Microbes (IMO) by Hand: Squeeze Test, Keep It Under 120°F
Dr. Hoon Park, John Caverly, Dr. Park: physician who brought Korean Natural Farming to Hawaiʻi; John: Hawaiʻi Island farmer · USA (Hawaiʻi)
Dr. Hoon Park and farmer John (very likely 'Ginger John' Caverly) teach the Microbes (IMO) method on the lawn: rice in a box, then rice plus brown sugar, then a pile of wheat mill run wetted with IMO-2 and Food (FPJ) water and checked with a squeeze test. A woman helper who is never named shows an IMO-1 box and talks about mill run supply. A second group gets the IMO-3 temperature rule and Master Cho's four jobs of IMO, Dr. Park tells how he drinks Protectors (LAB) for his stomach, and John says roots and microbes work together.
What they found
How do you make Microbes (IMO) by hand, from catching them on rice to a working IMO-3 pile, and what do they do in the soil?
Outdoor skill share on the lawn under a tent, on a blue tarp. IMO-1: a small wooden box filled two-thirds with dry cooked rice ('white rice is okay'), covered with breathable cheesecloth (rice straw ideal), set under bamboo or where fallen leaves pile up and people don't walk (a lawn, woods in Hawaiian Acres and healthy mango trees are also named), covered against mongoose and kept out of the rain (a small plastic hoop house), always in shade. 'Usually takes about three days' here. Good IMO-1 is white 'like cotton candy' and lifts out as one lump; bluish or blackish means other microbes, totally black means make another. Don't touch the rice with your hands. IMO-2: IMO-1 mixed 'one to one' with brown sugar (hands are fine now), put in a jar (clay jar ideal; glass or plastic, shaded from sun, with a cloth cover); ready in 'about 10 days, 1 to 2 weeks'. In a cool place it stays dormant and keeps 'almost forever'. IMO-3: wheat bran ('mill run', from paper sacks) piled on the tarp. IMO-2 stirred into a bucket of water ('4 gallons'). Dr. Park says '0.5% is ideally' and pours about '45 cc' ('one and a half ounces'). Food (FPJ: sweet potato, banana, Drake's basil leaf and flower) added at 'generally 1 to 500'. In his own IMO John also adds 'a little molasses', spirulina and 'a little fish amino acid'. Moisture target given as '60-70% or 65%', then '60-75%', then '65-75%'. Squeeze test: a ball that drips water is too wet ('more than 70%', later 'more than 75%'); one that crumbles is too dry ('65%'); aim for 'not crumbling, not leaking water'. Shown on camera: the first ball crumbles ('not 60% yet'), a later one drips ('this is too much, you gotta mix more'). Pile 'about one or one and a half feet high' in shade, mulched or covered so no sunlight gets in. John does it on a dirt floor in a shed under a sheet, cloth or bamboo, never on plastic at home. Heat: hot within 24 hours. 'Keep it under 120 degrees'; John: 'You don't want it to get over 132, 130'. If it's too hot, mix it 'up and down' (John: 'once or twice'). White 'like it snowed' in about 24 hours, with a crust top and bottom. Done when it cools: '5 to 7 days' in the tropics (John also says '4 to 5 days, 6 days'), longer in cold Korea. Shade: Dr. Park quotes Master Cho's '3-7 ratio' as '7 light, 3 shade'. IMO-4: not made or explained; only named as the next step after IMO-3 cools, and as what suppresses disease. Not stated: how much mill run, how much IMO-2 or water went into this pile, how to store IMO-3, how to make IMO-4.
- IMO-2 water — IMO-2 stirred into about 4 gallons of water; '0.5%' given as the ideal, about 45 cc (1.5 oz) poured
- Food (FPJ) water — sweet potato, banana and basil Food (FPJ) added to the same water, 'generally 1 to 500'
- IMO-3 pile — wheat mill run wetted to the squeeze test, piled 1 to 1.5 ft, covered, in shade; kept under 120°F by turning; 5 to 7 days
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IMO-1 takes about three days here
Rice turns white 'like cotton candy' and comes out as one lump; blue or black means other microbes
▶ 1:24 As spoken
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IMO-2 is IMO-1 plus brown sugar, one to one
About 10 days, 1 to 2 weeks; then dormant, keeps 'almost forever' in a cool place, jar with a cloth cover
▶ 6:59 As spoken
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Squeeze test: dripping is too wet, crumbling is too dry
Target stated variously as 60-70%, 65%, 60-75% and 65-75%; the demo ball first crumbled, then dripped after water was added
▶ 24:01 Said and shown on the slides
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IMO-2 at '0.5%', about 45 cc in 4 gallons
Dr. Park's spoken arithmetic doesn't hold together (see limits)
▶ 8:59 As spoken
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Food (FPJ) at 1 to 500
Any vigorous edible plant, not poisonous ones; growing tips (6 inches; Korean watercress about 30 cm); purslane and comfrey named
▶ 16:51 As spoken
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Pile 1 to 1.5 ft, covered, in shade; 5 to 7 days
Done when the heat drops and it's covered in white
▶ 25:22 As spoken
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Keep IMO-3 under 120°F
Above about 130°F you grow different microbes that won't suit your soil, and kill many; turn it once or twice
▶ 27:05 As spoken
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Four jobs of IMO: decomposition, catalysis, revitalization (earthworms), disease control
Dr. Park quizzes the second group
▶ 35:16 As spoken
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Alika Atay estimated about 30% less disease after using IMO-4
A 'ballpark figure' passed on second-hand; Dr. Park: 'it didn't have an exact measure'
▶ 44:36 As spoken
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A ton of mill run costs about $600 shipped from the mainland
The local mill that supplied farmers and mushroom growers closed about a year earlier
▶ 33:09 As spoken
- One demonstration. The pile was mixed and wetted but not followed through heating or finishing.
