Compost Teas: 24 hour, EM, IM, BD & fermented plant extracts

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura AT gmail.com>]

Indigenous Microorganisms + Korean Natural Farming Association
Steve Diver
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/SoilWiki/message-archives/composttea+soilfoodweb+soilquality/5/msg00012.html

[Previously... Re: [SANET-MG] Beneficial Soil Microbia]
For the earlier SANET discussion on EM + IM, see:
Re: Beneficial Soil Microbia
Fri, 13 Dec 2002
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0212&L=sanet-mg&O=A&P=10020



The question is how to get information on IM or IMO's,
Indigenous Microorganisms.

Well, there is a seminar on Indigenous Microorganisms
at the Ecological Farming Conference in California,
Jan. 22-25.  Gil Carandang, a farmer from the Phillipines,
will demonstrate some of the special cultures.
http://www.eco-farm.org/efc/efc_main.html

Concepts and practices on Indigenous Microorganisms, IM
or IMO, originate with Han Kyu Cho and the Korean Natural
Farming Association, or KNFA, going back 35 to 40 years.
Yet, this knowledge has only come into English language in
the last few years.

There is one book in English, yet it is not available for-sale
from any distributor that I can determine.

Korean Natural Farming: Indigenous Microorganisms and
Vital Power of Crop/Livestock
Han Kyu Cho and Atsushi Koyama
Korean Natural Farming Association, 1997. 172 p.

Here is an address for KNFA:

Korean Natural Farming Association (KNFA)
209-2 Woongok-ri, Chungan-myun
Kyisan Kun, Chung cheong buk do
Republic of Korea
Tel:  (82-43)832-8777
Fax: (82-43)832-8783

Listed in:
Asian Productivity Organization // Green Productivity and
Natural Farming
http://www.apo-tokyo.org

KNFA develops IMO's in association with specific substrates
to create special cultures.  The IMO's are diluted to certain
concentrations and sprayed on plants, composts, and soils.

fermented fruit juices -FFJ
fermented plant juices FPJ
fish amino acid - FAA
brown rice vinegar - BRV
Oriental herbal nutrients - OHN
lactic acid bacteria serum - LAS

Often, these special cultures are mixed together to make
a complete recipe for plant pest control, to provide
soluble nutrients, to provide bioactive substances,
to inoculate the leaf surface with beneficial microorganisms.

KNFA farming practices pay special attention to soil
management, cover crops, and organic mulches. IMO's
are directed at critical stages of the plant growth,
to enhance and facilitate physiology and microbiology.

Very little on IMO's exists on the web, as well.
Here is one article to gain insight:

Indigenous Micro-organisms Put to Work
The Seed Saver's Network
http://www.genevar.com.au/seedsavers/resources/10.html

Here is a web document from a Korean company, a .doc
download, that points to commercial equipment for the
production of fermented biofertilizers with IMO's in
the KNFA tradition.  It contains useful background
information on KNFA, IMO's, microbial processes, and
microbial benefits.  It contains photos in an educational
series that show the production steps and processes.

Bio Plant of Indigenous Microorganism
Developed by... Natural Farming Institute
Manufactured by... H-Tec Co., Ltd
http://www.htech-fa.co.kr/english/env/images/infoeng.doc

Interestingly, EM in Japan does something very similar.  The
equipment featured here may be the same.  Over 1 million
Japanese households collect  food scraps in the EM bokashi
buckets.  Trucks come by every once in a while to pick up the
"pickled" bokashi-treated food waste.  The bokashi food-waste
material is taken to farms and composted.  And, the bokashi
food-waste material is taken to these biofertilizer plants which
run the material through bioprocessing equipment that integrates
(as best I can surmise):  bokashi food-waste + rice bran biomass
+ molasses + EM microbes + heat treatment + fermentation
process that results in a ready-to-use, pelletized organic
fertilizer for use on commerical on organic farms.

Web research on Korean-language websites -- to locate IMO
material on the web -- included digging through Korean
characters to find English-language resources.  That's how
I found the following chapter from Korea Organic Farming
Association, which offers complimentary notes on organic
farming, composting, fermentation, beneficial microorganisms,
and special-culture microbial-inoculants.

The Technics and Management of Organic Farming
Korea Organic Farming Association
http://www.organic.or.kr/whatis/what6.php

Similarly, web research found these items at Research Institute
of Organic Agriculture, Dan Kook University, Republic of Korea.

Research Institute of Organic Agriculture
Dan Kook University, Republic of Korea
http://www.anseo.dankook.ac.kr/~ecnet/

Chemical Characteristics of Soil and NO3- Accumulation of
Vegetable by Conventional and Organic farming in Korea
College of Agriculture, Dan Kook University, Republic of Korea
http://www.anseo.dankook.ac.kr/%7Eecnet/serve/base9.html

Development, Current Issues and Prospects of  Organic Agriculture
Movement in Korea
College of Agriculture, Dan Kook University, Republic of Korea
http://www.anseo.dankook.ac.kr/%7Eecnet/serve/base7.html

If you look at EM practices, you can see that Kyusei Nature
Farming + EM practices from Japan does something very similar
to KNFA + IM from Korea -- interestingly -- and that is get
beneficial microbes in touch with organic substrates and let
microbiology work over the organic amendments and raw
materials to transform the biomass into a fermented biofertilizer
or compost or special culture, or, remediate something like
raw manure sitting in a pile to prevent putrefaction.

