HOW TO COLLECT IMO
MATERIALS NEEDED
Collection Box (“lunch box”) approximately 30cm x 30cm (1ft), x10cm (4in) high
Hard-cooked rice (to fill box 2/3rds full)
Breathable lid for lunch box
Container box to protect the lunch box from vermin and rain during collection
Proper Collection Site
(also see materials needed for IMO-2 below)
You’ve found the best location site for your crops. You have a proper “lunch box” filled two-thirds with dry-cooked rice, with a secure, breathable lid, and you’re ready to collect Indigenous Micro-Organisms, IMO. If you need to review the prep steps, see the previous articles for details.
CONSIDERATIONS
Dry Weather
If the weather is very dry, water the leaf mold for a day or two before collecting.
Use a solution with a mixture of the following instead of plain water for a better collection:
OHN 1:1000 Oriental Herbal Nutrient
FPJ 1:500 Fermented Plant Juice from mugwort and dropwort
BRV 1:500 Brown Rice Vinegar
SW 1:1000 Seawater
Note: 1:1000 means 1 part input:1000 parts water (e.g., 1mm to 1liter)
Winter
In winter the rice will freeze so bring the leaf mold into the greenhouse and install the lunch box there. The greenhouse should be warm. If it is not warm enough put bottles of warm water into the leaf mold to keep them warm. It takes more than 10 days to collect IMO in winter.
THE SET-UP
You will be collecting IMO culture locally. You will be collecting under a tree, shrub, or stand of grass, a spot where there is plenty of leaf litter. Decomposing leaf litter is called leaf mold. Leaves should be soil-like.
The choice of your collection spot (tree, shrub, grass, etc.) depends on what crops you are growing. Match the collection site to the ecosystem type of your crop. Follow the patterns of Nature. Tender, sun-loving veggies will not do as well with deep, dark forest soil biology as with soil ecology from a sun-light, grassy spot.
Leaf fall in forests occurs in clumps, so look for a rich clump. Ideally, you should be able to see the white threads that indicate the presence of mycorrhizal fungi in an oxygen-dominant ecosystem.
We are looking to collect a culture that is oxygen-dominant because plant roots and the microbes associated with them need oxygen, so we target a matching ecosystem.
“Bury the lunch box in the local bamboo field or leaf moulds nearest the working field. Select an area where no human disturbs and where the soil underneath the leaf moulds are loose and soft for buying the lunch box.” ~Master Cho Han-Kyu
Clear an area big enough for your collection box, remove some of the soil, and nestle your lunchbox into the soil. The microbes will be concentrated in the top 15cm (6 inches). The leaf mold contains more moisture when dug deeper.
If the leaf mold contains too much moisture, conditions will be anaerobic, and if there is not enough moisture, hardly any IMO will be collected.
In order to control moisture, it is good to mix moist leaf mold and dry fallen leaves together to cover the lunch box. Use your judgment.
With experience, this will be easy to determine. If the leaves are too dry, add moisture to the leaves. You can use plain water or the solution listed under dry weather above.
Cover the collection box thickly with the leaf mold. Then, cover the collection lunch box with a container box or cage that allows airflow to protect the collection against animals. Install a rain cover, like a tarp, over the collection site if it might rain.
PERIOD OF COLLECTION
The collection times vary according to the temperatures. A collection can take 4-5 days in the summer, 7-10 days in the spring and fall, and more than 10 days in the winter. I found that 4 days is sometimes too long when collecting in the height of summer, so check the collection often.
It is best to check every morning. Morning has been shown to be the best time to collect. The culture seems to peak early in the day. It can be perfect in the morning and too far gone by midday.
Check the collection by feeling the temperature underneath the box with your hand. It will feel warm to the touch when the culture is ready. Avoid the temptation to peek inside. This can disturb the collection. Master Cho equates it to looking in on a couple on their honeymoon.
CONDITION OF IMO WHEN COLLECTED
If successful, a collection will have the empty space, the top third of the box, fully covered by white microorganisms. This looks like fluffy cotton and indicates the desired aerobic-dominant collection. There may be dark or red and blue molds in several spots. This means that anaerobic microbes have also been collected. It is acceptable if there are a few colored spots, but if the whole box is covered by them, collect again.
An aerobic collection will be white. If you wait too long the white microbes will start to turn gray and black, sometimes green. This means that the fungi are developing spores and reproducing. This means the collection is already evolving.