- Numbers shift as they talk: moisture is 60-70%, 65%, 60-75% and 65-75% at different moments; days are 5-7 and 4-6.
- Dr. Park's dilution arithmetic doesn't add up: '0.5%' of 16,000 cc would be 80 cc, but he pours about 45 cc; for Food (FPJ) at 1 to 500 he divides '60,000 cc' and gets '300 cc', though 4 gallons is about 15,000 cc (about 30 cc at 1 to 500).
- The demo pile sits on a plastic tarp, while John says to make IMO-3 on bare ground, not plastic.
- The 30% disease figure is a farmer's ballpark estimate passed on second-hand. The LAB, Medicine (OHN) 'cures the flu' and drought claims are personal stories, not trials.
- Cut from three iPhone clips: the second (from 34:30) and third (from 47:57) are later groups, so some steps are repeated and others missed.
- Set the IMO-1 box where leaves pile up and nobody walks, keep it in shade and out of the rain, and expect white mold in about three days in Hilo's warmth.
- Mix IMO-1 one to one with brown sugar so the microbes stay dormant; keep the jar cool with a cloth cover.
- Wet the bran slowly. Squeeze a handful: if water drips, add bran; if it falls apart, add water.
- Pile 1 to 1.5 feet in shade, cover it, and check the heat daily. Turn it if it goes past about 120°F.
- IMO-1 can fail; it's two cups of rice. Compost it and try again.
Next to Master Cho's teaching
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Agrees
IMO-2 is IMO-1 plus brown sugar, 1:1, kept cool Cho mixes IMO-1 with brown sugar 1:1 by weight in a clay jar covered with paper and says it takes over 7 days; the demo's '10 days, 1 to 2 weeks' fits.
Cho, Cho Han-Kyu's Natural Farming (Theory), p. 53
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Goes further
IMO-3 moisture and the squeeze test Cho gives 65-70% and tests by twisting a bran ball that should split easily into two halves. The demo's drip/crumble squeeze gets to the same place, but its spoken range drifts out to 60-75%.
Cho, Natural Farming Agricultural Materials (Recipe), p. 15
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Differs
IMO-2 at 0.5% and Food (FPJ) at 1:500 in the water Cho dilutes IMO-2 500 to 1,000 times (0.1-0.2%), with FPJ at 1/500 as a nutrient liquid. Food at 1 to 500 matches; '0.5%' would be 1 to 200, stronger than Cho, though the 45 cc actually poured into about 4 gallons is nearer 1 to 350.
Cho, Cho Han-Kyu's Natural Farming (Theory), p. 54
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Agrees
Pile height, heat, turning and days Cho stacks it 35-40 cm on soil, covers it with straw mats, keeps it below 40-50°C by flipping 3 or 4 times, and expects white in 5 to 7 days. The demo's 1 to 1.5 ft, under 120°F (49°C) and 5 to 7 days match. John's 'once or twice' is fewer turns, and his 130-132°F ceiling is a little hot.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2010 draft), p. 31
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Differs
Shade ratio and covering Cho recommends 70% shade and 30% light, covered with straw or fallen leaves on a soil floor. Dr. Park says '7 light, 3 shade', which is reversed (probably a slip, since he stresses shade throughout). John's story has Master Cho shrugging off a plastic shade cloth.
Cho, Cho Han-Kyu's Natural Farming (Theory), p. 55
“I'm just a farmer. I just grab things and throw it in and pour it in like that.”
▶ 10:31
“Master Cho says, it's okay. With his enthusiasm, it's alright.”
▶ 11:16
“So this is too much, you gotta mix more.”
▶ 25:02
“You come back in 24 hours and it's going to look like it snowed on it.”
▶ 28:19
“All you're going to be wasting is, like, two cups of white rice.”
▶ 31:29
In this talk
- 0:00IMO-1: rice box under the bamboo (Dr. Park)
- 3:46Keep it dry and shaded; mango trees (John)
- 4:48What microbes like: warmth, shade, moisture
- 6:01The squeeze test, explained
- 6:52IMO-2: one to one with brown sugar
- 8:52Measuring IMO-2 into the water
- 10:17"I'm just a farmer": Master Cho at John's farm
- 11:46IMO-3: mill run and IMO-2 water
- 13:00Side talk: sweet potato Food (FPJ) at first light (John)
- 16:42Food (FPJ) at 1 to 500; which plants to use
- 22:45Everyone mixes the pile
- 24:01Squeeze test on the pile: too wet
- 25:22Pile, cover, heat, turn, 5 to 7 days
- 27:42John's shed: dirt floor, white in 24 hours
- 29:41Storing IMO-2
- 31:10When IMO-1 fails (helper)
- 32:08Substitutes for mill run, and the cost
- 34:30Second group: 120°F and the four jobs of IMO
- 35:52Dr. Park's stomach and Protectors (LAB)
- 41:25Microbes and roots (John)
- 43:40IMO, drought and disease
- 45:12JADAM, buying in bulk, Medicine (OHN)
- 47:57Third group: is IMO-4 with actinobacteria safe?
