Effective indigenous micro-organisms can be made to work without external resources and without commercial preparations.
Effective Micro-organisms
by Trainee Masami Sakaban August 1999
Edited by Jude
Masami would welcome comments on this.
masakaban@hotmail.com
I read a set of three books about EM and one book about Korean agricultural methods. Both of them said that microorganisms are necessary and effective especially for organic farmers.
Microorganisms are explained by both the Korean agricultural book and EM application manual. So please read them for more details.
How to collect and apply microorganisms the Korean way (photocopied notes in Japanese- four pages of cartoons and four pages, pp80 - 83, Appendix B in English)
The following is mentioned;
1. Fermented Plant Juice
2. Indigenous Microorganisms
3. Fish Amino Acid
4. Lactic Acid Bacteria Serum
5. Oriental Herbal Nutrients
How to prepare and apply commercial EM
The EM Application Manual (translation from Japanese into English - 23 pages of photocopied notes) *C means Chapter
Effects of EM (C 2.1)
* promotes germination, flowering , fruiting and ripening in plants
* improves physical, chemical and biological environments of the soil and suppresses soil borne pathogens and pests
* enhances the photosynthetic capacity of crops
* ensures better fermentation and plant establishment
* increases the efficacy of organic matter as fertilisers.
Due to the above stated beneficial effects of EM, yields and quality of crops are enhanced.
Principal microorganisms in EM and their action in soil (C2.2)
*Photosynthetic bacteria *Lactic acid bacteria *Yeasts *Actinomycetes *Fermenting Fungi
Application and preparation of EM1 (in four ways basically)
EM1 stock solution (C 3.1 , 4)
EM Bokashi (2 types),(C 3.2, 5-5.4, Appendix1)
EM5 solution(C3.3, 6-6.2)
EM fermented plant extract (C3.4 7-7.2)
Usage of the above
EM1 in crop production (C 8)
Rice(C 8.1)
Upland field crops(C 8.2)
Orchard crops(C 8.3)
EM1 in animal production and fish culture(C 9. 10)
Soil for raising seedlings (Appendix 2)
KOREAN PREPARATIONS
Korean Natural Farming Association(KNFA) emphasises the role of indigenous microorganisms and enzymes. They mainly grow vegies with pigs ducks. The absence of tillage is the principle soil management strategy of KNFA. Instead of that they arrange its condition to promote biological activities such as microorganisms, nematodes, earthworms and moles, all of which "till" soil biologically. Compost is very important for KNFA farming. To accelerate microbial activities in soil for crops and in bedding for animals, KNFA recommends making natural inputs such as FPJ and Lactic Acid Bacteria Serum (LAS). Different kinds of Micro-organisms are collected and increased in the materials. Some of them can't be produced by usual person. (* indicates that) By that I mean they make them in labs. The rest can be made by ourselves. They disagree with using mass produced Effective Micro Organism. (I do too.) Typical microbial and other natural inputs that the KNFA recommends are as follows. (To know how to collect you can follow the Appendix B Natural inputs and the illustrated instruction .)
1) Indigenous Microorganisms (IMO)
Usually applied to soil with compost. Expected to improve soil structure and to enhance the fertilizing effect the compost. To collect IMO there are 3 methods. One is collecting from leaf moulds in local forests and cultured with rice bran or equivalents.
2) Fermented plant juice (FPJ) /Bless Green Soup/Tenkei Ryokujyu
Made from plants such as mugwort, dropwort and thinned crop plants such as axillary buds and fruits. With crude sugar, the juice of the plant is extracted and ferments. It is then applied to soil to accelerate soil microorganism activities, plant leaves to fortify microbes and animal bedding to encourage manure decomposition. (0.2% concentration).
3) Lactic Acid Bacteria Serum (LAS)
Collected from the air into rice wash water and cultured in milk. LAS is applied to plant leaves to fortify phyllosphere microbes.
4) Fish Amino Acid (FAA)
Made from fish trash. With crude sugar, the juice of the fish trash is extracted and ferments. Fish meat sticking to bones and skins dissolves. FAA is applied to the field as a nitrogen source.
5) Oriental Herbal Nutrients (OHN)/Herb Medicine Nutrient
Made from some popular oriental herbs (such as Angelica , Glycyrrhiza uralenses, Cinnamomum lureirii) We can use ginger or garlic instead. It is softened and fermented by adding beer. Nutrients are extracted by adding spirits. OHN is applied to plant leaves to fortify phyllosphere microbes used for seed treatment.(0.1% concentration)
6) Brown Rice (BRV)
We just can buy this. This is sold anywhere in Japan. 0.2% concentration of BRV is applied to plant leaves to fortify phyllosphere microbes and fed to weakened animals including baby chicks with pullorum disease.
7) Absorbable Liquid Minerals (ALM)
ALM is made of several kinds of rock minerals. It is necessary that the mineral particles are small enough to be absorbed by plants. We can not make this. This is applied to plant leaves as mineral sources.
