A story of microbes, how they can accomplish seeming miracles and how to culture or buy them

I'm with Marco Banks on this.

Neil Layton wrote:

Tyler Ludens wrote:

R Ranson wrote:yeh, like someone like me could get funding.

This might sound like a dumb suggestion, but I bet enough people on permies are interested in these experiments to contribute small amounts to a GoFundMe to pay for analysis if it were only a few hundred dollars. Worth a try!

That's what I'm trying to get at. For a pilot study like this you need a little bit of time, some seeds, a watering can, a tape measure, the stuff to make up your nettle tea/whatever, a decent set of scales and a pen and some scrap paper. A set of good enough scales (because you probably need to be down to the nearest ten grams or better with herbs) might set you back a bit, but it's unlikely to lead to bankruptcy.

My accurate scale (to the .5 gram) only goes up to about 2 kilo. I do have digital hanging scale that might be accurate enough, but it's only to the oz (28g?).

The scale weighs in units of kilograms, pounds or ounces, and can convert between units. It is accurate to 1% for loads above 1kg (2.2 lb). Accuracy drops to 4% for loads between 0.25kg (0.55 lb) and 1kg (2.2 lb). Holds a maximum of 40kg (88 lb).

Perhaps, like the "Book Review" grid, there could be a place for those interested to log some experiments. Clearly, the results would come with the usual qualifiers of the studies being "pilot" in nature. But in that spirit, below was a quick test of an online ANOVA calculator that might be useful for those to test some of their own findings: http://faculty.vassar.edu/lowry/ank3.html

Dovetailing on the discussion, I made the assumption that R Ranson might wish to try annual mustard for his pilot plots, and then assumed three treatments: no water, standard water, and weed/manure 'tea' (columns Xa, Xb, and Xc, respectively, shown below). Although one might go with biomass weight as suggested by Neil L., one could also go with seed-count at harvest (no scales required).......so I just made up some numbers for this, assuming 5 independent plots within each treatment (rows 1,2,3,4,5). Hit the "Calculate" button and the ANOVA is calculated as shown in the 'Data Summary' and 'ANOVA summary' fields.

Then just decided, since it is there on the same website, to do the ANOVA 'post-hoc' test for 'honest significant difference' (Tukey's HSD) between the different treatments. It's not the most sensitive post-hoc test and you get stats gurus arguing all the time which test is best used in what circumstance, but it's a good place to start.

So you can see that the means between the three treatments were 463.2 (no water), 759.4 (water), and 951 (tea). The "better" (I may be skewered for that usage) value is HSD at 0.01 level of significance, so the pairwise comparison indicates that they are all significantly different from each other..(all greater than 126.81 from each other) ...AGAIN, JUST a number punching demonstration with no real data. But it may be useful for those wishing to compare data.....hope others may chime in to corroborate that this would not be misleading.

R Ranson wrote:

My accurate scale (to the .5 gram) only goes up to about 2 kilo. I do have digital hanging scale that might be accurate enough, but it's only to the oz (28g?).

Two kilos of herbs is quite a bit in terms of volume. My suggestion: add it up, compare to the nearest gram.

Scientific work is always done in metric/SI units, even in the US (unless you work for Lockheed Martin, of course: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_failure).

John's idea is a good one. If you publish your experimental design in advance (which is good practice anyway) we can help you refine it.

There was a time when even I could do an analysis of variance on paper. If I can learn to do it, anyone can learn to do it.

Hated stats!

https://permies.com/t/56571/
My new thread about the experiment.

For the experiment I'm doing, we need a really simple way to make these microbes. Charlotte, can you help with this? I'm really excited and I hope you can offer some tips and tricks to help me do it right.

I'm imagining some sort of stinging nettle ferment. We have lots of nettles.

We need instructions for a simple way to make these microbes. I'm hoping to get my friend's 10-year-old daughter involved, so it needs to be instructions she can easily understand.

stinging nettles would be great. instructions are already here and i will repost.

also they are great to eat and great for you when they are young, we keep taking the tips off ours.

forgot some important details, so #1 and #9 are new

1) set up in a spot which gets only shade.
2) put freshly cut stinging nettles or any weeds into a container.
3) fill the container with water to the level of the green leaves , not chlorinated water. you do not have to fill the container, just add the water to the level of the leaves that you have.
4) mix 1 minute in each direction each day.
5) if you add some black strap molasses, maybe 1/8 cup to each gallong of water, this will work faster.
6) do this for 21 days
7) if you use a bubbler (oxygenator) you can do this for only 3 days.
6) at the end of the time dilute 10 times and spray or drench (meaning use a watering can) onto the desired area.
if you do not spread it on the 21st day you need to add slightly more sugar to give the microbes something to eat.
9) when you spread it you need to do it when there is a cloud cover or in the evening just before the sun goes down, to give the microbes a chance to get underground before they meet the sun.
i might try an IMO batch as well, see sher miller lehmann above.