Transcript
Transcribed and checked by hand against the recording. Click any time to play from there.
0:00 Dr. Hoon Park: …acid bacteria is a probiotic. It is very very good. I'm going to teach how they work for the human being. Because it's just not only the plants, LAB is a very good probiotic. We're going to teach you today if I have the time. So, first step is a little box like this, and two-thirds of the dry cooked rice, white rice is okay. And then you cover some breathable cheesecloth or something. And then you can, ideally, if you have some rice straw, that would be the right, but it doesn't matter, you know.
0:47 Just close that. And then you can put it ideally in the sweet area, which is the bamboo tree. The bamboo tree underneath is very sweet. So you can put it in the bamboo tree area. If there is some fallen leaves on the bamboo tree, that's a good area that a lot of microorganisms are present. So you can put it over there and cover it up. Sometimes you might have to cover this one up, otherwise some mongoose or whatever will come after that. So you just cover it up, and usually a tropical area like here usually takes about three days. And when you open it up, you can see almost like a cotton candy.
1:41 It is mostly gram-positive microorganisms. It is really whitish, almost like a cotton candy. But if it is gram-negative kinds of microorganisms, they have a different color, like bluish, blackish. If it's totally black, sometimes you might have to make another one. So those are the only one. After you see this cotton candy light, even if you see this very fluffy, soft looking, but when you take it out, it's just thick. It's giving lump.
2:27 It's not just one piece is whitish. It's a totally is one lump. That's number one. Finished. IMO number one. You understand that now? So that's what you collected. Bamboo trees, okay. If you have a nice lawn like this one, you can just dig it down about this size. Then you take it out and you put it in this one. Same thing, cover it up. Then that also can collect that one. Because there's a nice lawn means there's a lot of microorganisms there too. So that's another easy place. If you go to the, like, here, Hawaiian Acres, and people never went into that area,
3:15 there's a lot of fallen leaves on it, most likely that's a good place to put it on too. And so any place that you feel that people not, you know, stepping all the time and things like that, then you can collect number one.
3:30 Audience: So a place that has high natural composting kind of area you're looking for? Like a lot of leaf foliage you were saying? Natural compost, like kind of longer?
3:41 Dr. Hoon Park: Chances are a lot of microorganisms are there.
3:46 John Caverly: The other detail is you don't want it to get wet and we get a lot of showers in Hawaii so usually we have like a little hoop house with plastic because if it gets wet it's ruined. We also found that mango trees make excellent IMOs because they're very sweet, there's a lot of leaves, but you want to go basically where people haven't been. You want to try to find, and the healthier the tree that you look for in your gulch, your neighborhood, that's going to be the strongest because it has a good base of IMOs underneath it.
4:19 Audience: Longest undisturbed.
4:20 John Caverly: Oh yeah, that's just one of the two.
4:21 Audience: What about shade? Does it need to be in the shade? Huh? Does it need to be in the shade? That's what I asked.
4:26 John Caverly: That should be in the shade, you don't want it in the sun. This whole process has to be in the shade. Because the ultraviolet light will kill it. That's why when you put your IMOs out, you do it on a shady day, the end of the day, or you mulch it. You don't want anything being out in the bright sunshine.
4:47 Dr. Hoon Park: Most of the microorganisms like the three conditions. Number one is they like room temperature like we feel good, you know, like 75 degrees Fahrenheit. That's the temperature they like. If it's too cold, they don't like it. And too hot, they die too. So the room, the temperature is somewhere around 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. That's number one. Number two, direct sunlight, they die. Master Cho says 3-7 ratio. 7 light, 3 shade. What is that? This covered area is like that.
5:37 Daylight shaded area, not the sunny area. So that's number 2. And another thing is moisture. That's why we're going to mix with the moisture. They like somewhere around 60-70% or 65% of moisture content. How do I measure? Oh, if you have moisture measuring, you can do that. Practically speaking, we're going to demonstrate to you. If you pour this water into that IMO-3, I mean this mill run, and then you mix it and then later on you know you mix it then you can have a little lump all right yeah you just have a lump over there and then you kind of squeeze it if there's a water dropping
6:25 That's more than 70%. And if you squeeze it and leave it on, it spreads. Then that's less than 75%, I mean 65%. So we wanted to have somewhere around in between, not crumbling, not leaking water, and that's about right. That's why we're going to make it now. Before you do that, you have to make an IMO-2, right? All you have to do is the IMO-1 mixed with brown sugar. Mixed with brown sugar. Same amount of this one, brown sugar. So one to one ratio.
7:12 You have a pan and just mix it. You can use your finger, okay. When you cook this rice first, do not use your finger, the hands, because your hands have some microorganisms too, which you don't want to contaminate your thing. So if you make this IMO-1 with the dry cooked rice, use something else, not your hand. But after finish number one, mix with the brown sugar, you can use your own hands. And then about 10 days, 1 to 2 weeks, then this will become like this. IMO number 2. So IMO, after you mix the brown sugar, you put it in the…
8:00 Yeah. Put it into the container. It can be ideally clay jar would be a good one. Korea is always using clay jar. But here you don't have it. If you have a glass jar or even plastic jar, then use it. But if you have a white glass jar, you might put something to not have direct sunlight go in.
8:26 Audience: I was just going to ask that.
8:27 Dr. Hoon Park: So IMO number two, you can keep it almost forever, right? Pretty much. Yeah. So IMO number two is basically IMO number one plus brown sugar.
