Sher Miller

Sounds like a great adventure! What you can grow in the tropics will depend on your elevation. That can make a big difference.

One thing I've noticed with people in the tropics trying to live completely off what they grow. The overwhelming sediment is that fat is the limiting factor so that's something to consider.

Coconuts are great for this but can take years to a decade or more to produce if you're at elevation. There are many great tropical nuts too. Canarium indicumis one of my favorites.

I always wash rice. It gives me the perfect level of sticky.

I use the rinse water to make LAB (Lactic acid bacterial serum.) I ferment the rice water first (3-5days). This is used in Korea and other places for a hair/skin rinse. But for LAB I add one part to 10 parts milk. (if raw skim the cream). This also takes 3-5 days.

Both ferments are in a vessel with 1/3 airspace and a breathable cover. I like cotton tea towels or osnaburg or muslin. Keep out of light at room temps.

Milk will separate into a sediment at the bottom, a yellowish serum in the middle, and cheese curd at the top. Separate the liquid and the cheese.

Toss the sediment. Eat the cheese curd. Yum! Use the LAB on plants (diluted 1:1000) in animal water, or drink a shot daily as a probiotic. Keeps in the fridge about one month.

Side note if you practice KNF: when making rice to collect Indigenous Micro-Organisms (I M O) do NOT wash the rice. You want the extra starch to collect all the soil biology.

I agree that giving eggshells back to chickens is a good idea. They don't have very big brains, so the shell only needs to be broken a little so they don't recognize them as eggs. Lack of calcium is a major reason why they would eat their own eggs.

I use my eggshells on plants (and sometimes in animal water) as Water-Soluble Calcium (WCa). In Korean Natural Farming (KNF), it is generally given as part of a dilute formula, depending on the plant's life stage, and for conditions such as blossom end rot.

The shells need to have all membranes removed. I have recently come across "phoenix skin?" where the membranes are used for skin treatment/care. I haven't looked into that yet. Please share if you know about it. Anyway, if the membranes are not fully removed, they will add gick to the solution, and it will degrade and get nasty.

The shells need to be slightly toasted (to a light brown) to chemically alter the calcium. This is also true if you make this with another source of calcium carbonate, like oyster shells.

Keep the shell pieces rather large. Add fermented vinegar (distilled vinegar is used as an herbicide) in a ratio of 1 part shells to 10 parts vinegar. The shells will start to bubble.

Once the bubbles stop, the vinegar is saturated with calcium. Decant and spray on plants diluted 1:1000. You can add more vinegar to the shells and keep doing this until the shells are gone.

There is also the alternate name, olivine. That's what we call it in Hawaii. It's just about the only gemstone that can be found in Hawaii. It comes embedded in basalt from the volcanic eruptions. There is one beach that has so much the sand is green and called "greensand beach." There is so much even the coral offshore has a green tint.

What a well written article! I have been spouting off about racial wood and soil ecosystems for years. I've also written articles about choosing materials from ecosystems that match the crops. I was very excited to see your post.

And I have to say your garden pictures show a glorious garden indeed.

And I love the way you describe each block as a nation state. That's how I think of plantings.

THANKS 👍👃🌱🌳🌲

Ben Zumeta wrote:More diverse soil constituents will usually work better. Any habitat with more diverse food and shelter will have more biodiversity than those with less. I would be concerned about biocide contamination with most straw though.

There are benefits to diversity. There are also benefits to stability. When you have a highly diverse ecosystem that is stable and works well as an integrated system? Ah, that's where the magic happens.

(Diversity for it's own sake is chaotic and the system loses strength and efficiency by needing to stabilize the system. Soil systems have millions of species and billions of organisms. That kind of complexity is more efficient if there is some stability.)

I have found in my work that following permaculture guidelines of using what is at hand is effective and prevents the need to buy or bring in outside materials.

M Ljin wrote:

John Suavecito wrote:How do you know if what you are adding are indigenous microbes? Under a native tree?
John S
PDX OR

“Indigenous microorganisms” is I believe a term from Korean natural farming that refers to microbes from wild forest soils.

Yes it comes from Master Cho Han-Kyu 's method of Korean Natural Farming. It does not need to be collected from wild forest soils. That's a myth. The collection site depends on the crops it will be used on.

John Suavecito wrote:How do you know if what you are adding are indigenous microbes? Under a native tree?
John S
PDX OR

Yes you collect from under a rich local tree or from under a stand of grass. The idea is to collect an ecosystem that matches the growing system of your crops. So where? It depends, although you want as local as possible.

The I. M. O. technology was developed to get massive concentrations of balanced soil biology in a crumble form for effective application.

John Suavecito wrote:I don't know how one would increase indigenous microbes instead of other ones. It's an interesting idea.

John S
PDX OR

This is done by adding a culture of Indigenous Micro-Organisms to the soil. A few bio-nutrients are also usually added and the soil is typically mulched after applying.

I can offer more info if anyone is interested.

Great video! Thanks for sharing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I encourage anyone to try this.

In my work I have found that an Inoculated Deep Litter System (IDLS). Is far more effective.

No flies, no smell, no manure. The bedding always stay fully composted at all times so is always available for immediate use. The bedding is warm enough to brood chicks without a hen or heating devises.

Once I started using the inoculated deep litter system, I never had another chicken disease including mites. When I eventually sold the farm, the coop hadn't been cleaned out in 7 years at all ever. It housed an average of 50 chickens, 12 sheep, two pigs and for a while a rabbit.

Thanks again for sharing your video, it was great!. I'm headed over to YouTube now to subscribe.