Korean Natural Farming, KNF, is a no-till system, and the soil is disturbed as little as possible when planting or transplanting. As in Nature, we want our planting soils to be as intact as possible so that soil structure is in a perfect condition and mycelial networks cover as much area as possible. This provides the best habitat for plant roots and contributes to the ecosystem's defenses, immune functions, and resource sharing and distribution.
Soil Foundation involves the application of Indigenous Micro-Organisms, IMO, installed as a crumble, which is watered in with a dilute formula designed to enable the soil microbes to become well established in the planting soil. The IMO is then covered with mulch to protect the microbes and feed organic matter to the soil ecology. This process creates topsoil at a much higher rate than occurs in Nature.
The application of IMO ensures that the planting soil contains massive concentrations of soil microbes. It is a complete ecosystem collected from healthy soils, greatly amplified, and then acclimated to the local soil before application.
A single installation of IMO can be enough but should include regular mulching, to protect microbes and to feed the system organic matter. IMO is installed a week before planting. Poor soils should get two applications, one week apart, with the final application one week before the soil is planted.
While there are other ways to get healthy populations of soil microbes into planting soil, IMO technology is far superior. The power of IMO technology comes from the high concentration of microbes, as well as from both diversity and stability.
An IMO culture contains an entire soil ecosystem. The culture contains all kingdoms of life: plants (algae), animals, bacteria, fungi, archeobacteria, and even viruses, which are technically not considered organisms yet are vital to all of biology. Soil ecosystems contain millions of species and billions of organisms. Everything is found in IMO cultures.
An IMO collection is diverse on a massive scale, and yet, for all the complexity, it is a working, intact ecosystem and is incredibly stable. This cohesive stability lends power to the system. All the millions and billions of organisms in the IMO culture are in balance and work collectively, maintaining the full power of an intact, living system, the very definition of an ecosystem.
IMO is collected from soil duff and leaf mold from an area on or close to the farm. Indigenous means local. No other microbes are as adaptive and have as much strength and effectiveness as microbes that have developed in your area for millennia.
IMO is safe, easy, inexpensive, and highly effective. It establishes balanced, healthy, vigorous soil and maintains the relationship between roots and microbes. This allows plants to grow stronger despite bad weather and helps them tolerate high and low temperature extremes and long periods of rain or drought.
A healthy root-microbe balance means the plant can maintain an area around the roots with the proper pH, even if the soil is not ideal. This means it can uptake the proper nutrients it needs, when it needs them, and in the proper amounts, even if the surrounding soil is not yet ideal.
IMO also maintains the microbial balance on leaves, stems, and other aerial plant parts. Many biochemical reactions take place above ground, not just with the roots. Remember, KNF is a holistic approach.
With an intact soil ecosystem, a mycelial network is established that acts as a communication and defense system, so pests and disease are systemically deterred. This network is essentially an external, communal immune system. The structural basis for this network is the mycorrhizal fungi. This is why it is important to avoid tillage and keep the soil as intact as possible when planting. Disruptions destroy this network, which takes time and energy to rebuild.
To summarize, the Soil Foundation means no tilling and disturbing the soil as little as possible. It is based on the application of IMO, cultures of healthy soil ecosystems. The soil is kept covered with mulch and cover crops to protect and feed the soil microbes, which builds topsoil. Having a complete soil ecosystem means that plants can obtain their own nutrition from the soil because of their symbiotic relationships with soil microbes. This means that, as happens in Nature, plants do not require the addition of fertilizers.
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