8:38 Audience: And at this point this is about three weeks?
8:42 John Caverly: Yeah, two weeks I think. And this actually you can make, I don't know man, you can make a couple tons of IMO4. We're just going to use like a little tablespoonful of water.
8:59 Dr. Hoon Park: 0.5% is ideally, so you can measure it. This one is 4 gallons, yeah?
9:12 Audience: 5.
9:14 Dr. Hoon Park: 4 gallons, yeah. 4 gallons is about 60,000 cc, right? 4 gallons.
9:24 Audience: We believe you.
9:26 Dr. Hoon Park: One gallon is 4 liter, right? 4 quart. One quart is 1000 milliliters, right? So, yeah, 4000 multiplied by 4 gallons is what? 16,000, right? So if you have a 5%, about 45cc or something. Or by 45 grams, it's 1.5 ounces. One ounce is 30 cc or 30 grams. So 45 is one and a half ounces. You don't have to be really accurate. So about this much would be about one and a half ounce or 45 grams.
10:11 So you put it in here, then you just mix it. And that's about [forty-five grams].
10:17 John Caverly: It was fun, you know, when I started doing this with Dr. Park, because he's a doctor. We measure out the… our inputs. He would use a syringe. He'd measure everything perfect, right? And I'm just like, I'm just a farmer. I just grab things and throw it in and pour it in like that. You know, in nature, it's nice. Master Cho was here and we had a workshop and we brought the whole workshop up to my farm, our farm and I had the IMO-3 and the IMO-4 piles on the ground and I had a plastic shade cloth over it, right? And Master Cho's daughter, they both speak Korean, so they had interpreters and she
11:05 was saying, oh, you should never put plastic on this, you know? And Master Cho said something and everybody started laughing because Dr. Park knew what he said. Master Cho says, it's okay. With his enthusiasm, it's alright. So, you know, nature has a great love for itself and for everything that's going on and for us. And if we make little miscalculations, she takes care of it for us. You know, the most important thing is the heart that you put into it. It's the most important thing and the results are going to be more than you could expect.
11:46 Dr. Hoon Park: Okay, so you know the number one, how to make it, right? Number two is all you have to do is mix with the one to one ratio of the brown sugar. Number three is going to be this one. Mill run. This is wheat bran. We call it mill run. And this one and this one. The goal is to make this one as I said moisture content 60-75%. which means you pour it out before you mix it. Okay. Like this much? Yeah. So we're going to put this much of the IMO2 into the water.
12:28 Unnamed helper: John, there's an FPJ here you can use too?
12:32 Dr. Hoon Park: Yeah. Good idea.
12:34 Audience: So you don't have to mix the brown sugar and the rice and make it like...
12:37 Dr. Hoon Park: That's already all mixed in already.
12:39 Audience: But it looks like rice and brown sugar, kind of. You don't have to mix it to make it look all like... One consistency.
12:45 John Caverly: You know, like, it's really fun. You have your IMO 1, your IMO 2. I just do it on the table, put it in the bowl, and you knead it, like bread. You mix it up real good. You've got to mix it. Mix the rice and the sugar real well.
12:56 Audience: It kind of has separated.
12:57 John Caverly: Yeah, but it's okay. You just scoop it. So this is a sweet potato FPJ. They're teaching how to make FPJ there, FPJ. But basically, we have a lot of inputs. When I make it, I use a little molasses, and I put in some spirulina. I cheat a little. I put in a little fish amino acid. That's fine. Yeah, and it grows out really nice. You know, I'm kind of like Merlin. I'm just adding whatever I got on hand into it. Because what we're going to be doing is we're going to be feeding these guys. And so we're feeding them. And making your fermented plant juices, this whole process, it's kind of beautiful.
13:39 There's a magic to this. So what we're doing is sweet potatoes, they grow rapidly, they can grow in the droughts, they can grow in the rain, they're very strong. And so we want to capture their strength, what they're all about. And plants grow at night. They don't grow during the day. Plant life grows at night. During the day, they're photosynthesizing. When the sun comes up in the morning, what that plant is all about, its mana, goes into the roots to hide from the UV light. So when sun sets, all that energy comes back into the plant. It's in the tip of the plant. The plant's growing.
14:23 So we go out at first light. You've got about 45 minutes before the sun comes up from first light. And we'll go out, and you can use anything. We use honohono, California grass, the sweet potatoes, anything that's going on in your farm that you have plenty of. You go out and you grab the tips, you know, the first six inches or whatever. You break off all the tips to these plants. And what you just did was you captured the strength, the vitality, and the goodness of that plant. You just grabbed it. And then you bring it in and you chop it up and you layer it with brown sugar.
15:04 The first time I did this, I couldn't believe it. We did the sweet potato and we put a sweet potato leaf and a little layer of brown sugar, sweet potato leaf, a little layer of brown sugar, and we probably had a five gallon bucket full. We did it in a crock. It's good to use crocks, you know. And so there was no liquid. I mean, it's just leaves and brown sugar. Five days later, we got two gallons of this stuff here. The sugar has what they call osmotic pressure, and it sucks out. It sucks the juices out, right? And it smells really nice too. It's sweet, too.
15:47 The nice thing about natural farming is that everything you make, you don't have to worry about spilling on you. You don't have to worry about your animals. It's beneficial for all living things. And that's the beautiful thing about natural farming is that you're creating a world that you can be proud that your great-great-grandchildren are going to inherit it because you made it better for them. That's the beautiful thing about natural farming is it just makes you feel better that you're doing something on this planet, right?