@charlotte a.: "6) at the end of the time dilute 10 times and spray or drench (meaning use a watering can) onto the desired area."

Thanks for this protocol, charlotte. This number 6 seems to me to be the hardest to calibrate, as those with more saturated, clay-like soil might need less than those with dry, sandy/porous soils. Do you or anyone else have a rule of thumb for the volume of soil drenches/applications to be applied per unit area of treatment? So if you had a 1 X 1 meter square plot that you would be treating, how much approximately would you apply to just that one plot? We have tons of stinging nettle, other weeds and manure, so I may try a mixture as well on some test areas. Thanks....

charlotte anthony wrote:

6) at the end of the time dilute 10 times and spray or drench (meaning use a watering can) onto the desired area

Is the soil saturated with the solution? Or merely dampened? How many treatments?

I tried this and after a few days, the smell was so vile, I dumped it out and flooded it with water for about 20 minutes. You still couldn't walk near the area without gagging.

Sounds like it went anaerobic!

I can't see any way it won't be if it is simply stirred two minutes a day, no matter what direction you stir.

the material can be sprayed or drenched. the way i do it is not exact. mainly i amble along fairly slowly and steadily whether drenching or spraying. obviously drenching would more microbes if the same silution is used. i have not observed a difference between when i drench or spray, although i feel more connected to my work when i drench. sometimes i feel to stand still while continuing to spray or water for a moment. sometimes i look around and try to figure out why i was led to stand there, and have not found anything i can describe as a reason. this is an innoculation (or a catalyst) so i do not believe that there is an exact rate of replication based on #'s of microbes being applied. someone might find out differently.

in reading peter senghe's book the fifth discipline, which is a simple way to understand systems theory,i learned that the best way to effect a system is to find the place to exert the smallest pressure that can effect the most motion. the system will then bring forces to bear to get the job done to rebalance the system. he is working with a lot of industry leaders in sales in his workshops and ultimately he is saying that you can only find this place with your intuition. or maybe in scientific terms it is nonlinear thinking and we cannot get it with the part of our minds that we normally use.

i think the attention to the process of the person applying the microbes is more important than the number of microbes. so many people are multitasking, for instance they are not attentive to what they are doing, thinking about something other than the garden while working in it. people have been telling me there is a lot of science getting into these realms, but my forte is the garden and not reading all the science.

The first one I made, I stirred at least 3 times a day (it had horse manure and ash as well as comfrey, nettle, bindweed, and horsetail). For those first three days, it smelled like any good ferment--tangy like pickles or sourdough. On day four, I forgot to stir three times, and only stirred twice, and it started to smell like poop, but with a little good ferment scent mixed in. Day five, I also forgot to stir enough, and it smelled more like poop. I was weary of using it then, so dumped it on some grass--full strength--by my garden bed. The grass looks pretty happy there. So, even though it reaked, it didn't seem to kill anything.

I started another ferment, this one with with just the comfrey, nettle, bindweed and horsetail, with a little molasses and ash. I put in an airstone and I stir it at least twice a day. This one does not smell like either a ferment or poop...instead it smells kind of like...paint? I have no idea why it smells like paint. It's been going for something like 6 days now.

ANYWAY, I'm thinking that to keep a plant tea aerobic, it really needs to be stirred at least three times a day, or have an airstone, otherwise it turns anaerobic.

But, I would love to know why my second batch smells neither like a ferment or poo, but instead like paint. So weird...

some of my concoctions are smelly. the plants like them. we contacted elaine ingham about EM and were told the these bacteria are facultative. this means they will be anerobes when in non air conditions and convert to aerobes when in air conditions. when i spread stinging nettle tea it is still smelly and it does great stuff for the plants. bacterium like e coli are a favorite food of the other microbes.

use the IMO preps from Sher Miller Lehman if it works better for you. or bubble the material.

But, I would love to know why my second batch smells neither like a ferment or poo, but instead like paint. So weird...

