Plant Alchemy With KNF: Korean Natural Farming And Jadam

[ReservoirDog]

I didn't know about "charging it up", though. Glad for that.

yeah this was a biggie for me too, thnx Avi and MycFarmer both for the efforts

I bought some cheap lava stone last tear, just 1 inchers, 10lbs worth, nuthin really. Glad I did. I started keeping a live culture of microbes in the lava stone (theres little bit of perlite, vermic also, just incidental). I used my best remaining 5-year leaf mould, homemade castings, commercial endomycos, dextrose (1/40th price of molasses, maybe 1/10th as good), humates, aminos, in an aquarium, with a seed mat and auto temp. control at 77. Every week I feed dextrose and some bean or rice flour, wee pinch of rockdust, oh, and a squirt of safflower oil if you can believe it.

All seedlings of all types, since creating this resource, have been used to test it. Every seedling (of all plants grown from seed) either receives one piece of inoculation-lava-rock on top of soil and a mulch layer to cover or doesn't (50/50), in a manner that prevents me knowing which are inoc'd so I don't subconsciously skew results. Obviously, I stumble on the piece of lava accidentally sometimes, about 15%, in fact. Regardless, results heavily favour inoc'd plants with bigger healthier plants almost 90% of time, veg, flower, herbs, canna.

Here's to surface area baby, and solving the bacterial housing crisis!

 

[CBDMed]

The char doesn't break down in the soil, it lasts for thousands of years, sequestering the carbon that way. Food wastes will break down very quickly with microbes so won't help much in the way of carbon fixation.

As for organic forms of nitrates that's an entire new learning curve for most farmers. I saw a report that your govt is banning chemical ferts. Right in the middle of a worldwide food shortage. Idiots.

And it's going on in the Netherlands, and other locals as well. Almost like there is a worldwide effort by gov'ts to control the food supply and therefore the masses.

It's all by design. They all can't be that stupid. It's about govt control and moving us all to socialism.

All the more reason for us to control what we can and not rely on outside inputs as much as possible.

Roger that.

 

[ReservoirDog]

Nobody's surreptitiously adjusting the political trajectory toward socialism in Holland or Cad., we are actively engaged in socialist experiments, consciously and openly on the part of voters and gov't for half a century, longer. Look, we gotta stop looking for malicious intent everywhere if we're ever to first pull our heads clear from our lower digestive tract and start dealing with who's really responsible for this mess. 'Me'.

No, I mean raise soldier flies on the food waste in centralized locations and subsequently harvest frass.

 

[Azimuth]

Thank you for that article on Biochar. I remember reading about biochar a while ago. I didn't know about "charging it up", though.

That one trips up a lot of first time users. I'll bet most of those that tried it and said their crops were worse off skipped that step in which case you'd see lots of deficiencies for at least a couple of grow cycles until the char fully absorbed what it could. After that you'd start seeing the benefits.

 

[Azimuth]

No, I mean raise soldier flies on the food waste in centralized locations and subsequently harvest frass.

I don't know what the npk of frass is but would think it is dependent on whatever the grubs were feeding on.

I mostly know it for encouraging insect eating microbes but maybe it has a nute aspect to it.

@Bill284 might know as I know he uses a lot of it.

 

[CBDMed]

There's still time to collect dandelion at least, and any of the others you can find. Pick a bucket of leaves, add a small handful of microbes in the form of leaf mold soil or worm castings, cover with water and then a lid to contain the smell and let it sit out by your plants. Full sun is fine. It will be usable enough in a week or so but will get better with age. Dilute it 1:20 at least with non-chlorinated water. I usually go 1:30.

I also dry some for my Crumble and topdress with it once a week. I use comfrey and nettle for general purposes but also make individual crumbles for each variety from the leaves I pull when thinning or rooting cuts, etc.

The healthy green leaves of any of your plants have the exact right proportions of each of the elements for that specific variety. So, some plants want more or less of any of the key inputs, but a healthy plant stores the exact right proportions of each in its leaves so by feeding the healthy leaves of a specific strain to that plant gives it back in the exact right proportions.

Azi, does this mean that when we trim leaves, to put the leaves in jars with water that has sat out for a day?
And is there a ratio? Or just stuff it 2/3 full, and cover with water?

 

[Azimuth]

Azi, does this mean that when we trim leaves, to put the leaves in jars with water that has sat out for a day?
And is there a ratio? Or just stuff it 2/3 full, and cover with water?

Yes, non-chlorinated water is best. Fill the jar 2/3rds full, cover with the water and don't forget the microbes!

 

[scottreid1966]

I am pleased to report that the side-by-side test of the two different constructions of the SIP containers has confirmed my bias, and I will be going with the Gravel Bed version from here on.