16:17 And if we each do it one person at a time and we spread this message to our neighbors and people start doing it, we may be able to actually change things around.
16:27 Audience: Make everyone stewards again?
16:28 John Caverly: We can be a part of that for the better through natural farming. I'm going to pour a little of this in there. I just pour it in. Pre-measured. It was perfect.
16:41 Dr. Hoon Park: But you know, you cannot pour the whole thing in. Not only is it too expensive, but also it's no good if it's too much stuff. Generally speaking, we said 1 to 500 for this solution to add it this way. 1 to 500. So in other words, you get 60,000 cc divided into 500. And whatever that comes out, 300 cc, something like that, you add it. And that's the right kind of ratio. Now, he said that this FPJ, fermented plant juice,
17:26 you can use any kind except if you know the toxic. I mean, poison, you never should use that one. Anything edible that grows very viciously, you know, very well, then that's the one that you go for. So, most, do you know what the purslane is? Purslane. Purslane is really, really good. If you have purslane, you know what purslane is?
17:59 John Caverly: It grows low to the ground. It has these beautiful thick leaves like velvet. Everybody has it. It's kind of everywhere.
18:08 Dr. Hoon Park: If you show the picture, then everybody recognizes it.
18:11 John Caverly: It's a good one. Purslane is a good one to recognize. Master Cho says purslane is very important in your garden. We have purslane. If I find it anywhere, I'll pick it and I'll transplant it in the garden because it promotes the growth of microorganisms. And Oprah Winfrey made it famous years ago. It has amazing anti-carcinogenic compounds in it. You can take purslane and throw it on a concrete sidewalk, come back two weeks later, and it's still alive.
18:44 Dr. Hoon Park: It has omega-3. Omega-3. You know, omega-3 is good for what?
18:50 Audience: Heart?
18:51 Dr. Hoon Park: Brain.
18:53 John Caverly: And I eat it. We have it in our garden. I put it in my smoothies. We basically live off the land. There's a lot of good things that are called weeds that people pull out and throw away as poison that are really good for you. Like the amaranth and the purslane.
19:13 Dr. Hoon Park: Another one is the big leaves.
19:14 Audience: The what?
19:16 Dr. Hoon Park: Another one is big leaves that grow under your anemone tree or papaya tree.
19:23 John Caverly: We got the giant Jamaican amaranth, the Korean, the green, the leaves, no not leaves, white leaves.
19:33 Dr. Hoon Park: What's that? Just my mental block. No, no, no. He eats it and he puts it on the… [unclear] Plantain. Oh, the comfrey. Oh, comfrey. Yeah, yeah. Shoot. Comfrey is another very good one to make this fermented plant juice.
19:52 Audience: Can you talk about taking the tips of the plant? How much of it is that?
19:56 Dr. Hoon Park: Six inches.
19:57 Audience: Six inches? Okay.
19:59 Dr. Hoon Park: Koreans use a lot of watercress. Watercress is a very good one. They usually, it's about 30 centimeters or one foot. They chop it and then you cut it. Yeah, so, you know, any portion of the plants is all edible But you want to have a very strong, he said any good one could be hormone. The plant have the hormone, they have some enzyme. All these are the goodies in there. So that's why they grow strong without even, you know, the bug inhibits.
20:45 So that's the kind that you want to go for. Like, you know, it's well known that country, person, here, everywhere. Good answer. And then you can use it. Plenty of juice coming out. So that's kind of the way to do that.
21:01 Unnamed helper: So I don't know if they explain, but plants generally grow at night. Yeah. So in the morning. So whatever that growing tip is, that's what you'll use for your FPJ.
21:12 Dr. Hoon Park: The tip is the strongest.
21:15 Audience: Wow.
21:15 John Caverly: I've got a lot of different plant juices here. Drake brought in his basil leaf and flower plant juice. I need that.
21:25 Dr. Hoon Park: Yeah, we'll use a little of this. The strongest of this.
21:29 Audience: So is diversity good? Having different plants? Or changing the plants you use?
21:37 Dr. Hoon Park: Not necessarily a thousand different kinds. You can put in two, three different kinds, that's enough.
21:44 John Caverly: This all smells drinkable. This is FPJ made from bananas.
21:49 Unnamed helper: Every natural farming input basically should be good for human consumption.
21:56 Dr. Hoon Park: Actually Korean farmers, when they get thirsty, they don't drink Coca-Cola. They drink FPJ. So, diluted FPJ is good for your health. And I'm not against the Coca-Cola because I drink once in a while. But that's not the best for your body. And this is the lacto made from the brown rice and sugar.
22:22 John Caverly: Do you want to tell them about this?
22:24 Dr. Hoon Park: Lacto? Okay. Oh, that takes a little time. I'm gonna explain lactobacillus, how good for your gastrointestinal system. I'll talk to everybody. That's your bonus for coming to this seminar. So we'll make this now. You can come back later, right? If you can, I want you to try practicing. Come in here, mix together, and try to make a little lump, I mean, you know, ball, and then see whether the...
23:09 Audience: Dig a pit in the center. Dig a pit in the center. Dig a hole in the...oh. Sorry, I do concrete mixing all day.
23:25 Unnamed helper: It's from the old farm. We need an aerobic environment. Not too wet, not too dry. Too wet will be anaerobic. You'll be propagating a whole different set of [unclear] than if it stays aerobic.