The smell of paint comes from one or more of a set of volatile organic compounds. Common ones include formaldehyde, acetone and ethyl acetate. All of these are also produced by fermentation and other biological processes. One or more of the bacteria species in your tank will be producing at least one of these substances as a byproduct.

This has been such an interesting topic.

More useful info in this older thread:

Liquid Fertilizer from Weeds

If you think the weeds or plants you choose for your teas / liquid fertilizer may have poisonous toxins ( or you're unsure) read this great thread:

Your Plants Might Be More Dangerous Than You Think

Search through some of those older threads. Permies from years ago were discussing some of these same methods. ( Personally, I like to see who was around this site "back then".) 😉

The biological uptake of toxins from your brew will be zero, because basic plant biology.

The biosynthesis of such toxins may change if the plant applies a defence mechanism to the presence of unwanted bacteria.

Toxins may be found on roots, fruits or leaves, so they should be washed first. In particular compost teas where sugar, molasses or other things have been added have been found to disproportionately harbour Escherichia coli (which isn't necessarily a problem because there are scores of species of E. coli and only two of them are dangerous). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17477249

Nicole Alderman wrote:The first one I made, I stirred at least 3 times a day (it had horse manure and ash as well as comfrey, nettle, bindweed, and horsetail). For those first three days, it smelled like any good ferment--tangy like pickles or sourdough. On day four, I forgot to stir three times, and only stirred twice, and it started to smell like poop, but with a little good ferment scent mixed in. Day five, I also forgot to stir enough, and it smelled more like poop. I was weary of using it then, so dumped it on some grass--full strength--by my garden bed. The grass looks pretty happy there. So, even though it reaked, it didn't seem to kill anything.

I started another ferment, this one with with just the comfrey, nettle, bindweed and horsetail, with a little molasses and ash. I put in an airstone and I stir it at least twice a day. This one does not smell like either a ferment or poop...instead it smells kind of like...paint? I have no idea why it smells like paint. It's been going for something like 6 days now.

ANYWAY, I'm thinking that to keep a plant tea aerobic, it really needs to be stirred at least three times a day, or have an airstone, otherwise it turns anaerobic.

But, I would love to know why my second batch smells neither like a ferment or poo, but instead like paint. So weird...

I would love to have mine smell like paint instead of something that could only come from a vulture's ass.

Because of the claims I'm reading about microbes turning rock into soil in the matter of months, I just want to state something about my own observations on my own homestead farm where I've been improving the soil using microbe enhanced compost, manures, mulch, and minor amounts of other amendments. The soil that I started with consisted of lava rock (from gravel to basketball size) with an average of 1/2" of a dusty to finely granular, hydrophobic organic derived "soil" between the rock. During rain years, it didn't seem all that bad. During drought years it was painfully obvious how poor the soil looked. During rain years the top 2"-3" were moist but lower down it became quickly evident that the rainwater ran off via channels below the surface, because most of the soil was bone dry. I could get 5" of rain and much of the sub-soil was powdery dry. By the way, there was no surface soil covering rock. The rocks extended right to the surface. This soil grew tropical grasses and a few weedy plants that were capable of growing in poor soil, like milkweed and Christmasberry.

In a 100'x50' area I topped this soil rock mix (after having mowed the vegetation down to ground level) with 6"-8" of grass clippings and chipped brush. Each day I flung around a wheelbarrowful of fresh horse manure that had a bit of dirt and surface debris with it. This was done during a wet year, so it usually rained lightly each night. Once a month I ran a Mantis tiller lightly over the area, then added more grass clippings and brush clippings in order to bring the layer back to 6" in depth. Since I was busy with other things, I continued to do this for about six months. I then learned about indigenous micro organisms and the value of fungus, so I purposely added a cubic yard of IMO mix to the area and lightly mixed it in with the Mantis tiller. The IMOs were grown via compost mixed with wheat bran and moistened with raw sugar cane juice. (I no longer add sugar to compost or soil, nor do I use wheat bran.) I also added mushroom spore which I collected locally via mushroom caps. I didn't then, and still don't, know enough about mushrooms to say that those mushroom caps were effective, but at least they did no harm. This future garden site was a good location to dispose of the clippings, chips, and horse manure.

