 ·24.6k readers

IMO 3 Substrate

Where I am from its impossible to find wheat or rice bran. What else can be used instead for preparing IMO 3?

From the KNF library

From the KNF library Drafted by Claude from Office Hours and the books · Sep 2026 · 5 sources

Drake recommends using whatever microbes will eat. Ground wheat berries, corn, or coffee grounds have worked, and he checks the result under a microscope. (Office Hours Ep. 23, 16:03)

Corn alone gets too dense and gelatinizes. Blend it with wood chips or another bulking material. (Office Hours Ep. 37, 56:45)

Other grains such as rye can stand in. Hulled or cracked starch works if it is parboiled soft enough for microbes to enter, but not mushy. (Office Hours Ep. 28, 51:20)

Hemp hurd also works as the bulk. Drake mixes in a starch such as wheat flour, and turns the pile on a tarp so moisture stays in. (Office Hours Ep. 50, 13:25)

Bran is the Korean standard, and Drake says the substrate changes how the microbes grow. Expect your culture to behave a little differently. (Office Hours Ep. 158, 57:08)

The library gives no ratios for these substitutes and no timing for coffee grounds.

Sources

3 more answers

gregribauw · May 2, 2022

Thank you dagoofman, but cannot use plain Rice cooked or uncooked for the carbohydrate substrate as , no oats, mill run available.

gregribauw · May 6, 2022

dagoofman, after some research I found these are available abundantly here, free and high in carbohydrate; 100g of Casava - carbs 95g 100g of Yam - carbs 93g, and 100g of plantain or cooking banana 91g. So how would I go about using them as the substrate?

dagoofman · May 12, 2022

u would chop small mix with carbon and i mean small the more surface area u can get the better could even run them through a grater if u had one and had the time or a food processor to get it small what ever u can .....my question to this would be par cooked or not i would think par cooked it would release more starches n sugars to be available for the IMOs and soften the flesh a bit but maybe it would be unneeded (wouldn't hurt to do a lil test there see whats better) ...i would think the real key here to using these as carbs is the size the smaller the better u would not want large chunks that can just rot in the IMOs but more like shredded so theres not only more availability of the starches n sugars to the microbes but also a less likely to rot situation IMO3 should not be "wet" a lil damp not dry cause water is life and tubers have a lot of water in them so does the plantain so that would be the thing i would take into consideration the most is controlling the moisture when using these as carb source