All Answers

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

It is best to only use the worker microbes that is when the JMS is at its peak and the best to be used in our gardens to spread the right microbes into the soil ( :waving hand: these are the droids you are looking for ) the fertilizer microbes are more the after thought of when the JMS has been left to long and is not the peak we are looking for but are not useless and can still be used to do something in our gardens by feeding the good microbes

May The Force Be With You

KNF for heavy feeders such as corn, garlic, onions, leafy greens and others we want to change up the nutrient cycle to fit the plant and instead of doing a chubby, skinny, chubby, skinny cycle we change it to chubby, chubby, skinny cycle to give the plant the more nitrogen it requires in the leaf formula …this is the way of the nutrient cycle, in KNF we change the cycle to fit the plant we are growing while their are heavy nitrogen feeders their are also heavy phosphorus feeders that might prefer a chubby, skinny, skinny cycle a flower during its bloom stage might like a extra dose or two of bloom formula each nutrient cycle differs depending on the plant and its nutrient needs …another way of adding nitrogen to heavy feeders is to bury fish and/or other animal bits, sprinkling used coffee grounds, spreading alfalfa pellets, or planting legumes around the plants … a method called 3 sisters has been used for years on corn specifically, by planting pole beans next to the corn we not only give the bean something to grow up but it is a legume that fixes nitrogen from the air and with the help of microbes creates nodules on its roots that are full of nitrogen that the corn can tap into, by planting squash at the base of the corn the squash is a much higher phosphorus feeder taking up the unused nutrients left behind by the corn thats feeding higher on nitrogen the corn also adds a lil bit of shade that the squash likes and the squash keeps the soil cool and helps to retain moister in the soil, but there is a sister thats not spoken about as much that adds a great deal to the 3 sisters setup and that is sunflowers they help bring in pollinators, create deep tap roots to break up the soil and help to create a overall healthier soil

…..to help with soil compaction tilling the soil once and adding some organic material and dolomite lime will help break up the soil, also by using the 2 step KNF method to build soil will greatly improve the soil

Step 1
Spread Microbes ~3lb/100sqft (1200lb/acre)
Step 2
Apply Soil Formula 5gal/100sqft (2000gal/acre)
Repeat step 2 every 7 days for 2-4 weeks before sowing

to help with the lack of minerals do a soil treatment drench 1:30 can go 1:15 if lots of rainfall of sea water this will help to replace the minerals in the soil

May the Force be with You

Sorghum-sudangrass is a great cover crop and chop n drop for gardens its a winter kill cover crop so it easy to terminate, grows fast, digs deep and provides lots of sugars ( i myself grew it in a patch for 2 seasons and used it as a chop n drop mulch it regrows fast and i could get 3-4 chops out of the season chopping at around 3ft/1m the patch that i grew it in was un-amended soil really heavy clay after the 2 seasons it had made great soil ) …it is also great for foraging and grazing but can be dangerous to animals in frost areas if not tended to properly more info here :    https://forages.oregonstate.edu/fi/topics/pasturesandgrazing/grazingsystemdesign/preventingprussicacidpoisening#:~:text=If%20favorable%20weather%20for%20growth%20follows%20such%20a%20frost%2C%20sudangrass,if%20pastured%2C%20cause%20cyanide%20poisoning.   …lowering the acidity of soil can be done through adding lime to help balance the ph …corn is a great cover crop as well but needs to be terminated early before it starts to put on grains it is also a winter kill cover crop, grows fast, digs deep …sunn hemp i think would also work really well in Hawaii as a great cover crop https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_crju.pdf

The Level 2 handouts can be found at Natural Farming Hawaii’s Website. They are currently available in an ebook format with additional recipes included.

The textbook I talk about in the class is the Janong Book translated by Rei Yoon. It is not currently in print.

From what I have found, Magnesium is present in many places in KNF. To demonstrate with two examples

KNF Food – Mg will be present in the fermented plant juice, and even more so if it is made from certain fruits. Plants known to contain high concentrations of Mg are:

• All leafy greens
• Bananas
• Sweet Potatoes
• Winter Squash

KNF Minerals – Magnesium is present in seawater in amounts of about 1300 ppm. After sodium, it is the most commonly found cation in oceans. Rivers contains approximately 4 ppm of magnesium, marine algae 6000-20,000 ppm, and oysters 1200 ppm

I am sure there are more places where magnesium can be solubilized for plant to uptake in KNF naturally from a well balanced soil with indigenous micro organisms.

I have written a Recipe Book for KNF Solutions.

It is relatively rough in the current edition, which is why I also sell a limited edition with free updates.

The sugar cap is not necessary for fermenting plant juice to make KNF Food. The sugar cap is used when fermenting fruit juice because fruit tends to have a higher concentration of sugars and moisture, so it needs the additional sugars to create osmotic pressure to pull the liquid out of the cells before fermenting.

The recommended sugar to plant material weight is 1:1/3-1/2, so 1 kilo of plant material would be mixed with between a third to a half kilo of brown sugar. When making from fruit, the recommended sugar ratio is 1:1, so one kilo of fruit to one kilo of sugar, with a portion of the sugar reserved to make a sugar cap.

Adding a sugar cap to less sweet plant material increases the osmotic pressure too much and retards fermentation.

Layers of mold can grow on top of KNF Food made by fermenting plant material and sometimes if they are not super saturated with sugar after the extraction of juice, they will continue to ferment and may grow a mold on top.

This is a sign that the solution is not stable and is slowly degrading. To stop it from degrading and fully arrest fermentation, equal volumes of brown sugar should be added to super saturate the solution. Every water molecule will be bound with a sugar molecule and thus when microbes go to metabolize the solution, they are retarded by the sugar and eventually become inactive.

All ohn inputs should be weighed.