And, to label these special cultures so it creates a
systematic approach to treatment of organic wastes
and biomass, preparation methods and microbial
integration, and biofertilizer + microbial inoculation
usage methods, all at the same time.

EM recipes at Lindros, South Africa
http://www.lindros.co.za/effective_microorganisms.htm

Keep in mind, as I mentioned earlier on SANET, the special
cultures in biodynamics -- Horn Manure, CPP, Liquid Manures
and Herbal Teas -- does pretty much the same thing;
get beneficial microbes in touch with an organic substrate
and let microbes grow and flourish and transform and
extract.

Thus, by using local herbs, garden plants, and fruits you can
make BD-Liquid Manure, EM-Fermented Plant Extracts,
or IM-FFJ, IM-FPJ, and IM-OHN.

You can see that a pattern emerges.  Farmers use local biomass
sources in association with local beneficial microorganisms
or brought-in microbial inoculants -- sometimes with microbial
food sources and catalysts such as molasses or raw sugar --
to allow Nature to work over the materials and develop
biofertilzers, disease and pest suppressive foliar brews, and
soil and compost inoculants.

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Related Resources:

The Food & Fertilizer Technology Center, an Information
Center for Farmers in the Asia Pacific Region, located in Tawain,
has an excellent library with two complimentary documents on
microbial fertilizers and inoculants.... including recipe for bokashi
(fermented organic matter).
http://www.agnet.org/library/

Use of Microbial Inoculants and Organic Fertilizers in
Agricultural Production
J.F. Parr, S.B. Hornick, and D.D. Kaufman
ABSTRACT:
http://www.agnet.org/library/abstract/eb394.html
HTML:
http://www.agnet.org/library/article/eb394.html
PDF | 15-pages:
http://www.agnet.org/library/data/eb/eb394/eb394.pdf

Microbial Fertilizers in Japan
Michinori Nishio
ABSTRACT:
http://www.agnet.org/library/abstract/eb430.html
HTML:
http://www.agnet.org/library/article/eb430.html
PDF | 12-pages:
http://www.agnet.org/library/data/eb/eb430/eb430.pdf

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Since IM and EM deal with fermentation, it is helpful
to look at fermentation technology and microbiology;
organisms; microbial growth factors; yeast; bacteria.

Here's a document from FAO.

Fermented Fruits and Vegetables: A Global Perspective
FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin No. 134
http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0560e/x0560e00.htm

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Fermented foods from around the world
Table 2.2 Microorganisms commonly found in fermentig fruit
and vegetables
Table 2.3 Water activity for microbial reactions
Table 2.4 Classification of bacteria according to temperature
requirements
Table 5.1 Major lactic acid bacteria in fermented plant products

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Biotechnology, Second, Completely Revised Edition, Volume 9
Enzymes, Biomass, Food and Feed Biotechnology 2nd Edition
Reed, Gerald / Nagodawithana, T. W. (eds.).  1995. 804 p.
ISBN 3-527-28319-6 -Wiley-VCH, Weinheim
http://www.wiley-vch.de/publish/en/books/

Indigenous Fermented Foods
Larry R. Beuchat
http://www.wiley-vch.de/books/biotech/pdf/v09indig.pdf

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The History of Kimchi
http://www.korea.net/koreanculture/kimchi/kimchi_2.html

The Scientific Nature and Nutritional Aspects of Kimchi
http://www.korea.net/koreanculture/kimchi/kimchi_4.html

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Medina, the microbial inoculant / soil activator developed
by James Martin in Texas, has an interesting history.  Here
is a web item that describes this process, and how one NGO
is seeking further information on development of special
cultures based on local biomass + local microbes.

Need for guidance in researching microbe catalyst for
enhanced crop yields
http://www.treesforlife.org/soilcond/Default.htm

Trees for Life ||| Soil Regeneration through microbe catalyst

"In the 1950s, Mr. James Martin [developer of Medina Soil
Activator] discovered that a fermented mixture of sea water,
cow dung and yeast stimulates microbes that exist in nature to
multiply at about one thousand times the normal rate."

"Martin believed that plankton in sea water, when fermented with
dung from lactating cows and yeast, may produce enzymes that
helped create the explosion of life on Earth some 3,000 million
years ago, when the Earth was surrounded by ammonia, methane
and water."

Medina Agriculture Products Co.
http://www.medinaag.com/

            ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you follow Compost Teas and EM and IM and BD,
as well as Organic Farming in general, you will notice that
many of the soil and foliar practices effect the rhizosphere
and the phyllosphere, those rich zones of biological
activity on the root and leaf surfaces.

A lot is known about rhizospheric organisms and
the rhizosphere.

Yet, here is a paper on phyllospheric organisms, and
how these endophytic organisms can help promote plant
growth and achieve biological control of diseases
AND insects on the leaf surface.

Endophytic Microorganisms:  A Review on Insect Control
and Recent Advances on Tropical Plants
Electronic Journal of Biotechnology
Vol.3 No.1, Issue of April 15, 2000
http://www.ejb.org/content/vol3/issue1/full/4/index.html

Well, I had promised several people to post resources
on IM + KNFA, so here they are.

Best regards,
Steve Diver