Adding IMO (indigenous microorganisms) to gardens is one of the most important steps to gardening success. Drake, the speaker in the video, talks about how his neighbor who’s been an organic gardener for 40 years and has good soil suddenly doubled the size of his vegetable starts by adding IMO. His recommendation is to propagate trillions and trillions of the ‘good guys’ (desirable organisms from your area) and spread them throughout your garden and fields so they can fend off pests and boost plant growth.
IMO is also used to eliminate odors in animal pens. One treatment to an animal pen lasts indefinitely. The aerobic IMO organisms populate the animal wastes and crowd out undesirable anaerobic organisms that cause odors. IMOs can be collected in the forest on boiled rice and then propagated in the trillions in 36 hours with an aerated compost tea maker. The resulting solution can be mixed with water to spread the IMOs over gardens, fields and animal pens. IMOs can also clean up oil spills and other toxins. Abandoned, degraded land with noxious weeds can be bioremediated with IMOs into productive land that continues to improve over the years. IMOs need food to live, so the more food you provide them the more IMOs you’ll get. Strive to introduce a wide variety of IMOs to better deal with different conditions. He propagates fungal IMOs because there are plenty of bacteria already in the system.
Quote from Kalapana Organics:
“Natural Farming has been embraced by the South Korean government after one county experimented and every farmer in the county practiced it for a year. These rice farmers not only had bigger yields than usual, but saved money on their inputs and sold their rice for a premium. Where they practice Natural Farming it has had the added benefit of cleaning up the waterways, rivers and even coastal waters.
Mr. Cho has spread Natural Farming worldwide. He went to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and planted trees there. Efforts to plant trees had failed three times earlier, under the harsh wind and with only few inches of rainfall a year. With Natural Farming methods the trees had a 97% survival rate and are now 20′ tall.”
Free IMO/Korean Natural Farming videos by Drake:
Part 1
Part 2
IMO collection and use
IMO compost tea
IMO microbiology
IMO farm tour with Dr. Cho IMOs turned around this dying orchard. The farmer had trouble with rain damage to his IMO so now he uses IMO tea and applies as a liquid, this way very small quantities of high quality IMO will cover hundreds of acres as IMO tea.
IMO farming This farmer is growing on top of lava rock with the help of weeds and IMOs.
This doc has more info: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustainag/news/articles/V14-Wang-KNF.pdf They say foliar spraying is actually the best way to apply IMO. Phosphorus and potassium for instance are bound in the soil and often unavailable to plants. They also say Korean natural farming has greatest benefits when combined with green manure crops, mulch, manure, proper watering, etc. which is common sense.
Drake’s website: Natural Farming Hawaii.net
Drake’s YouTube channel
Free IMO recipes
Dr. Cho’s ebook of IMO recipes
I just finished spreading 2″ of IMO inoculated sugar cane compost on our whole forest garden (11 tons) and covering it with 4″-5″ of straw. In just a few days the compost was covered with fuzzy mycelium. This should break down the layers of rice hulls, manure, straw and other materials I’ve been adding over the last three years and turn it into decent soil.