At about a year after I began I decided to start the garden. The surface "soil" was rich looking, as one would expect from moist degrading organic material. Below that layer were those lava rocks. Unlike what had been claimed here, those rocks did not disappear nor visibly change. And the thin layer of soil between the rocks appeared to be the same in thickness and quantity. But the visual quality had changed. It was dark brown rather than medium grey-tan, it was moist, and it hosted worms. Would one call this topsoil because it had darkened in color? I don't know. I suppose it depends upon the definition of topsoil.

Since then I have continued to add microbe enhanced compost, manures, surface mulch, and other amendments in small quantities (lava sand, coral sand, crush heated bone, biochar, wood ash). And as I gardened I removed rocks, tons of rock. I left in place rocks the size of hen eggs and smaller. Plus I actually added more small rocks. It was a location to get rid of the buckets of fine rocks I was getting when I sifted the soil elsewhere in my property. (I was sifting soil in order to make my own potting soil.)

People who visited my gardens often remarked about how lucky I am to have "real soil". I've had a few people tell me that by using Dr Cho's methods, my rocks had turned into soil. My response -- perhaps that might be true if I waited around years and years, but the reason my soil has no rocks is that I removed them. The reason my soil looked good and was deeper than one inch is because I added truckloads of organic mulches, compost, and manure.

My reason for posting this is to let new gardeners see how I created my deep soil (6"-10" now). And that the rocks didn't melt away by magic and become soil. I'm sure that the sandy and fine gravel part of the rock component became part of the soil mix, but it hasn't been my experience that rocks simply disappear in the matter of weeks or a couple months. At least not my lava rocks. I do believe that the rock will degrade over time, but I suspect that it takes longer than a few months.

So to those beginning gardeners out there -- if you apply microbial teas and still have rocks, have heart. You're in the same boat with me. After years of gardening on my homestead, I still have plenty of rocks. But the soil does indeed change, become darker, and become more fertile....in my experience.

I was concerned when I read Charlotte's quote of Elaine Ingham. I sent it to Elaine for review, and the following is her reply:

"It was brought to my attention that the following appears in a Victory Garden post. It is a mis-quiote. It isn't what I would say. Would it be possible to either remove my name, or change this so it reflects what I would say? 'Elaine Ingham recommends making a microbe tea from compost that can include the weeds, grasses and other other green plant materials growing in situ.'

Please remove this part, because I don't recommend this either: 'This according to what i know about permaculture would be the best method. I have not actually done this but her recommendations are to make compost, using the plant materials gather the weeds, put in a barrel or bucket, cover with water and let ferment for 21 days. she says to stir it twice every day'
If green plant materials are pushed into a bucket, and covered with water, the infusion will become anaerobic pretty rapidly. Even if stirred twice a day. and that infusion won't be beneficial to soil life or roots of plants.

What I do recommend is IF PROTOZOA ARE LACKING IN THE SOIL, cover the bottom of the bucket with barely enough grass, weed, etc plant material, fill the bucket half full, and incubate for 48 HOURS. Bacteria
from the plant material surfaces will start to grow, and then protozoa from cysts on the plant material surfaces will grow, eating the bacteria. This can be a good way to re-establish nutrient cycling in the soil.

Elaine R. Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc. Soil Life Consultant"

I have taken Elaine's online class and learned how to use a microscope to check what microbes are in any preparation I make such as compost, compost extract, compost tea, protozoa infusion, etc. it is the only way to know if what you are using has beneficial organisms. It is amazing how quickly things can become anaerobic, waking up organisms that live in low oxygen conditions and produce plant toxins. The cost of the class was well worth it. to be able to actually see these little critters and make sure I have the beneficials.

So are the microbes we're interested in actually protozoa and not bacteria? "Microbes" has been very vague.

Tyler Ludens wrote:So are the microbes we're interested in actually protozoa and not bacteria?  "Microbes" has been very vague.

It's not an either or situation, you want and need both bacteria and protozoa, along with the nematodes and microarthropods and the fungi.  A food chain, an ecosystem, comprised of numerous elements.  Part of why "microbes" is used, it covers a wide variety of microscopic life.

Hey all, this was a heated topic at one point and I have ideas and experience to contribute to the conversation.

