All Answers

I just looked up kefir on wikipedia, and it says that “The kefir grains initiating the fermentation are initially created by auto-aggregations of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Kazachstania turicensis, where multiple biofilm producers cause the surfaces to adhere which form a three dimensional microcolony.” 

So, it looks like kefir has lacto in it, albeit maybe a more narrow family than the KNF recipe would culture?

Further down the wikipedia article it says “A complex and highly variable symbiotic community can be found in these grains, which can include acetic acid bacteria (such as A. aceti and A. rasens), yeasts (such as Candida kefyr and S. cerevisiae) and a number of Lactobacillus species, such as L. parakefiri, L. kefiranofaciens (and subsp. kefirgranum^[20]), L. kefiri,^[21] etc.^[9] While some microbes predominate, Lactobacillus species are always present.”

Which sort of validates what I was saying, but then with kefir it looks like you are also getting KNF Cleanser (acetic acid), yeasts, and perhaps more, which are all useful and used in KNF.

Overall, I’d say that kefir is great and should be used in a way very similar to the KNF Protectors. It’s worth reading the whole article on wikipedia, because it has a lot more information and can help you understand how it fits into KNF better than this brief answer.

Bird bones are not recommended because of their frailty. By the time they are properly charred, they tend to burn and turn to ash, which is not what you want. There may also be chemical differences, but I do not have scientific confirmation of that. I have talked about the use of bird bones for KNF Structure on the Office Hours at the 43 minute mark of this episode.

Water is important, just behind air and sunlight in terms of how much it matters. The main thing with pond and river water is that it is not stagnant, and your nose will know if it smells putrid or gross. Typically flowing water is preferred, because as it flows, oxygen is brought into the water which will reduce pathogens, but also pond water tends to be full of Purple Non-sulfur Bacteria which produce oxygen and will again reduce pathogens. Purple Bacteria are also useful in KNF context.

Main thing is the water is not stinky. If it is, aerating it through stirring, vortexing or bubbling for several hours can tremendously improve the condition of the water and make the water more conducive to the type of biology that we want to cultivate in KNF.

Well, first off, this is not Chris’ discovery as chitinase microbes were known before he was born, and the cultivation methods of such have been used by several practitioners, again, preceding him, but steve and chris are popularizing the idea, which is great.

I went on a trip to Korea to specifically study GCM (gelatinase and chitinase microbes) in 2019. This was a specifically isolated and cultivated set of microbes that were hugely effective at mitigating bug and pathogen pressure, but also have their own set of drawbacks to use.

Making custom IMO is not a new idea, and what you add to the rice, such as insect frass, shrimp shell, or other materials in small quantities will affect the colonies you culture and collect. One can push the collection more fungal or more bacterial by using materials other than rice, but you will find at the end of the experimentation cycle that true peace comes from balance, and that the way these recipes were given to us is closer to that than most alterations you can come up with.

Keep this in mind and be wary of the ego claiming any invention or innovation, and the folks that promulgate such behavior, including one’s own self.

Soap’s ability to sud (or act as a surfactant) is significantly cut by vinegar, and I find there are diminishing returns of using soap in the Maintenance Formula. A light mist spray at the proper amount of 25 gal/acre will be absorbed quite well by the plants, and soap will only really benefit if you are over-spraying to wet instead of mist the plant’s surface.

In my practice it seems superfluous and an extraneous cost to use the soap for anything besides pest control. I think a better investment is getting the proper spraying equipment to put out the proper doses and making that job as easy as possible to do more frequently than trying to add more to the formulations.

Combining different microbes, again, is not novel. Folks have been selling EM1 which is a combination of Lactos, Yeasts, and Purple Bacterias for decades. This is also a very powerful combination, and when you combine independently very powerful microbes together they will and do work synergistically with each other to produce amazing results. Steve may be popularizing these ideas, but by no means is it his discovery, even if he did independently come to this formulation.

Spirulina is very easy to cultivate at home and with a small starter and a few inputs can be kept alive and grown as long as you maintain it.

Typically when you hear someone “invent” something it is because they are wanting to patent and sell it and thus hamper something that you can easily do at home, or they want ego aggrandizement which only leads to further suffering, but let them thirst for fame, which is liking begging for the blade of the sword.

