Farm-Made Microbes Beat Commercial EM on Peanuts
Zacheous Kazibwe, Konkuk University, Department of Bioresources and Food Science (MS student; advisor Prof. Kim Doo Hwan) · Uganda
A one-season peanut trial at Konkuk's Paju test farm compared solid Microbes (IMO4), liquid Microbes (IMO4 in water), commercial EM and a water-only control. Both IMO treatments gave more pods, heavier seed, far more root nodules and higher soil microbe counts. Solid IMO4 gave the top yield, 2,816 kg/ha, against 1,904.6 for EM and 1,674.8 for the control.
What they found
Do farm-made indigenous microorganisms (IMO4), solid or liquid, raise peanut yield and soil microbe numbers compared with commercial EM and water only?
Konkuk University test farm, Paju, Korea. Peanut (groundnut), May 19 to September 27, 2016 (about 120 days after transplanting). 4 treatments, 3 replications. Plot size, layout (e.g. randomized blocks), peanut variety, soil type and the statistical test are not stated; tables carry significance letters.
- Solid Microbes (solid IMO4) — 1.5 t/ha applied to the soil two weeks before planting. Slide analysis of the IMO4: pH 5.6, organic matter 56.0 g/kg, P 3,075 mg/kg, K 10.04 cmol/kg, Ca 4.0 cmol/kg (Mg and EC partly hidden).
- Liquid Microbes (liquid IMO4) — IMO4 : water at 1:500, once a week; the speaker refers to these as foliar applications.
- EM (commercial Effective Microorganisms) — EM : water at 1:500, once a week (frequency partly hidden on slide).
- Control — Watered only, no other treatment.
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Solid IMO4 gave the highest yield, 2,816 kg/ha
Table 8 at 120 days: solid IMO4 2,816.0 (a), liquid IMO4 2,668.0 (b), EM 1,904.6 (c), control 1,674.8 (d) kg/ha. All four differ by the letters shown. Slide column header wrongly reads 'g/100 Kernel'.
▶ 6:04 Said and shown on the slides
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IMO plants carried more pods: 93.3 and 87.8 per plant vs 61.8 in the control
Table 3 at 120 days: solid 93.3 (a), liquid 87.8 (a), EM 70.1 (b), control 61.8 (c).
▶ 3:40 From the slides
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Pod dry weight at harvest: 156.4 and 148.2 g/plant vs 93.0 in the control
Table 2 at 120 days: solid 156.4 (a), liquid 148.2 (a), EM 105.8 (b), control 93.0 (b). Early on (30 days) solid IMO4 was low (0.7 g) and EM highest (3.2 g); the speaker credits the early lead of liquid IMO and EM to the foliar feeding.
▶ 2:44 Said and shown on the slides
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Pod fresh weight 305.1 and 294.0 g vs 247.4 g for EM
Table 4 at 120 days; control value hidden by the speaker, ends in '…2.1' with letter c.
▶ 3:45 From the slides
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100-seed weight about 107 g with IMO
Table 5: solid 107.3 (a), liquid 106.3 (a), EM about 97.4 (b, partly hidden); control value hidden.
▶ 4:16 Said and shown on the slides
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Many more root nodules with IMO
Table 6 (nodules per plant, by class): solid IMO4 200–500, liquid IMO4 100–200, control 21–60; EM spoken as in the same low range as control. The speaker said 200–500 for both IMO treatments, but the slide puts liquid IMO4 at 100–200.
▶ 4:46 Said and shown on the slides
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Soil microbe counts highest with IMO
Table 7 at 110 days, log10 colony counts per gram: solid 6.8 (a), liquid 6.6 (a), EM 6.0 (b), control 5.3 (c). The speaker called it ten times higher; on these logs it is about 30 times the control and about 6 times EM for solid IMO4.
▶ 5:14 Said and shown on the slides
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Leaf chlorophyll: IMO equal to control, EM lowest
Table 1 at 60 days, total chlorophyll mg/100 g: IMO rows 78.0 (a) and 78.5 (a), control 76.5 (a), EM 61.2 (b). The speaker said IMO had the highest chlorophyll, but by the letters shown only EM is different. The slide labels both IMO rows 'Solid IMO4' and also prints 'ns'.
▶ 1:54 From the slides
- One season, one site (Paju), 3 replications; plot size and design not stated.
- Statistical test not named; significance shown only as letters, and Table 1 mixes letters with 'ns'.
- Several values hidden behind the speaker (control pod fresh weight, control 100-seed weight, Mg and EC of the IMO4, EM nodule class).
- The 'pod dry weight' table shows non-zero pod weights at 30 days after transplanting, which suggests it may actually be plant or shoot dry weight; the speaker said 'pod dry weight' only once.
- Solid IMO4 itself carried nutrients (P 3,075 mg/kg); the extra yield cannot be split between microbes and the nutrients they came with.