Hi Azi, i am slowing trying to educate myself following your endevours.
I have been doing soil with Bill's method but wondering if the first/bottom layer should be gravel instead of perlite?

Cheers! I hope I can find my way back to where I left out.

 

[Azimuth]

Hi Azi, i am slowing trying to educate myself following your endevours.
I have been doing soil with Bill's method but wondering if the first/bottom layer should be gravel instead of perlite?

Cheers! I hope I can find my way back to where I left out.

I think any non-soil drainage layer will work fine in a sip so perlite, pumice, hydroton, or gravel should all serve the purpose.

For my homemade sips I'll likely stay with the gravel bed structure for veg but shift to the cave structure when I up-pot for flower. The latter has a larger void for the reservoir which means more water capacity late in flower.

 

[Bill284]

I don't know what the npk of frass is but would think it is dependent on whatever the grubs were feeding on.

I mostly know it for encouraging insect eating microbes but maybe it has a nute aspect to it.

@Bill284 might know as I know he uses a lot of it.

I use Frass & Dazzle, a proprietary blend of frass an a couple other things.
Npk 000.
But it's hard tomget.
So people use what's available.
Some I've seen ( Jon's) was high N and burned his plant a bit on top dress.
If it has N it should say on the package.
Still works, just have to be careful not to use too much.
Benefits are worth a little N .
Take care.




Stay safe
Bill284

 

[Azimuth]

Leaf Mold - Finding and/or Making

 

[Mycelium Farmer]

Leaf Mold - Finding and/or Making

The damn wild hogs keep rooting up killer leaf mould spots beneath the dead oaks around here.

 

[Azimuth]

The damn wild hogs keep rooting up killer leaf mould spots beneath the dead oaks around here.

I hear they're good eating.

 

[Mycelium Farmer]

Leaf Mold - Finding and/or Making

I like the video... near the end when he showed how to create leaf mould and mycelium in a desert environment... got me wondering if it would be beneficial to scoop some handfuls of the woodchip/mycelium layer on top of the garden beds back into the jadam barrels. Give the ferments micro organisms that are local to the same soil it will be returned to as a tea. hmm.....
The woodchips come from nearby downed trees anyways, using my woodchipper on site to process the trees. So that step probably brings in additional close by micro organisms.

 

[Mycelium Farmer]

I hear they're good eating.

Yeah, they taste better if you let the weather cool down and get a little wet first. They start eating more mycelium and tastier roots I would assume. I see about 5-20 everyday on the property.

 

[Azimuth]

I like the video... near the end when he showed how to create leaf mould and mycelium in a desert environment... got me wondering if it would be beneficial to scoop some handfuls of the woodchip/mycelium layer on top of the garden beds back into the jadam barrels. Give the ferments micro organisms that are local to the same soil it will be returned to as a tea. hmm.....
The woodchips come from nearby downed trees anyways, using my woodchipper on site to process the trees. So that step probably brings in additional close by micro organisms.

Yes, that's exactly how to use it. The Jadam ferments will multiply them and make it easier to spread around. I would imagine it would also work great to mist the planting holes with that ferment when transplanting. Would get it right to the roots where it would do the most good.

 

[Mycelium Farmer]

Yes, that's exactly how to use it. The Jadam ferments will multiple them and make it easier to spread around. I would imagine it would also work great to mist the planting holes with that ferment when transplanting. Would get it right to the roots where it would do the most good.

absolutely.... before re-planting all the beds got hit broadforked, watered, and then several jadam ferments only diluted 1:100. then plants go in a few days later, usually one more pass of water after the tea. The roots really do kick into action faster when watering in with jadam before planting versus when not.
Just never thought to add the same microbes from the beds into the barrells. I usually go outside the garden into the woods nearby for the leaf mould collections.

 

[Danishoes21]

Leaf Mold - Finding and/or Making

So much compelling evidence that this is the future now of organic farming. Thanks for sharing.

 

[scottreid1966]

shift to the cave structure when I up-pot for flower.

I hope that I figured out that SIP means soil in pot.

Would the "cave structure" mean higher walls around the perimeter?

Will be up-potting phase II into their flowering pots next week.

Cheers.

 

[Azimuth]

I hope that I figured out that SIP means soil in pot.

Would the "cave structure" mean higher walls around the perimeter?

Will be up-potting phase II into their flowering pots next week.

Cheers.

Nope! Lol. Sub Irrigated Planter. A structured container with soil above, water below and a connector pot between them. Head on over to @Buds Buddy 's New grow to see it in action.

You can follow my experiments in this thread Starting here but basically I'm trialing two different versions of them, one I call the gravel bed structure and the other the cave type. They are my own versions of the thing that I modify as my experiments throw off useful info.

Buds is using a commercial version which is more standard for this type of pot structure. But either way, it works so well I'll likely never grow in a normal pot again .