KNF, JADAM, Syntropic, other regenerative practices

[Tang Tonic]

Greetings,

I would like to start a thread discussing Korean Natural Farming, JADAM, Syntropic, and other regenerative practices.

I have so far made all of the solutions for KNF.  I did have to purchase the Oriental Herbal Nutrient and Fish Amino Acid solutions because they take about 6 months to make.  I have them fermenting now.

I have also successfully harvested Indigenous Microorganisms (IMO) from the forest edges of my property and went through the steps all the way to IMO #4.  I will be applying IMO #4 to my row crop beds soon.

As for JADAM.  I have made the JADAM Microbial Solution (JMS) and applied to all my fruit trees and row crops.  I also have a fermented fruit solution I made about 6 months ago with genips, water, and JMS. 

I also farm earthworms, have 12 free range chickens, and my family and I have a bucket to barrel composting toilet system.  I gather seaweed, forest humus, an logs for soil building.  I also have an occasional stream/river flowing through my property and collect the course grain sediments for mineral inputs. 

It has become quite a fun process to not only produce food in the form of fruits, vegetables, and roots, but to also produce the food for my food! 

I'll add to this thread in the future and I hope others can chime in on their regenerative practices. 

[Tang Tonic]

I should add that I have been very happy with the results so far!  There is so much more to learn but the process so far has been truly enjoyable.

I had a bag of Osmocote that I gave away and will no longer be buying any fertilizers!

When you live on a small island like I do, it's quite empowering to realize nature provides all the things you need to be a successful fruit grower and farmer. 

[New_Jungle]

Awesome and super interesting. I’ll keep my eye on this thread!

[happyhana]

Me too! Great thread to start, will be watching

[elouicious]

KNF is a great growing method, even if you don't go as far as you have Matt I have found trimming the meristem of things growing around my garden to be excellent for inducing growth in other plants

[Frog Valley Farm]

No news here

[roblack]

Lots to learn from ya'll. Love what you're doing. Thanks for sharing! Following.

[Tang Tonic]

I see Frog Valley is posting some interesting information although there seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding his posts.

Everyone is entitled to their own life experience and the folks here on this forum obviously have a passion for growing tropical fruit.  The locales vary so methods that may work in one region may need to be tweaked, modified or altered to work in others.

Regardless of where you live and what you choose to grow, it can be done in such a way that is beneficial to your local environment, soil,  water table, surrounding water bodies, and other living organisms in the area. 

Growing fruits in a destructive manner using synthetically derived chemical fertilizers and pesticides is similar to our modern plight of man where we use our left brain of rationality and extreme focus to accomplish a goal.

Being a land steward and using natural farming and regenerative methods is more right brained and looks at the system as a whole.  This is the direction our society needs to head in if we are to survive, and it can all start with how we grow plants and farm.

Soil and microbes are the foundation.  Keep the microbes working hard, give them a nice home, and keep them well fed and they will in turn provide the nutrients the plants are looking for. 

There are many ways to boost microbial activity in soil.  The easiest is to make a Jadam Microbial Solution (JMS).  Essentially you use a starch such as potatoes.  Cook them and then mash them in a paint strainer.  Hang the paint strainer so its suspended in a 5 gallon the bucket of water.  Next collect healthy leaf mold from an undisturbed area and add this to a separate paint strainer also suspended in the bucket (add rocks to each strainer to submerge).  Next add 1 liter of seawater.  Allow this to sit for 24-48 hours depending on temperature.  Outside in the sun is ok. 

You will see a foam form on the surface and once the foam forms a ring, the solution is ready.  The 5 gallons can be diluted 30 times over so you can mix this into 150 gallons of water.  Now you can apply this solution anywhere you want to increase microbial activity.

This is the quick and dirty way to do it.  Its indiscriminate and is like a rock and roll approach.  A more refined way of spreading microbial life akin to classical music sypmhonies is through the Korean Natural Farming method of collecting IMO's and going through the four stages.  I will discuss this at a later date when I have some more time.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and Long Live the Natural Farmer!