I, too, was first intrigued when I first heard of Charlottes claims of microbes. So much so that I decided to intern under her in Eastern Oregon last summer to learn more about what she does. I volunteered at her 20 acre dryland permaculture reforestation Terra Lingua project the longest of any of her volunteers last year (I was #6, and there were 2 that left after me that I know of) and did the latest seeding last year of 6 acres, and foliared the 20 acres several times a week the best I could at the crack of dawn and dusk using the tractor and sprayer implement. I shared with her what I knew about Korean Natural Farming and other forms of popular Asian agriculture when I was volunteering for her. For those of you who are curious about what microbes she uses, she uses commerical products, EM1 and mycorrhizae from Fungi Prefecti, so I was genuinely shocked to learn she does not make any of the microbes that she talks about, ie jivamrita/panchagavya from Zero Budget Natural Farming of India by Subhash Palekar, Indigenous Micro Organisms from Korean Natural Farming, Biodynamics, JADAM. Being someone who studies natural farming, I was sort of disappointed. I can go on about my experience, but in short I perceived her to be very disrespectful and condenscending towards me.

What I do know about her is that she first started out as a Biodynamic farmer several decades ago and started using EM1 after learning about it 15 years ago. I am not in any way saying she's unseasoned; she is indeed well experienced and knowledgeable.

She is onto something regarding microbes here. About the same time that I encountered Charlotte, I have been looking into various forms of agricultural systems in other parts of the world, mainly Asia and India.
What I found astounded me. I learned that many of these systems of farming basically involved gathering local biomass, fermenting them, then introducing them back into the land to be taken up by the plants and soil immediately. These systems of agriculture all emphasize minimizing imports by creating your own farming inputs. The ingredients you do need to import are easy to obtain and very inexpensive. These modalities were practiced for a long time and highly regarded by their practioners. Microbial based fermented teas is what the scientific community calls biofertilizers and cannot be formally referred to as fertilizers because the NPK content cannot be quantified, and should not be confused with simple anaerobic plant teas. A biofertilizer feeds the soil biology, and does not necessarily feed the plants directly. As relatively unknown these systems are, there is very little research about these form of agriculture in our country, although Korean Natural Farming and JADAM is quickly becoming popular in Hawaii, as Hawaii has great Asian influence in its culture.

By fermentation, we brew microbes, explode their numbers, and have them cycle the locked nutrients for us into plant available forms. These bacteria being brewed are facultative whose metabolisms can adapt to both aerobic and anaerobic environments without being pathogenic (notably lactic acid bacteria). This form of agriculture referred to as "natural farming" (not Fukuoka! Fukuoka farming is do-nothing no fertilizing, the natural farmer absolutely fertilizes), in the sense that the farmer uses the local biomass and even forest/garden soil around them to create their own highly effective, inexpenisve biofertilizers and other farm-made inputs, usually by means of fermentation. They have since learned through their own trial and error that the best way to grow comes from feeding their soils a diversity of microbes, sourced anaerobically and aerobically alike, to create living active soils for means of annual production, opposed to focusing traditionally on nutrients. Many of these techniques uses the shotgun approach to microbial diversity. Someone earlier in this thread said they believe that there is a better way than just "drenching the soil with microbes." The natural farmer does not agree with this, and they will responsibly drench their soil with as many microbial teas and innoculants as they can to quickly grow living soil. They do not distinguish between the good from the bad microbes (of course, they wont use anything they know has gone bad), just that they are all needed, some in smaller amounts than others, for homeostasis. Of course, this does not disregard other responsible agricultural practices. A thick layer of mulch, living roots, etc is of course still encouraged.

These systems of agriculture are very real, and very effective. The Biodynamic folks call this alchemical (well they do plant in accordance to the heavenly bodies), and the traditional Koreans and Indians call it natural.  Many natural farmers rely on anaerobic processes as the key to their success. Some even use sea salt and sea water as inputs. I've come to learn that the West is trying to reinvent farming, defining Organic, etc, but the Far East and India simply just learns from its ancient roots of agriCulture. There is no need to purchase NPK or fancy brewing contraptions. As a natural farmer, all the fertilizer you need is already around you, in the plants and in the land, ready for fermentation for quick availability, and all the simple tools you need are already on hand. The key, is coming realize that. Here are some tools to help you.