I do encourage open source sharing, and I thank Steve for opening his work and sharing as he does, much like what I do, and we all need to support each other through peace and positive encouragement.

pH has little to do with soil fertility, ie “rich vs poor”. Plants and the microbes they cultivate will change the pH centimeters away from the roots where it matters and your overall (macro) pH may have a completely different reading, so trying to change or influence the macro pH is not a good way to go about managing the soil. What is a good way to go about managing the soil is to ensure there is adequate biology and organic matter/material. With that present, the natural processes will reach balance which enables the plants and biology to thrive the way they want to and reach their full potential in balance, which results in better produce in many measurable ways besides “just the biggest”.

Specifically in the cultivation of blueberries, it makes sense to include an IMO collection done in a blueberry patch (or several) if this is the crop you will be cultivating. It also makes sense to collect in other near by places to ensure that monoculturesickeness will not arise. Applying these IMO following the Soil Foundation Formula annually or semi-annually will also help the biology, as well as foliar applications of Solutions, and adding compost or mulch depending on your situation. Also encouraging a ground cover will ultimately help reduce your need to supplement as the farmer.

It’s not that you are overthinking it, it’s more that you have to approach it with the simplicity of a child. Children think a whole lot, but they are not necessarily polluted by years of complexity. Nature is not complex. Things like chemistry can get us so tied up with complexity that we lose that simplicity. There are many lenses to look at life, some are useful in certain situations. I always advocate knowing more, but the great sages always say that we always knew everything all along.

compost is a very good place to start also making (IMO 4) Activated Microbes will help a lot also and using Soil Prep Formula ….start with adding a good amount of compost to the soil to bring up the plant matter and get a loamy soil to grow in …spread the IMOs across the top of the soil just under the mulch layer to bring back the life to the soil, with out the soil being alive it will be harder to process the nutes the plants need, worm tea and JMS is a good source of microbes but the best will be in the IMOs,  JMS will help to get the microbes deeper into the soil and help to feed the IMOs, another great source of microbes is in (IMO5) Composted Microbes also called FMC (this is the source i use for IMOs) LIMO is another great way to get IMOs into the soil ….after adding compost to improve the soil and IMOs we want to go in with soil prep to add nutes and get the IMOs to chase the soil prep down into the soil (this is how i prep my beds with KNF, FMC IMOs and soil prep formula)  ….soil prep formula is made by using Food (FPJ) Cleanser (BRV) Medicine (OHN) Structure (WCAP) Protectors (LAB) Minerals (SW) this replaces the need for a all-purpose fertilizer

Happy Experimenting

in Master Cho’s KNF there is no anaerobic decomposition it is fermentation much like a kimchi or sauerkraut but sugar is used instead of salt …in a KNF Food (FPJ) the sugar creates osmotic pressure to release the juices of the plant material and is done with a breathable lid so no anaerobic decomposition is happening …there is also microbes that help to break down the plant mostly LAB (like in fermenting pickles) also other microbes that live on the plant that are there naturally to help break down the plant this is why one 1 plant is used to make a KNF Food (FPJ) so that the microbes from multi plants are not competing during the fermentation process  …anaerobic decomposition is the process of breaking down organic material with the use of anaerobic bacteria it is slower, causes foul smells, high levels of methane gas to be released into the air and can be pathogenic ,it is not inherently bad for plants though cause all the anaerobes will die off once all the organics are gone …for 1000’s of years people have buried scraps in there garden ,made piles of stuff and just let them sit and put plants and scraps in buckets of water to rot much like the ways of Jadam, these are all forms of anaerobic decomposition used in gardening ….they are not the best for human health so should not come into contact with fruit and veg that you are going to eat soon or used in foliar sprays, I.E. in Jadam JLF should NOT be gotten in your mouth, eyes or open wounds best to not even get it on your skin in general, although in Master Cho’s KNF all things you make are safe for human consumption as long as non poisonous plants are used, with the exception of IMO’s (DO NOT EAT IMO’S)   ….in static/anaerobic composting by using KNF methods will help with speeding up, removing smells and lowering the gas released in the compost pile

Happy Experimenting