Growing on the cheap! Korean Natural Farming

When the wife calls you a dirty hippie you know you’re doing something right!:wink::rofl:

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Ha!
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Okay! I haven’t done the KNF write up yet, but here’s a little sumthin sumthin for y’all: I whipped up some JADAM wetting agent this afternoon!
This is basically a cold process liquid soap, so it’ll be used as hand soap, body soap, laundry soap, and dish soap, in addition to being used for pest control, and as a wetting agent for foliar nutrient application.
Ingredients/Supplies for a 5 gallon batch
-5 gallon bucket and lid ($10)
-Electric drill
-paint stirrer attachment
-.5 kg of water (that’s a half liter)
-640 grams KOH (potassium hydroxide) (1 kg was $13)
-1 gallon canola oil ($10)
-additional 16 L of water

Recipe
Pour the 500mL of water into the 5 gallon bucket, then dump in the measured KOH. Roll the bucket around at an angle to fully dissolve the KOH
CAUTION This initial solution creates a powerful exothermic reaction (it gets hella hot), AND is an extraordinarily strong base, meaning that it is caustic and will fuck you up if you get it on you. Always wear a mask, elbow length gloves, and safety goggles when dealing with this chemical.

Once the powder/flakes are totally dissolved, use the drill with paint stirrer attached, to agitate the solution while slowly streaming the entire gallon of canola into the bucket. Don’t stop pouring, or stirring, until all of the canola is in. The emulsion should look like runny mayo with a yellowish white coloration. If the mixture breaks (separates), just turn up the drill speed and re-emulsify.

Let the mixture stand, covered, for 3 days.

After the requisite time had passed pour 4 liters of RO (or other soft water) into the bucket. Use the drill to mix the water into the original solution, and to knock any of the concentrate off the wall of the bucket.
Finally, hand stir the last 12 liters of water into the solution until you have a homogenous mixture.

So for about $20 ($30 if you don’t have a bucket and lid already) you’ll have 5 gallons of JWA/cold process soap.

Dilute between .6%, up to 3% of total solution for foliar use.

Pictures are from today, so the 16L of water will be added in Monday, and I’ll post the finished product

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Step one. Make sure you don’t have nosey neighbors as to not have DEA knockin on your door for suspected meth lab lol

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Awesome write up! Thank you for sharing this, looking forward to seeing the finished product!

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Lol!
I didn’t even think of that! I was :100: out under the carport at my house doing this project :rofl:
My super even drove by!

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Hiding in plane sight eh?
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Whoa. Seems gnarly!

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Has anyone made and used any of the FPE & FFE stuff? I was thinking of maybe doing a top drench on FPE once a week for veg I have some comfrey in the garden although its the end of spring so not prime time to pick it but that’s all i got and then maybe some FFE during Flower as a top drench once a week.

From what I understand though the FP & FF E only last about 90 days is that the same with FPJ & FFJ or do they last a lot longer?

This is cross posted to @CrunchBerries SIP post as well https://overgrow.com/t/crunchberries-probiotic-sip-thread/78727/53

Anyone use Seed Treatment Solution S.E.S.?

What about IMO in their pots?

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Here we go with the finish of the JWA adventure!
Complete recipe/tek are found in the post to which I’m replying.
Here’s the bucket before, and after, homogenizing 10 L of water with the drill/paint stirrer. I absolutely could not make it smooth just stirring by hand.

Now, if you’re comparing the recipe to what I just wrote, you might notice that I’m still 6 L short of full dilution. That’s because I accounted for ingredient volume, but not the volume including aeration of the mixture. To execute this recipe next time, I would use a container with a minimum volume of 7 gallons.
As it stands, for each gallon I remove from the bucket, I’ll need to add an additional 1.6 L of filtered water, and then (for use on plants) create a .6-3% solution of that product. For the math nerds out there, yes, I could, at minimum dilution, make more than 200 gallons of JWA using what I made over the last 3 days, for approximately $20

Thanks for looking everybody; hope someone finds this useful!

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And now you have a lifetime supply!