23:50 John Caverly: A little tricky with the tarp.
23:54 Audience: Can you use like a cement mixer?
23:57 Dr. Hoon Park: No cheat, no cheat. Okay, I'm going to show you. This is a ball shape, okay? ball shape but when I put that can you see this breaking down it's not 60% yet okay
24:21 Audience: So you said you want aerobic or anaerobic? Aerobic.
24:27 John Caverly: I've done it a bunch with the cement mixer and you gotta… It's kind of tough. It does not work very well. It's hard to not have it be real lumpy.
24:40 Dr. Hoon Park: It's because you've got to do it now. Here is the lump again. Now look at that. Can you see something? Nothing. Water is dripping here. This is more than 75%. Even if it's a couple drops. Yeah, even a couple. But if you squeeze more, there will come more. So this is too much, you gotta mix more. So the idea is in between this one and the other one, 65-75% moisture. That's what it is. After you mix this one, you have to
25:26 again pile up about one or one and a half feet high under the shaded area you have to mulch it, in other words you have to cover it so no direct sunlight goes in there usually it takes, depends how hot the weather is but somewhere around here about takes about five days or seven days 5 to 7 days is enough for the tropical area. If it's a cold area like Korea, sometimes it takes one week to get there. But once it's finished, you can see there's a whitish, like white snow or whatever there's
26:19 covered there. That's what it looks like. One important thing, when you have this one under the shaded area, one and a half feet with the mulching on top of it, and the next day you go down there, you stick your finger down into that, whoo, hot. That's too hot, then it's no good. You have to mix it again up and down. So you can cool down a little bit, and then you have to do it until everything is cooled down which takes about five days to seven days. So after once the temperature goes down then that's already ready. Then you see a lot of whitish fungal.
27:05 Unnamed helper: You keep it under one hundred and twenty degrees so that when this is a finished product and you put it on the soil you've cultivated those microorganisms that are used to this If it gets up to 130 degrees, then you're going to have cultured, a different micro-organism. Ones that are not going to recognize the soil temperature as well. Plus, a lot of them you kill.
27:34 Dr. Hoon Park: Yeah.
27:35 John Caverly: So no matter where you put your hand in this pile, it's just perfect. And so at this point, you know, so when you do this, you want to do it on the ground. You don't do it on plastic at home. at home, I built a special shed. So I do it on a dirt floor, out of the sun, out of the rain, and then we put like a sheet or cloth, bamboo, something to cover it. You come back in 24 hours, it's going to be hot. You're going to put your hand in it, it's going to be hot. You don't want it to get over 132, 130, you know, you might want to flip it over.
28:13 Wait, you turn it? Yeah, you turn it. You'll probably turn it once or twice. But it's amazing, You come back in 24 hours and it's going to look like it snowed on it. It's going to be all white. There will be a crust on the bottom and a crust on the top. You can mix it up and turn it and do it again. It takes anywhere from five to seven days. And when it cools off, that's the completion of your IMO-3. And then you're ready to make the IMO-4.
28:42 Dr. Hoon Park: Yeah, after it cools off.
28:43 John Caverly: After it cools off, it's done. It takes four to five days, six days, you know. But this is the first time we did it, you know. [unclear] you got this wet mill run on it. Like, wow, big deal, what's this? But you come back in 24 hours and it's all white and hot. It's beautiful. It's alchemy, you know.
29:04 Unnamed helper: Even your IMO-1, the white rice in this box, when you pull it out of the forest after three days, the rice will be warm. And it will usually dry out and it will look like tempeh.
29:19 John Caverly: It's like tempeh. You know tempeh? It's like that. The rice is like solid. It's like a block. And it's all impregnated with the IMOs. And that's why you put it with the brown sugar. Then it grows even more. You're taking millions and turning them into billions and trillions. It's pretty amazing.
29:41 Audience: Where do you keep the IMO2? Where do you keep that? Does it have to be refrigerated? In your kitchen. Anywhere? Room temperature?
29:51 Dr. Hoon Park: Actually, the cool area is the best one. You don't intentionally put it in the hot area. You just have to put it in the cool area. Will that keep growing? After you put the brown sugar plenty, they're not continuing fermenting. Yeah, they're staying there. Dormant. Yeah, dormant. Dormant status in IMO number two. Then when you mix it with this, then they will start multiplying. Growing. Growing, because you get a lot of food there, and then it's not too sugary. Sometimes sugar has two purposes. One is sucking, with osmotic pressure, just sucking.
30:39 And then another one is stop fermenting. Those are the characters. So IMO number two does not get any, you know, spoil anything because that's just dormant step.
30:52 Audience: Can you put it in a jar to keep it or it has to have air?
30:55 Dr. Hoon Park: You can. Jar. A jar but with a cloth cover. With a cloth cover. Yeah. Yeah. You can see there.
31:02 Audience: And you did say once the rice is done, you put an equal amount of brown sugar and then you mix it.
31:07 Dr. Hoon Park: One to one. It's a one-to-one ratio.
31:10 Unnamed helper: Sometimes making the IMO-1 can be the trickiest step. It can be too wet. Your box can, you know, suck up too much moisture in the cracks. Or if you try to use plastic, it might cause condensation. But basically, if that happens, you just put that in your compost and you try it again. All you're going to be wasting is, like, two cups of white rice. So just try it again. Don't give up. It's burlapful. Once you get a nice IMO 1, you're going to recognize it. This box will fill up with white filaments. It looks like cotton candy almost. That's exciting to find out. Burlap with good cover.