Korean Natural Farming, developed in the 60s by Dr. Cho, or "Master Cho", is about collecting Indigenous Micro Organisms (I-M-O), spawning them, feeding and multiplying them to get them nice and strong, and reintroduce back into the soil in via a extremely fungal based mesothilic compost. It is a complicated process, termed I-M-O 1-4, that takes 2 weeks to collect your I-M-Os, which is shelf stable and can then be stored for future batches, and another 2 weeks to grow them out, which is again shelf stable. The theory is that since the genetics are already adapted to the soil conditions, they will thrive. And just like any other compost, you apply repeatedly to ensure the soil gets properly innoculated. They also collect their own fermented plant juices from young leaves using raw sugar to collect biostimulants, enzymes and hormones, they make their own diverse LAB (lactic acid bacteria) serum for the soil, make their own water soluble calcium/phosphourus and many other inputs, all from local, cheap and easily accessible sources. The final product of the indigenous micro organisms process is not a biofertilizer, but a highly fungal compost. Its all about getting the fungal framework established, and the belief is once the fungi are established, the rest of the soil biology will fall into place. Lastly, Korean Natural farmers are known for their odorless swine and poultry operations, as they spray lactic acid bacteria in the pens and make special microbial inoculated deep litter bedding that decomposes animal waste rapidly and eats the odor causing bacteria. I almost forgot to include that!

JADAM farming, which is a Korean acronym for "people who are like Nature", was developed in the 90's by Dr. Cho's son, Youngsan Cho! In JADAM, you ferment forest soil with starchy potato water and sea salt (for nutrients), cover the lid and let that go for 36-48 hours, diluate at peak and apply. They also go into making a mix of different potent special plant biofertilizers. JADAM does incorporate IPM into the system by providing recipes and education on how to make your own non-toxic pesticides and other IPM inputs. JADAM is gaining popularity because of its simple ease at any scale, its effectiveness, and is fast and cheap. Downside to JADAM is that these anaerobic teas smell Bad at times.

In Subhash Palekar's Zero Budget Natural Farming, Palekar was a generational farmer who turned to ayurvedic and other ancient Indian agriculture to learn from. He then consolidated his findings and simplified it so the average Indian farmer can easily employ the methods. He learned that the use of microbes, ie Lactic Acid Bacteria from whey etc, was highly effective when paired with cow manure, urine, milk, ghee etc. Panchagavya/jivumrita, "the 5 products of the cow", ferments all of the products of the cow together to create incredible biofertilizers. This liquid manure slurry is the staple of their fertility programs, but they also make use of anaerobic plant teas. The zero budget system also has their own IPM system and inputs that they make themselves.

Even in Biodynamics the special Preparations, #500-507, are fermented. The Biodynamic compost itself is traditional and aerobic and thermophilic, but the bio-dynamic-accumulator herbs that make the compost special (nettle, chamomille, oak bark, yarrow, dandelion, valerian) are all fermented. Just fermented with animal organs is all...

EM1 was developed in the 60s by Japanese microbiologist Dr. Higa. This brew of specific ratios of lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, and purple non sulphuric bacteria psuedomonas rhodobactor, are facultative and work well for many soils. EM1 can be further modified and fermented into different forms for different uses, AEM etc to create more, but as you do the ratios start drifting away from ideal proportions. You can use EM in your soil, add it to the compost, or ferment compostables to predigest it for the soil (Bokashi), or spray to animal bedding to remove smells. The natural farmer considers EM1 inferior to their own microbes, as the microbes in EM1 are bred in a lab whose genetics are not adapted to the local environment, and purchasing costly microbes is generally against the natural farmer philosophy of using inexpensive materials that are available to you, especially when an equal product can be made for nearly free.

Much like anything in agriculture, this topic is endless and limitless. Anyone who cares to learn more about how to make these highly effective biofertilizers for yourself, there are links provided to several websites below. Youtube has how-to videos on many of the KNF inputs, as well Indian agriculture videos on panchagavya/jivamrita. Online JADAM material is a bit more obscure, but the JADAM ultra low budget farming book can be bought on Amazon, although the shipping takes some time as the book is shipped directly out of Korea. The books on ZBNF are elusive and i i have heard not translated very well lol

Korean Natural Farming:
http://naturalfarminghawaii.net/learn-natural-farming/application-guide/


JADAM
http://naturalfarminghawaii.net/2016/07/jadam-ultra-low-cost-organic-farming/


Zero Budget Natural Farming of India, by Subhash Palekar (good English material is a real gem)
http://palekarzerobudgetspiritualfarming.org/zbnf.aspx

http://www.vedicbooks.net/environment-plants-c-125_235.html?osCsid=sbhi144v1gqqaf5qbo4neb7kq6

KNF slight offshoot
http://theunconventionalfarmer.com/

EM1 handbook
http://www.apnan.org/APNAN%20Manual.pdf

general directory (brand new site!)
https://cascadiannaturalfarming.org/links-for-further-reading