Edit: I just looked at the dilution ratio. It’s 3-15L (0.8-4 gal) for 500L (132 gal). So, at most .03gal in 1 gal of water. Yeah, you’ve got a lifetime supply.

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Yep! I edited the post above to remark on just how much JWA this would make. :scream:
Luckily, I’ll be using this to produce every single household cleaner we use, going forward. No more money spent on that stuff for a while!

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I was editing while you were posting.

I think it’s pretty cool that you actually made a “scaled down” recipe, even though it will still last forever. As you mentioned, it is pretty cheap to make. And seeing you do it might actually inspire me to do it soon.

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I do believe the FPJ/FFJ only get better with time. Please correct me if I’m wrong @lotus710

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This is awesome! you have inspired me for sure

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Thanks @middleman and @BeagleZ !
It really is simple, and versatile.
And lemme tell ya: cleaning up a soap “mess” is the easiest thing ever, just add water! :bear::rofl::joy::rofl::joy::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I was just reading the old handbook of KNF called Cho’s Global Natural Farming by Rohini Reddy, as I’m really wanting to start up. I’m literally still learning the basics and was looking for a good beginner handbook of the fundamentals.

So, as I was reading and trying to get to the meat of getting started (I figure I can get my labs and IMO-1 going now since it takes around 5 days in cooler/cold conditions, and then come back and re-read things I sort of skipped over since I have a basic understanding), I came onto this page which explains the concept of diversity, that I hadn’t heard anybody mention, and how to achieve it. Makes sense to me.

HOW TO UTILIZE IMOs
In order to be effective, IMOs should be used in a proper
manner.

1. Use IMOs continuously. Since IMOs are used to make soil
fertile and healthy, these should be collected and prepared
every year. In order to bring about continued results. IMOs
must be maintained in the soil.

2. Maintain IMO diversity. Avoid being choosy in collecting
microorganisms. Instead, microorganisms from different
environments should be collected and mixed. It is
recommended to collect IMOs from all four directions of
the field. We can also collect microbes from mountain,
summit, valley and trench.

3. Use the tough guy. The types of microorganisms present in
an area will vary from another, since each area has distinct
environmental conditions. For example, the sunny side of
the field will have different IMOs from the shaded side.
Altitude will also affect the variety of microorganisms at
every level. To include “tough guys” into the IMO
mixture, samples from the high mountains or
uncontaminated regions can also be collected.

I thought that concept made perfect sense. I just downloaded the PDF book tonight, and I’m new to KNF as far as acting on it, but this is the type of basic stuff I wanted. The book is only 75 pages I think and that info was on page 30-40’sh, so it’s a quick read compared to some sources. I thought it was cool that by taking IMO from a more extreme environment in your area will help plants to survive more extreme conditions. And, with FPJ you can pick plants that are vigorous, fast growing, etc., and get some of those same characteristics in your crop.

I got some Organic milk, so I’m ready to get my LABS on. If anyone wants to compare it to any other source of KNF here’s the link. It downloads the book when you click the link. I think the book is older, but exactly what I wanted to get started. I’m sure much more has evolved since that book and more in depth info is out there.

Cho’s Global Natural Farming.

I’ll be on my way to being a KNF nerd very soon. Hopefully tomorrow! Sorry for the rambling, I’m baked pretty good ;-), and I’m also sort of excited to get it going. I have the perfect place to incorporate this with lots of the heavy hitter plants to work with. I would love so much to cut the cord on my pricey Organic ferts. peace

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Welcome! Thats a great info. Plenty of friendly knf nerds here lol.

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Any recommendations on a microscope. What magnification do I need?

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Id get the omax 40-2500x

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I also downloaded the book a few weeks ago…I have completed reading it. I don’t have a kitchen scale at the moment, so I can’t make any of the KNF preparations as yet. With us in South Africa heading towards winter, I’m looking forward to seeing which of the weeds in my garden still grow vigorously and I’m going to use those to make FPJ, for my winter grow. As for LABS, hopefully I’ll make that this week. Does it have to be organic milk straight from a cow? Or can I use any milk?

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