31:49 John Caverly: Should we go over to the IMO 4?
31:50 Unnamed helper: Yeah, and we want to pile leaves up around this box. If there's any questions. Keep the mice out and cover it with burlap and tarp. And leaves all around it. Mulch those leaves up close to it. The spores are on the leaves.
32:08 Audience: Are there any substitutes for the mill run?
32:12 Dr. Hoon Park: Ideally, in Korea, we use rice bran. Rice bran. If you have rice bran, I'm just thinking if we have to do this on a large scale, a long term basis, and feed wise, I think we might have to grow some dry rice, and feed wise, I think we might have to grow some dry rice, not the water rice. Instead of keep buying from the mainland. You know?
32:45 Audience: Can you buy rice bran from the mainland? Yeah, where can you get rice bran?
32:48 Dr. Hoon Park: Again, that's expensive. Shipping cost is going to be keep going up.
32:51 Audience: But it means it's more cheaper than other words.
32:53 Dr. Hoon Park: It is. It's probably similar.
32:56 Unnamed helper: What happened was there was a mill [place unclear] that closed down about a year ago. And that was supplying the farmers and the mushroom growers with this mill run, this great substrate like this sets. So at this point Vince is bringing in a ton of mill run from the mainland for about $600. So it makes it expensive, but maybe at some point there'll be enough of us doing this again that we can, and a lot of people are experimenting with other, with wood chips, with [unclear], with flour.
33:44 It all works pretty well, but this and the rice bran, they have that structure, they have that air space that the microbes really like.
33:57 John Caverly: David Wong was using a chipped up… Mac nut. The husk. The green husk.
34:17 Dr. Hoon Park: Not too airy in between. Actually, I used once in corn powder.
34:30 Audience: If the temperature isn't 120 degrees… but if you go above 120 degrees, what's the difference? Well, my understanding is Master Cho, 120 is when you're not sterilized. Right, right. And then when you take that temperature at 120 and once it's cured, you transfer it out to the field, those microorganisms are more acclimated to what's in the field. As opposed to if you're doing these sterilized temperatures, you put it out in the field, they're not going to survive. What's the fourth? It got up to three. What's the fourth one?
35:14 Dr. Hoon Park: Oh, fourth. Okay. Now let me ask you, what is the first one? Decomposition. What is the second one? Catalysis. Number three? Revitalization, bring this earthworm. Number four is disease control. This IMO4 has a suppressing function of the bacteria. These guys are the ones who compete with the bad guys. So you don't develop bad disease that often. That reminds me, so I'm going to explain the lactobacillus bacterium which is a probiotic.
35:59 Which is really really good for not only plants, but for the human being. I'm the first one to take this LAB every day. I had my stomach removed 80% 50 years ago. I'm 76 now. Now, 50 years ago I had a peptic ulcer, perforated. That kind of treatment takes the stomach out. I had 80% off and 20% left. And then after that I had no problem with the stomach pain. But I had very cold feet and cold stomach and diarrhea when I have cold weather.
36:46 So I like Hawaii. Anyway, so I had a lot of trouble with the stomach. After I learned this Lactobacillus bacteria will do very good for the plants. They bring this root system develop very well. the leaves can be larger, leaf can be thicker, leaf surface can be shinier. These are the functions of the LAB. So I said, really, I eat the one that makes the good thing, so why not I take myself directly, not through them. So I drink a little bit and my stomach is
37:35 very comfortable so when you have a diarrhea i'm a physician so i give sometimes i give very comfortable so when you have a diarrhea, I'm a physician, so I give, sometimes I give Pedialyte, it's an electrolyte solution, so you gotta prevent dehydration, but sometimes I give loperamide or Imodium, which is a diarrhea suppressant, yeah, but you know that is all But when I drink this one, when you have diarrhea, diarrhea controls pretty well too. Because, you know, actually, a human being has 3% of your weight is germs.
38:22 You have bad germs and good germs. Generally speaking, if it is 85% of the good germ, which is mostly LAB, lactogas bacterium, Generally speaking, if it is 85% of the good germ, which is mostly LAB, lactobacillus bacterium, they are completely the good guys. guys. Now some doctor including me give antibiotics because you get some infections in your body. What does he do with antibiotics? Kills not just bad guys. It kills the good guys, bad guys all together. Proportionally speaking good
39:08 guys are wiped out because they get 85%. Then bad guys say oh this is my work. So I gotta work hard and then they will multiply real fast then they can develop diarrhea or stomach cramps or something like that. So what do you do about that? You just have to supplement with the good guys, right? So that's the idea that I started drinking my LAB and that makes my stomach very comfortable. If you go to the party and you have so much good food, you know I'm eating more than I usually do. Then what happens after that? I feel very uncomfortable, right?
