Bobby Okinaka

It's early spring, and I opened up my compost bin of leaves from last year. I carefully removed rhino beetle larvae (kabuto mushi) from the pile and put them in a new home. The larvae ate and ate and left a lot of poop (frass). At first I didn't realize it came from the larvae because the pellets were so big. Anyway, there isn't much online information available about using this frass as a fertilizer.  I also checked a bunch of Japanese sites. There were a lot of comments saying that the frass inhibits root growth and results in stunted growth. And then there are comments that say it works great. I guess I will just have to give it a try and see what happens. Please share any thoughts, comments, experiences. By the way, in this pile, I didn't see any worms. It started as a 1 meter tall circular bioreactor made from chicken wire and black weed barrier woven plastic. Started in May and it was pretty much finished after 6 months.

I have two cast iron pans. One is a Lodge. The other is a Japanese company that makes a thin cast iron pan, it's light!
Both work great, and are mostly non-stick.
There were both seasoned.
I make sure the pan is pre-heated and has oil before adding any food. I don't need a lot of oil.
For cleaning, I use hot water and no soap. I used a scrub brush called a tawashi, made out of coconut husk.
Then towel dry.
I only add a light coat of oil if I'm not going to be using it for awhile.
The Lodge had bumps, but now not so noticable. I don't think you need to sand it down.

Hello! I didn’t use rice hull biochar. i visited a biochar maker in Shimane prefecture. He makes it in a big open concrete pit. It was wood, but he also uses bamboo. But I will try to make my own. I just have to check with the fire regulations first.

Hello, I'm a newbie to growing plants. My focus has been on improving soil health and making compost.
I live in Kochi, Japan.
I am volunteering to build a garden at an elementary school.
The field is clay and has poor drainage.
So I had to start from the beginning by tilling everything.
Then in the late fall made beds and furrows to improve drainage.
My plan is to add organic matter.
Some rows have cover crops of winter rye and hairy vetch.
Some are covered with mulch. Some have compost. I even added a little biochar. (I plan to make more.)
Next to the rows I will make a "chaos" garden. Mix in compost and then throw in a diversity of seeds: grasses, wildflowers and vegetables.
Next to that I plan to grow tall grasses to be used as mulch over the summer.
The school has many resources, locally we can get free composted cow manure (I need to find out what they feed the cows), wood chips and rice hulls.
We already have a compost pile. In the spring, we will plant vegetables, but I'm not expecting a good result because the soil is not yet ready.
We will try different natural fertilizers like fermented fish. I expect it will take 3 years to get healthy soil.
With this community garden, I want to show people what healthy soil looks like. I hope we can start urban gardens in unused space in Kochi City.
I also want to start a meadow. But I'm not sure how that will work out because the nature here wants to be a lush forest. I understand that meadows
grow in drier conditions. I can't wait for spring!
Any feedback is appreciated.

Hi James,
I started reading the book, but haven't finished it yet. I can't wait to start farming in the spring. It will be my first season. I will be trying some soil building using compost (for beneficial microbes) kuntan (biochar from rice hulls) and lots of diversity. Cheers.

That’s it! I even saw the blue berries. Thank you.

I live in Japan. Does anyone know the name of this grass? It’s kind of like long wavy hair. Grows in a tuft. I’ve seen similar in Japanese gardens. Thanks!

Hi! I just moved to the countryside in Kochi prefecture on the island of Shikoku. I will be helping on a farm of a woman in her 80s who can no longer work the farm. The main crop is Kozo, a type of mulberry bush used to make washi paper. There are also plants used to make konnyaku. The plot is on the side of a mountain with plenty of sun and surrounded by sugi trees.

My main goal is to regenerate the soil. I just started a Johnson-Su bioreactor to make fungal-dominant compost. But it won’t be ready for 11 more months. And we have lots of weeds.

So I need a plan.

One idea is to cut the weeds and lay down cardboard and wood chips. Wood chips aren’t used anywhere here. I see a lot of exposed dirt, but sometimes a local straw is used as mulch on beds. Then in the spring, I will apply extract from the bioreactor compost.

Any advice is welcome! Domo!