FPJ Fungal infection?

Hi all,

I'm new here and this is my first posting so I hope I don't break any conventions.

I'm trying to get to grips with KNF – actually I'm new to farming itself – in East Africa and build up a small permaculture kitchen garden using KNF principles. I've watched all of the Chris trump videos on the subject and have collected some nice IMO from forest leaf litter. So success for the collection step I think. I've also preserved the IMO using brown sugar, IMO2.

Now I'm trying to create IMO3 using a few kilos of old seeds and broken maize. I'll post on that subject if I run into problems.

In this post I want to discuss what has happened to my first attempt at FPJ. I collected some banana hearts and chopped them up and mixed them with brown sugar as demonstrated in Chris Trump's video on the subject and it seemed to go well. But storage is a bit of a problem. I tried storing it in a wide mouthed jar, plastic unfortunately until I find glass equivalents, and covering it with paper towel held in place by a rubber band.

What I find now is that the FPJ is growing a fungi of some kind on its surface.

Any ideas on if this is a bad thing that I should be worried about?

Brad

Hey Brad,

To store FPJ at room temp, fully sugar saturating the solution is important. Usually, the 1:1 ratio used in the beginning to extract the FPJ before it ferments won’t be enough sugar to preserve it at the end of the process, as otherwise you wouldn’t have gotten fermentation in the first place! So stir in sugar to the solution until crystals remain at the bottom, this way you know it’s supersaturated. Refrigerating will help you skip that step, but that’s not always practical!

As far as the fungal growth you’re seeing and whether it’s detrimental, a picture would help. White blooms on the surface are common towards the end of an FPJ’s shelf life, but in general any growth (or bubbling) indicates the FPJ is degrading or being consumed by microbiology. Mostly this is a problem because the biostimulants you’re trying to capture are pretty fragile.

Hope that’s helpful! The IMO process is a fun one as well, it can be pretty tricky to get the hang of without assistance or guidance from someone whos successfully done it! I’ve also had great luck just stirring IMO2 into a compost extract right before watering it in. Making LIMO or IMO3/4 obviously propagates the microbes more, but a little goes a long way so don’t be scared to simply water it in.