39:52 My stomach is blowing up and my head is cramping, things like that. You drink about one ounce of the lactic acid bacterium that we want to teach you. You mix it with water, about this glass of water. drink it, but 10 minutes later you feel very comfortable. That fast, you know? So, this organism, this bacteria has very, very important functions in our body system, as well as plants. So it's very good stuff. If you want to learn how to do that, we'll teach you how to do that. very simple just wash the rice and then you ferment one day then that has some
40:42 LAB inside, you augment or multiply with the milk. Milk ten portion, lactobacillus you made overnight, you added 10%, and then you ferment another five days and you have a yogurt on top or cheese on top the bottom is 100% LAB in there that you can keep in the refrigerator every meal you can drink about one tablespoon to two tablespoons which is one ounce mix with water if you don't like the sour smell sour taste then you can mix with the juice and drink it
41:25 John Caverly: Another very important thing about the IMOs is that it extends the root systems of the plants vastly. You look at these commercial fields, I've got these commercial farmers next door to me down the road and they're growing all these eggplants and all this other stuff, commercially beans and everything and they're using chemicals all the time. As soon as they stop using the chemicals, like in the papaya fields, everything dies. It's addicted. It needs that drug to survive. Where if you have biologically activated soil and you're using the IMOs, instead of the
42:05 roots of the plants being that far from the plant, it'll grow from here to the other side of the building because the IMOs have a symbiotic relationship with the roots. They grow together and it fans out throughout the whole field. quite interesting because you know all life forms are conscious in some degree and these plants are asking that they need some magnesium or some boron or some calcium and the IMOs they're receiving this information this is this whole consciousness in this planet that's beyond our comprehension and so the IMOs
42:42 sequest what these plants need and they bring it in they inject it into the roots because this plant is a living thing and it's consuming it's extremely it's extruding carbohydrates, it's like it's feeding the IMOs croissants and cupcakes, they love it, so there's a symbiotic relationship going on under the soil that is just like it's a huge, what they call the soil web, you know, it's everything's connected, and so you can have droughts or whatever, your plants are disease resistant, they're drought tolerant, because they have a connection, they have
43:17 support system where conventionally the plants have absolutely no support systems whatsoever except for the drugs that they're being fed so when they pull it off they just flop dead i've seen it time and time again that's how they that's how they clean their fields you know they want to clean their fields they just pull back the chemicals everything dies boom, they start over again, time and time again, it's unbelievable.
43:42 Dr. Hoon Park: One more function of the IMO, they are moisture content of themselves. It's about 80%, 85% is their moisture. Which means even if it's a drought condition, they're still surviving there, supplying the moisture. In other words, you don't have to have too much rain. In other words, if you have a drought, they still, natural farm, can survive more than, or longer than other chemical farm or natural conventional farm. So that's another very big benefit. The IMO4 has a high moisture content.
44:27 Audience: Have you noticed insect pest reduction in plants that use IMO4?
44:35 Dr. Hoon Park: Generally speaking, yeah. I think Alika Atay from Maui, he told me after he used this IMO-4, he can just ballpark figure about 30% diseases less after using this IMO-4. So that itself, you know, it didn't have an exact measure, but it has disease suppressing function of the IMO-4 itself. And insects, that's probably as well. Yeah, insects too. I wish, you know, in Korea now there is Master Cho's son who is now a very expert
45:24 for the pesticide and insecticide and he is too busy but I am going to go this time to talk with the story so that he can come here to teach us some. he developed very almost universal kinds of material. He invented actually. He didn't he developed very almost universal kinds of material. He invented actually. He didn't have a patent on it. If he had, then he could have been a millionaire already. But he announced that nobody will patent on this one. But everybody who want [unclear], then use this. Those two things will control almost 90 plus percent of the insect problem, pest problem.
46:17 And so we're going to go learn with a few people in September. So, when he learns how to make those things, we're going to bring that information so we can use that one here. Because that is amazing, all the Korean farmers using that technique to control these bad bugs.
46:43 Audience: What kind of oil is that?
46:45 Dr. Hoon Park: It's called JADAM oil, that's the organization name.
46:49 John Caverly: What's the price? I haven't [unclear]. I still have, I used to buy at the ballpark, I used to buy like these half-ton totes of it. So I still have some left. Just filled some bags, but you can get it from HFM.
47:02 Audience: So really find a group of folks or a couple of schools and get a ton from them.
47:08 John Caverly: Yeah, yeah. You know, we tried doing that. It didn't work out, but you know, this is what we need to do. maybe out of this conference, we can actually, and out of the Farmers Union, start a co-op. Just get people, you know, to bring in, because this is OHN. I tell you, man, once you get OHN, you get the flu, and you drink an ounce of OHN, you'll always have OHN in your house, because it cures the flu like that.
47:35 Audience: What does that stand for? Herbal?
47:37 John Caverly: Oriental herbal nutrient.
47:38 Audience: Oh, okay.
47:39 John Caverly: It's really, I mean, it cures everything. It's amazing. So if we had a co-op that could buy the herbs from LA, I could buy them.
47:51 Dr. Hoon Park: So basically, for your question, we've got to develop some kind of...
47:57 Audience: And so if in your IMO4 you have really nice visible fungal growth, but then you also get a little bit of the actinobacteria, what do you... is that still good to use? How do you know when it's gone too far?
48:10 Dr. Hoon Park: But if you use it, because you know nobody can just look at it and say you cannot use this one because there are some bad bugs. If you use it, most of them, most of them, they have majority of the good guys. guys because this indigenous microorganism means that organism or germs in your area has been staying there for years of many many millions of years there and you support still surviving there means the bad guys has not been successful to kill it so in that sense you can try use it because because that's indigenous, local made organism.
48:57 So I think that would be my suggestion to try it. If somehow there has been some bad result happen, of course you have to think about what do I do then next. But generally speaking, IMO4, you use it, you always say, plants really flourish here. That's the result. Thank you. Thank you very much.