Basics
Korean Natural Farming (KNF) could be called Natural Regenerative Farming but it was created in Korea. The basic idea is that you use microbes around you to regenerate your soil, and help you create different plant solutions to help plants grow to meet their potential. There are 2 main focuses. 1 - regenerating the soil with indigenous bacteria and fungi, and 2 - making plant solutions that help feed your plants in different ways depending on their current growth.
Note - this is a no till gardening method. You can till to get started if you want, but tilling breaks up the microbe colonies that weâre working so hard to grow. If you till every year then youâre only getting 1 years worth of benefit. If you let it grow properly for 3 or 4 years youâll get massive benefits to soil compaction (thereâs an image of a guy burying a grounding pipe by just pushing the full thing down into the ground after years of regenerating the soil).
2nd note - You should watch the videos below before getting started. This is just an overview.
Regenerating your soil
To regenerate your soil you use IMO (indigenous micro organisms) to introduce strong living organisms to your soil from a nearby source of untouched perfectly balanced forest. There are 4 different stages to IMO and there are pretty good videos showing how to make them.
- Stage 1 - You use a box of rice out in a nearby forest to collect balanced microbes (both bacteria and fungi). It should be from a place that is natural, growing nearby, in a âharder to growâ place - usually a slightly higher elevation so that theyâre strong and ready to go
- Stage 2 - you take stage 1 rice and mix it with brown cane sugar to pull the moisture from the microbes and put them on pause - these can keep for years if stored properly
- Stage 3 - you take stage 2 IMO and mix it with carbs + carbon (like 50 pounds of animal feed oats and 50 pounds of fresh wood shavings or wood chips) and compost them together for a couple of weeks mixing daily to keep it below 120 degrees F
- Stage 4 - you take stage 3 IMO and mix it with equal parts of your own soil from your garden and follow the same processes to teach the microbes how to populate your soil.
IMO 4 can be used in tons of different things, and is then lightly dusted over your soil and watered in to help it populate and regenerate your soil. It can be used in pig pens to make a no smell pig pen, or chickens to do the same. It can be used to really boost a compost pile and take it to the next level.
Feeding your Plants
Once your soil is good to go you can focus on your plants. Basically every week you make a new diluted solution to water your plants with, it feeds the right microbes to help your plants grow in specific ways. Keep in mind that 80% of KNF is in the microbes above, if you only did that youâd get most of the benefits, but these others take things to the next level.
Plant Life Cycle
Plants move through 3 different stages of growth (in general). It starts with seedling and ends with fruiting and in the middle is âteenageâ. In each stage you feed them a growth formula 1 week followed by a structure formula the next week. You alternate between those 2 (eventually you can get to the point that you know which thing is best based on your plants current growth, but alternating is a good starting point). The formulas are made from natural ingredients you can make in your house and theyâre nearly the same each week with a few minor differences. The main difference is the type of food you add to the formula which is either an eggshell extract, a vegetation extract, a fruit/flower extract, a bone extract, etc. You dilute the extracts into water at about 4 or 8ml per gallon of water - and water your plants (or foliar feed) with it.
Recipes
There are 9 different recipes of things you can make for your plants, videos on how to make them all is found on Chris Trumpâs video channel (linked below). His videos are really great production quality.
- IMO 1 to 4 - These are the micro organisms, IMO 4 is used in lots of things and is the heart and soul of KNF
- LAB (Lactic Acid Bacteria) - This is basically the bacteria used to make yogurt and cheese, and is in the air all around you. This is a great input that you can even drink yourself to help your gut. Itâs easy to make using milk and some rice. This is really the best place to start.
- OHN (Oriental Herbal Nutrients) - A set of 5 fermented tinctures of garlic, ginger, licorice, angelica, and cinnamon. It takes 3 months to make so get started. Theyâre mixed together to make OHN which is like a health tonic for plants and humans alike. A little bit is used in every formula.
- BRV (Brown Rice Vinegar) - make it yourself or buy it at an asian market, try and get live vinegar if possible. This is a special vinegar that helps plants accept nutrients and is used in almost all formulas.
- FPJ (Fermented Plant Juice) - This is basically the growth tips of quick growing plants harvested early in the morning before the sun hits them, picked and then mixed with equal weights of brown sugar and fermented in a jar for a week. The juice is then strained and used to feed your plants.
- FFJ (Fermented Fruit Juice) - Same as FPJ but we use fruits instead, this is a great food for plants that are fruiting.
- FAA (Fish Amino Acids) - Basically homemade fish sauce. You take layers of ocean fish and brown sugar and put them in a mostly air tight container with a little OHN and a little pinch of IMO 4 to keep the smell away and let them ferment for 6 to 12 months in a cool dark place.
- WCA (calcium) - Basically dissolved eggshells in vinegar. Really good for helping your plants make fruit.
- WCAP (calcium and potassium) - Basically dissolved charred bones in vinegar. Great for young plants to grow strong (this is used in the structure weeks)
- Sea Water - this is either literally water from the ocean or sea salt mixed with water. You highly dilute this but it provides a lot of micro nutrients.
Formulas
We use the recipes above to make different formulas. Youâll feed 1 formula a week to your plants based on their growth. The names of these formulas come from dr drake, he shows them in his weekly videos a lot and sells a book that goes into more detail (though you see most of the book if you watch his videos, and it was a little bit of a let down when I bought it because of how expensive it is)
Each of the measurements is for 1 gallon of water (or more accurately 4 liters of water)
Formula | Notes | FPJ | FFJ | BRV | OHN | WCAP | FAA | LAB | Sea Water | WCA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Maintenance | This is the base for most formulas. You can just feed this if you donât want to get more specific. | 8ml | - | 8ml | 4ml | 4ml | - | - | - | - |
Soil Formula | This is used when you add IMO4 to soil to prep it for the year. | 8ml | - | 8ml | 4ml | 4ml | - | 4ml | 190ml | - |
Seed Formula | This is used to either soak seeds for a few minutes before planting, or soaking transplants or trees before transplanting them. | 8ml | - | 8ml | 4ml | 4ml | 4ml | - | 150ml | - |
Leaf Formula | Used to grow leaves | 8ml | - | 8ml | 4ml | 4ml | 4ml | 4ml | - | - |
Bloom Formula | Used to promote flowering | 8ml | - | 8ml | 4ml | 4ml | 4ml | 4ml | 125ml | - |
Fruit Formula | Used to grow fully developed fruit | - | 8ml | 8ml | 4ml | 4ml | 4ml | 4ml | 150ml | 4ml |
Harvest Formula | Used to make your fruit extra sweet and finish things off. | - | 8ml | - | 4ml | - | - | - | 190ml | 4ml |
Video Channels to watch
- Dr Drake (not a doctor) - PureKNF Certification Course (1/6) - YouTube â this is a great starting point itâs like 10 hours of a really full explanation of all the stuff listed here. These videos arenât as good of production but it has awesome Q&A
- Chris Trump - IMO #3 with Chris Trump. Natural Farming on our farm. - YouTube â hereâs his video on making IMO 3 but his channel is really great at showing how to make all the inputs
Both Drake and Chris have been to Korea to work with Master Cho who was the founder of KNF. Theyâve both been doing this for 10 years plus.