Did you get the visible mycelium with that mix?
it did but very little mostly on the grain formed a few small furry balls a lil bit of color on the char and inside of it but i can caulk that up to many things #1 being i got no idea what im doing lol these r my first few experiment’s with KNF IMOs iv been using JMS and have had really good results on lots of different stuff my fav just being a bucket of char that i pour left over JMS in and use as a boys room just got a old leaky bucket and every week after watering with JMS i pour the left overs in there and let it drain out slowly after a few weeks of this i got really good bio char to add to the garden beds all fuzzy n full of life i wanted to try IMOs to try to figure out a way to better make a IMO char in the winter when there’s snow covering the ground for 6-7 months and buckets of water turn into really big ice cubes so iv been testing a few things i think my #2 issue is i didn’t get a really good IMO1 to start with it was a lil fuzzy but no where close to what it could have been #3 im using a cardboard box to make it in (the box was nice n white had a better colony then the grain n char did) and its sitting out on a enclosed porch trying to keep it warmer since its high 40s low 50s during the day and in the 30s at night i got a feeling that nothing i try this winter is gonna work out well due to the bad collection and cold weather but it aint gonna stop me from tryin to figure out a way to do this with local material in winter i think it would benefit to be able to develop inputs over the winter for the growing season and put less work on the table during the short 140 growing days we have here in zone 5 my next try is gonna be finely crushed char (should have done that last time) mixed with shredded cardboard and flour (i use shredded cardboard for tons of stuff is a free resource to me a great source of browns for outdoor compost great way to do bokashi composting by inoculating with LAB iv even used it as mulch so many things to do with cardboard) in Master Cho’s book he says u can use flour to make IMO3 and in a vid i saw with Pacific Biochar and GYG that he uses flour with his char to help get the carbs in the carbon to invite the microbes to live in the char i also think ima gonna use much much more of the IMO2 into the mixture so to help start with a better sample and even if none of this works out man o man am i gonna have a good compost next yr lolol- The leaky bucket with char is a great idea, I might gonna try that myself. I’m also new to KNF, the reason I asked about the mycelium in your mix is because I was thinking to just do the same, or similar at least, getting a bag of general animal feed mix, loaded with grains and see how it works. I know that in theory it should work, but it’s already encouraging to know your practical results. I think it will work, but the real question is: will it be as good or potent as when using wheat/rice millrun? The only way to know for sure is by using a microscope and compare, or using the low tech aproach, which is just using the final IMO4 in the garden and see the results. Right now I’m trying with shredded carob pods in order to make IMO3, I think it worked out fine. Although I didn’t get visible mycelium the pile has always been very warm, so yesterday I gave it a shot and started my IMO4 pile. Less then 24h in, the pile is still warm and now I spotted a fuzzy chunk just like the one we can see in Chris Trump’s video “how to IMO3”. SO I’m confident that there is at least some fungal activity happening, let’s see how it goes.
- that was my same thought when my buddy gave me the chicken feed a 50lb bag of grain is like $8-9 at the feed store lump char is $5-6 for a big bag that would make plenty for a season or 2 …. carob thats a substitute for chocolate aint it? i would think that would work great starch, sugar and the pod shell dried would be good carbon too u could try running some seed through a food processer to make carob flour that might help increase the fungal growth …. thats awesome your pile is getting hot and showing signs of life theres definitely gotta be some good fungal growth going on in there ….. good luck hope it goes great
- GREAT discussion! Thanks guys!
- That’s right, it can be used as a substitute for chocolate, the pod itself tastes great right of the tree, it has no shell, no “skin” to peel, it doesn’t get mushy, it’s just a power bar out of the tree. When its ripe it’s already dry enough so that you can store it right away and not even bother about rotting or getting mold, it can also last for years, I have still some I picked 3 or 4 years ago and still looking/tasting good. It is also naturally high in fiber (around 7g) so I woud say the carbon content of the pod is enough for the IMO inoculation and propagation to succeed. It is definetly not as high as the amount found in any nutshell obviously, but still I think it’s good enough, let’s see.
- wow i never knew it was so useful when i was growing up down in FL it grew everywhere i never knew what it was used for it smelt good but was a bit of a nuisance tbh to have to clean up all the time =) but a few yrs ago i got dog treats that where coco mint and noticed it was made with carob and thought o a use for that stuff dog food lol never did i think o super food im going to have to look more into it now it sounds like i could use it has a healthy alternative for chocolate in baking -very cool ty-
