Caitlin Elder wrote:
In Acres USA they have an article about Natural Farming with Indigenous Microorganism (IMO), which has to do with microbes. From what I read it was lower cost but produced more desirable crops. Has anyone tried this? If so any suggestions? Do I need to tailor this around what I'm trying to grow/where I live? Or is this like a one size fits all type thing?
Hi Caitlin,
From the article the original
land was in very bad shape so the large scale introduction of
IMO was necessary in order to get things going again. I think if your land was in much better shape that by simply applying recommended
permaculture techniques you would encourage the IMO.
Of course it all depends on your situation. It would matter what you are trying to grow; if say you wanted to grow a clover for fixing nitrogen but none of the IMO that attach to the clover for fixing nitrogen was already in your soil. In that case it can be easier to simply buy inoculated
seed that introduces both at once.
What the article describes is a cheap essentially free way of gathering up
local IMO, breeding them up to large concentrations and then reintroducing them where needed. Alternatively you could purchase products which would do the same thing if that was necessary because of scale or economy.
Paul Stamets and
Fungi Perfecti would be a good place to start if that was your option. I personally have played around with a few of their products and certainly noticed an increased root production.
I think except for cases of medium-heavy to extreme soil remediation or certain specific situations it would be more beneficial on a larger scale to not do things that kill IMO off and to do things that would benefit them instead. No till and not using artificial fertilizers and pesticides being the most beneficial as these three are the single largest destroyers of all micro-organisms.
Think of introducing IMO as just another tool for the toolbox. It is Natural Farming that is the true benefit. Of course Natural Farming requires micro-organisms in the soil for the full benefit to be realized. But once established and properly maintained through Natural Farming/Permaculture practices the IMO would symbiotically thrive without any additional input from us.
Jeff