The goal is to collect an intact ecosystem so it is best to put the microbes into dormancy before the populations of microbes start to reproduce and change. Timely harvesting of the IMO collection is critical, as microbial populations can double every 20 minutes, quickly altering the composition of the culture.
For this reason, it is important to harvest when the initial culture peaks (white) and to immediately put the culture into dormancy by converting your IMO collection (IMO-1) into IMO-2, the second, dormant stage.
STABILIZE YOUR COLLECTION
Materials Needed for IMO-2
IMO-1 (fresh soil culture collected on dry-cooked rice)
Storage Jar, ideally unglazed ceramic or glass
Breathable cover, cloth, or paper (Korean paper or paper towel)
Rice straw or rubber band to secure the cloth or paper
Dry, raw sugar
Mixing bowl, non-metal
Immediately after collecting, mix IMO-1 with dry, raw sugar. The general ratio is 1:1 by weight, but you do not need to measure exactly. I have found that I can often get away with using a little less sugar.
Fill 2/3 of the jar with the mixture to create the most favorable environment for fermentation. Cover the jar with cloth or paper and tie it with a rubber band or straws. With glass mason jars you can use the screw-on ring without the lid over the cloth or paper. Make sure it can breathe. You are going to keep this mixture in the jar for a period of fermentation and cultivation. The culture needs time to stabilize.
Keep the temperature at 23-25C (73-77F) for optimum fermentation of the IMO. During this phase, the temperature in the jar can rise above 40C (104F) inside the jar, and the consistency of the IMO becomes like gruel. This process takes over 7 days.
If temperatures fluctuate and the optimum temperature cannot be well maintained, such as in early spring or late fall, it may take more time for fermentation and cultivation. In the spring and fall, it can be beneficial to stir the jar in the early morning.
The final product of this process is called foundation stock, or IMO-2. It should have a "fermented sweet" taste and smell. The aroma should be clean and aerobic. If it smells stale or slightly like mildew, it is likely to be too anaerobic. A miso-like smell indicates that the fermentation occurred at lower temperatures.
IMO-2 will look like gruel, a soupy mix that is typically a grayish brown. There should not be any hard bits of rice.
STORING IMO-2
The storage jar should have a mouth big enough for a hand to fit inside. Unglazed ceramic is best. Glass is good if kept out of the sun.
Polyethylene plastic (PE, recycle codes 2 and 4) is ok. However, Polypropylene (PP, recycle code 5) leaks acid and formaldehyde, so never use it.
Stainless steel is cold and therefore not good for microbes. The molecular structure of aluminum can cut up microbe bodies, so don’t use it.
Store in a cool, place, away from sunlight and extreme temperatures, in a location with good air circulation. IMO-2 can be stored for long periods. I have had collections that were several years old.
However, the appearance of bubbles means that IMO are losing their effectiveness. You don’t want bubbles.
The IMO-2 will evaporate over time. Don’t worry about the concentration. Older cultures can be used by adding a little more water.
ALTERNATE COLLECTION METHODS
Bring it home
There are situations and times of year when it is not feasible to collect IMO in the wild. Living in the rainforest I had trouble with rain. Some people have pressure from animals or problems with fire ants. In winter it can be too cold.
Master Cho suggests that you can bring a bucket of leaf mold home and do the collection there. I had problems with rain, so I started doing this. I collected the leaf mold in a bucket and did my collections on a deck or in my greenhouse. The leaves can be reused for up to a year.
In a tree
I was working with one farmer who had no safe place to do her collection, even next to her house. She could put her chickens in a coop, but the wild chickens and roaming dogs would come and dig it up at night.
Our solution was to take a large woven basket and fill that with the leaf mold. Then we nestled in the collection box and covered it with more leaf mold. We then took the whole big basket, filled with the collection box and all the leaf mold, and hung it in a tree, out of reach of wild chickens and dogs. It worked! Farmers always seem to find a way.
SUCCESS
If you want to practice Korean Natural Farming, the most important thing you can do is get a good collection of IMO. Having a healthy culture of a complete ecosystem of soil biology is the best and fastest way to get good soil. IMO technology installs the biology in extremely high concentrations and as an intact ecosystem.
You will build revive dead soil and build topsoil. Your plants will be able to self-fertilize and be resistant to pests and disease. Your animals will have strong immune systems and be very resilient to pests and disease. Your rocks will turn to soil.
IMO is the fundamental pillar of Korean Natural Farming. It is most of the KNF system. This is the one step you should try to do as perfectly as possible.
Even if you don’t do anything else but collect and install a single good collection of IMO you will greatly improve your land and everything that lives on it.
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