Three Korean Natural Farming inputs you can make this weekend

Korean Natural Farming is a system developed by Cho Han Kyu in South Korea that builds fertility out of what is already growing around you, rather than out of a bottle. The inputs are fermented at home from local plant material, and the whole approach is aimed at feeding soil biology rather than dosing the plant directly.

We run KNF ourselves, and we are building a Fumer range of inputs and kits around it. In the meantime, here are the three easiest ones to start with. All three are cheap, all three are ready in about a week, and none of them need anything you cannot find in a kitchen.

A note before you start: treat these as plant nutrition and soil biology. We are not making any claims about pest or disease control, and neither should you if you ever sell what you make.

1. FPJ -- Fermented Plant Juice

FPJ captures the growth hormones and enzymes in fast-growing plant tissue. It is the input you reach for during vegetative growth.

You need: young growing tips, unrefined brown sugar, a wide-mouth jar, breathable paper and a rubber band.

1. Collect young growing tips before dawn, while they are still turgid and have not been in the sun. Comfrey, mugwort, nettle, sweet potato vine, bamboo shoots, pumpkin runners -- anything vigorous and actively growing.
2. Do not wash them. The wild yeasts and bacteria on the leaf surface are the whole point.
3. Tear roughly by hand and weigh.
4. Mix with an equal weight of unrefined brown sugar, one to one.
5. Pack into the jar, leaving about a third empty, with a little extra sugar over the top.
6. Cover with paper and a rubber band. Never a sealed lid -- this ferment needs to breathe and will build pressure.
7. Leave somewhere dark and cool for seven days.

Strain off the liquid. It should smell sweet and slightly alcoholic, like cider. Sour and sharp means it went too far -- still usable, but make the next one shorter. Store in a loosely capped bottle out of the light.

Dilution: around 1:500 to 1:1000 in water, as a soil drench or a foliar spray.

2. LAB -- Lactic Acid Bacteria

LAB is a culture of lactobacillus, the same family that makes yoghurt and sauerkraut. In the root zone it helps break down organic matter and competes with less welcome organisms.

This one is two stages, which is why it is a good one to start on a Saturday.

Stage one. Rinse a cup of rice in a cup of water and keep the cloudy rinse water -- that starch is the food source. Pour it into a jar, cover with paper, and leave at room temperature for three to five days until it smells faintly sour and separates.

Stage two. Strain off the sour rice water and mix it with ten parts milk. Full cream, and raw if you can get it. Cover and leave another five to seven days.

It will separate into a solid curd on top and a clear yellowish liquid underneath. That liquid is your LAB serum. Strain it off carefully. The curd goes on the compost or to the chooks.

Storing it: refrigerate, or mix with an equal weight of brown sugar and keep at room temperature.

Dilution: around 1:1000 as a soil drench.

3. WCA -- Water Soluble Calcium

The simplest of the three and the most satisfying. Eggshells into vinegar, and the calcium carbonate becomes calcium acetate, which is water soluble and immediately available.

1. Rinse eggshells and remove the inner membrane as best you can.
2. Dry them, then roast in a dry pan until they are browned and brittle. Charring off the remaining organic matter is what stops it stinking later.
3. Let them cool completely.
4. Drop into brown rice vinegar at roughly one part shell to ten parts vinegar by weight.
5. Cover with paper. It will fizz vigorously -- that is the carbonate reacting, and it is why you do not seal it.

When the bubbling stops, usually about a week, strain and bottle. If shells remain undissolved, the vinegar is spent and you can add fresh.

Dilution: around 1:1000. Most useful during fruiting and flowering when calcium demand climbs.

General rules

• Use unrefined sugar. Muscovado or raw sugar, not white -- the molasses content matters.
• Use unchlorinated water. Chlorine is there specifically to kill the organisms you are trying to culture. Let tap water stand overnight, or filter it.
• Never seal a ferment. Paper and a rubber band. Sealed jars build pressure and go anaerobic.
• Label and date everything. Six unlabelled brown jars in a cupboard is a problem for future you.
• Dilution rates are starting points. Every batch is different. Start weaker than you think and watch the plants.

What we are building

The hard part of KNF in Australia is not the method, it is sourcing. Proper brown rice vinegar, unrefined sugar in useful quantities, and the herbs for the longer ferments are all genuinely annoying to find.

We are putting together a Fumer natural farming range to fix that -- raw materials, kits, and finished inputs for people who want the results without a fermenting bench in the laundry. We are also planning a hands-on afternoon at the shop where you make FPJ, LAB and WCA and take them home to finish.

Register your interest in the shop or on the newsletter and we will let you know when dates are up. In the meantime, have a look at the natural farming range.