Make your own EM/BIM-beneficial indigenous microorgansims

Hi!

I'm new to Dave's Garden and was excited to see some threads in the SC forum that have to do with some of my current interests...improving the soil food web using compost, teas, brews, beneficial microorganisms, composting, etc.

I was doing some research on bokashi composting and someone on some site left a comment that referred back to this article:

http://tinyurl.com/d3mout


A search of the internet finally lead me to the "recipes" , such as they are, here:
(Warning...long article, somewhat difficult to read through...but powerful stuff..)

http://tinyurl.com/c5ck35





I also got some good info on using whey (instead of capturing the LB from the air) here:

http://bokashicomposting.com/

Also, an interesting anecdote on using whey from kefir and Caspian Sea yogurt

here:

http://tinyurl.com/crpszb





I also found good pix of results of using these BIM and LB here:

http://www.janong.com/ENGLISH/04.htm


An organic farmer over in GA, who uses biochar and all kinds of teas, is VERY excited by the results he has seen from some brews he has made from the BIM.
Here's another recipe for some good stuff for the soil food web...recommended by the organic farmer in GA.


http://www.grouppekurosawa.com/organic1print.htm

He also did an experiment and put his charcoal (made his own but a bag of Cowboy would do) into an LB solution (just LB and water) and said it really softened up the charcoal. His was already chopped up, I think. I'm going to try it before I crush mine and see if it makes it any easier.

If you're interested in more pix and discussions on this, go over to the GW site to the SCM forum and find the thread "Why I love the internet..."

Also, one of the most intriguing things about all this research was finding that LB was a good odor fighter (used in chicken houses and piggerys in the Phillippines, allowing them to have said piggery right next to their homes--ok, that speaks VOLUMES to me) and wanted to try it out. I have made a solution of uncholorinated water (important to be unchlorinated water) and whey from yogurt/kefir and sprayed on a stubborn pet urine spot. It is working. I will contine to treat.

My organic farmer friend from GA also used some LB solution to completely eliminate the odor from a 'brew" he had made of cabbage which he said was so bad it nearly made his eyeballs pop out.


Happy reading!




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Cool, Penny!!! Thanks for all those links. I plan to start doing Bokashi in the next week or so. I'm already saving scraps in the freezer.

I want to make my own mixes, so the links you posted should come in very handy. :)

Hooray! Your are taking us to a whole new level with Bokashi.

I'd love to read the articles but not all of the links seem to be working. Several appear truncated. Please repost them. You may possibly need to use a tiny url (www.tinyurl.com) if the URL is longer than the DG site will allow.

Thanks, garden-mermaid! They should all work now...

Somewhere at sometime someone posted a link to CSI...where they talked about (as did Darius in one of her articles) prepping a vegetable bed with fishfertilizer/molassas in water. My vegies grew like mad AND created Indiginous Micro Organisms in the process. I use Bokashi as well, and using the two in harmony really works!!!

Ah, yes. I need to drag out my bokashi bucket and get back into it again!

Anyone here heard of Natural Gardening...started by a Korean Dr. Park? He has a recipe for collecting your very own Indigenous Micro Organisms....Will look for it if you are interested.

I think I have heard it mentioned, but have not looked into that particular method.

IMOs are being used by Korean Pig Farmers...NO smells. No odors. Pretty incredible. I am sticking with Bokashi and EM cause I am basically too busy and inherently busy...but DH is using IMOs in his composting projects....

The IMO site is linked on the site linked above. They take a box of cooked rice and set it out in the woods for IMOs to grow on. Go collect the box after a bit and you have a starter culture.

Sorry.

http://www.janong.com/ENGLISH/05.htm

So actually page 5 in the series.

Thank you. I can do the rice thing! Of course, I'm wondering how much brown sugar to mix in with the inoculated rice before mixing it into the soil.

I thought they fermented the mixture first, then added it. Don't remember the details.

Yes...it is fermented after it is mixed with the sugar/molassas. After it ferments you add it to a carrier like Wheat Bran (called Mill Run and is really cheap) and THEN use it in your soil. I am must impressed with what I have seen...especially mixed with a bit of charcoal....

Carol

Yes, one of the articles so helpfully cited by pennymca in the first post on this thread gives precise directions on how to make the rice mixture. I'm reposting the citation below.
I love the simple elegance of using "homely materials" like steamed rice, clean clay pots, wooden boxes and spoons. I'm a dedicated fan of the Bokashi method, but I don't see why I couldn't try this too.


http://www.scribd.com/doc/11062883/How-to-Cultivate-Indigenous-Microorganisms

Looks very similar. I wonder if White Mold is native here in the High Desert?

Anyplace with vegetation has microorganisms (I think)...and you should find them easily in your yard .... I would try under the cottonwoods by the edge of the river...or in a place thick with Pinones...

The site I quoted above also suggested placing the rice in its box under trees, and covering it with leaves. Is it just because this would tend to be a more protected place than out in the open somewhere?
("Protected" would be a very good concept today--we're having a nor'easter.)

Yes, that's what I have been told too....because if it is covered (like with a teatowel or some cotton material) and protected from the rain, the leaves will give the perfect environment for organisms to grow...as if it were in the ground, so to speak. I have also been told that the IMOs 20 miles away might be very different... don't know about that.

I think part of what causes differences in microbe populations is environment. Locally you go from dry, dusty plateu, to river valley, to caliche plateu, to gravelly foothills, and up to a 10000 foot mountain peak within 50 miles. The temperature, moisture, soil, and plant life changes are several and significant. You will definitely see different microbes from place to place. I've been contemplating where I would put a box that would yield something "Indigenous" to where I live. Smack in the middle of a city of 1/2 a million may not be the place to find that either.

Do you have some bushes...a shady corner...some leaf litter (that you could make) or grass clippings? Gee...you are dry there so it would be so different from here with 160" of rain per year... You want the rice to get moldy...perhaps you would have to create a moist environment....

Carol

We do have native microbes in this dry environment, and they are adapted to the conditions. I'm just pondering whether 50 years of existing development has rendered the native microbes something else. Outside the city may be better. I can certainly find shade & leaves. Moisture too - it rained today.

Well...it is only rice.... try everything!!!!! A gulch at the bottom under some shade...? Whatever?

I am not sure if I saw this in one of the links but can you use the liquid that forms on top of yogurt as the whey in a starter culture?

The bacteria may be different.... IMO means the local micro organizisms in the soil/leaflitter etc.

Amazing results here adding biochar (charcoal)....10% to your soil... really amazing results and you need to use so much less fertilizer.

Well I guess this discussion progressed to IMO.
I am just beginning to start a bokashi bucket, so I am trying to start with something my brain could handle....can I activate some newspapers with beneficial microbes using the liquid from yogurt, molasses and water that has brewed for 10 -14 days, if I have understood correctly. http://bokashicomposting.com/
If there is a more basic discussion somewhere, let me know. Thanks!
Anna

This message was edited Dec 14, 2009 7:01 PM

There have been some really good posts about EM and Bokashi...you might check them out..

I have been reading them and each time I do they make more sense! I finally pinned down the info I needed. I googled "making whey" http://www.cheeseslave.com/2009/05/01/how-to-make-whey/ and it is so simple! I am going to start with this inexpensive method and see how it works. When I get braver, maybe I will try some of these other methods.

Fascinating reading!