- Liquid IMO4 and EM were foliar sprays while solid IMO4 went on the soil, so application route differs as well as the material.
- On peanut, home-made Microbes (IMO4) spread on the soil before planting were followed by more pods, more root nodules and higher yield than commercial EM or water alone, in this one season.
- About 1.5 t/ha of solid IMO4, two weeks before planting, is the rate this trial used.
- Liquid IMO4 at 1:500 weekly also helped, a little less than solid.
- Legumes may respond strongly through their root nodules when the soil's microbe life is built up.
Next to Master Cho's teaching
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Agrees
Solid IMO4 at about 1.5 t/ha before planting Pure KNF teaching gives about 1,300 lb of IMO4 per acre (roughly 1.5 t/ha) and treating 7–14 days before planting; the trial used 1.5 t/ha two weeks before.
IMO / mugwort presentation (LSS 2017), p. 47–56
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Agrees
Apply IMO4 two weeks before planting Cho's recipe book says soil treatment 7 days before seeding, or 14 days where there is a successive-cropping problem.
Cho recipe book (scan), p. 6
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Agrees
Microbes and legume nodules Cho saw as a teenager that soybean plants with bigger nodules bore more, and began dusting seed with soil from old soybean fields plus sugar; the trial's nodule-and-yield link fits this.
Cho, IMO and Vital Power of Crops and Livestock, p. 74
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Agrees
Local IMO over bought-in microbes (EM) Cho teaches that the microbes already native to the land are the ones to culture; the trial found local IMO4 beat commercial EM on yield and soil counts.
2018/Cho - advanced hawaii/tour-he @ 1:34:10 (translated)
“One of the amazing results that came across was the number of root nodules on the solid and liquid IMO4 treatments.”
▶ 4:31
“Solid IMO showing the highest yield of peanuts per hectare, 2816.”
▶ 6:21
In this talk
Transcript
Transcribed and checked by hand against the recording. Click any time to play from there.
0:00 Good morning everyone. My name is Zacheous Kazibwe from Uganda. My experiment was simple. The effect of indigenous microorganisms on peanut production and soil microorganisms. I go straight to the materials and methods. And the experiment was performed in Paju, on peanut, commonly known as groundnuts. And from May 19th to 27th September, and four treatments, which included solid IMO,
0:52 This one we use solid IMO, soil application. And treatment two was liquid IMO. For treatment three, EM. EM is effective microorganisms, and these are commercially available for organic farmers. And the control, the peanuts in control experiments were provided with only water without any other treatments. So these are the chemical properties of the IMO4 that we used.
1:40 You can see that it has a lot of phosphorus and potassium and other plant nutrients that are required for proper plant growth. And these are the results. According to this table, we see that the liquid and solid IMO, the peanut leaves have highest concentration of chlorophyll. That is in percentage chlorophyll concentration, meaning that these plants are able to maximize light absorption and they can maximize
2:27 productivity because chlorophyll absorbs enough light so they can absorb, they can maximize the activity. And in Table 2, pod dry weight, so as you can see solid and liquid IMO at different days after transplanting. Solid IMO in the beginning had a low dry weight. Liquid IMO and EM had higher dry weight in the beginning probably because of the nutrition that were provided in
3:20 the foliar applications, but at the end, after 120 days, that is at harvesting, solid and liquid IMO4 had the highest pod dry weight as compared to the control. And Table 3, number of peanut pods, still the same trend. There was significant differences between the number of pods. And the pod fresh weight, the dry weight was derived from the dried fresh weight of pods. So this is the same trend. And the 100 seed weight, so this is,
4:08 I counted 100 seeds from each of the treatments and took the weight of those 100 seeds. So this is the result. Still there is differences, with solid and liquid IMO4 treatments showing the highest 100 seed weight. And one of the amazing results that came across was the number of root nodules on the solid and liquid IMO4 treatments. So as you can see in the table, 200 to 500 root nodules per plant on solid and liquid IMO4 treatments,
4:55 compared to the control, which was between 21 to 60, and the EM. So these are the root nodule distribution. And the abundance of soil microorganisms at 110 days: still solid IMO4 and liquid IMO4 had the highest abundance of microorganisms. This is shown in log to base 10. It is very, very high
5:42 difference. You can see 6.8 or 6.6, it is both. So if we translate it to real numbers, it is ten times higher microbial population in liquid and solid IMO than the other treatments. So this is the final yield of peanuts, kilograms per hectare, and still there is a significant difference between solid and liquid IMO with EM and control. Solid IMO showing the highest yield of peanuts per hectare, 2816.
6:36 So this is the summary of my experiment. Solid and liquid IMO increased peanut leaf chlorophyll concentration and it also increased the population of microorganisms in the soil. Because of these two factors and other factors that I'm still working on, It could have contributed to the high yield of the peanuts.
7:27 And finally the kernel weight of the peanut was also highest in these two treatments. So this is my result. Thank you.