8) Water Soluble Calcium (WSC)
WSC is made industrially from sardine, sea weeds, bonita and garlic. This cannot be made by usual people. This was used for soup base. Small particles of calcium can be absorbed easily by plants. Calcium source.
Nutrioperiodism
The KNFA recommends growth management on the basis of the Nutrioperiodism theory, which was developed and advocated by a Japanese horticulturist, Yasushi Inoue, in the 1930's. They emphasise the different nutritional requirements of crop plants at the different growth stages.
Based on the theory and other empirical knowledge, key nutrients that play significant roles in each growth stage seem to change in order of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium. (The detail is in the translated copy)
As a nutrient source, they recommends FAA for nitrogen, ashes of stems of sesame or soybean and superphosphate for phosphorus, charcoal ashes for potassium and a special soup base?, slaked lime and calcium phosphate for calcium. When a farmer uses some synthesized fertilizers such as superphosphate and calcium phosphate, they recommends to mix it with compost and have it fermented.
MASAMI'S EXPERIMENTS
I tried to make preparations 1-5 & test them but have not completed yet. So I am not sure how effective and how I apply exactly. Anyway I wrote down what I did about these microorganisms!!
Indigenous Bacteria
Test A) 28/June I put rice box(10cmx10cm) into the forest over the railway line - all has gone maybe eaten by animals.
Test B) 29/June I put rice box over the rice stalk.
12/July The rice should be liquid & some remained but the surface of rice became more green fluffy stuff and smells
Yack. Anyway I put the same amount of brown sugar as the rice.
19/June The surface of rice became much more green fluffy stuff and smells more yucky. It doesn't become liquid.
1/August One month later it still is solid rice covered with green yucky stuff.
I think that it is a failure. Maybe I should have collected bacteria for less than 5 days.
Test C) 5/July Jeany and Zeph put rice box in a local sandy forest near the beach.
It's been raining for a week but it has not gone rotten.
14/July The white fluffy stuff cover the surface of the rice. Even inside partly the cluster of the rice was covered with the stuff. Some part of the rice became green.(I thought mould)
I put 1/3 molasses and the part of the rice with white fluffy stuff without green part in the glass jar.( ceramic pot may be better)
21/July The rice should be liquid but most of them are solid and some part became liquid and doesn't smell so bad.
I think I should have separated the rice cluster very well.
27/July Still the rice cluster is remained so I mixed with spoon. Anyway I put the same amount of brown sugar as the rice to keep.
I mixed 2% concentration of the liquid of rice, 2% of FPJ and water with 100g rice bran in the plastic pot with a paper lid to keep air in and out.
29/July The pot became warm and smelly like the rice in Test 3. The water evaporated very much and the paper is so wet. I mixed them very well.
1/August The surface of the rice partly became white and green fluffy stuff but doesn't smell so bad. from now I mixed them every day.
Fermented Plant Juice - FPJ
2/July Materials; water celery 2/3 of the pot + brown sugar 1/2 of the above
I mixed above on the paper and put them in the ceramic pot a saucer on top of the materials to press them.
3/July They became liquid & remained fibre. I put brown sugar over them (to feed them?).
8/July The liquid become very slimy and smells sweet & green. I put the liquid in a small jar and threw away fibre. We can not press them to extract.
10/July The liquid needs extra sugar to keep but I put it in. That keeps for more than 1 month.
Chinese Herbal Medicine
3/July I made 3 kinds of 500ml pots.(I should have used shothu)
A) a ginger +1/3 of canned beer
B) a half of garlic clump + 1/3 of canned beer
C) a few of cinnamon sticks + 1/3 of canned beer
4/July I put 1/3 amount of sugar in each jar.
10/July I add old wine and Japanese sake
A) &C) - the surface became white stuff covered
B) - That had smelled strong until I added sake on 10th.
16/July I started to apply 10cc + water 200cc to each lettuce.
--after that, I applied the same application to each lettuce in 4 days.
6/August B) became pale and wilted
I sometimes applied more than 10cc, so the lettuce may be wilt. A) &C) look the same. I need more time.
Local Lactic Acid Bacteria
28th June I put the rice water in a jar. The height of the water is 15cm.
3 - 6 days later it smelled sweet. The surface became white cover the middle transparent, the bottom yellow slimy.
5th July I made 2 kinds of jars.
A) milk 10:1 the water from surface & middle parts of above water
B) mild 10:1 the bottom slimy stuff
6th July A)&B) became bubbling things (like yeast bubbling)
A) whole liquid became white transparent
B) The liquid became 3 parts; bubbling on top, water in the middle, yellow stuff at the bottom
7/July A) became the similar to B)
The top white bubbling stuff tastes bitter but similar to cheese.
I used only the middle part of liquid. I poured that & the same amount of sugar in a jar to keep. I made 3 kinds of water application;
a) half liquid + half rain water
b) small amount liquid + more than 20 parts of water(Ph 5.5)
c) small amount liquid + extracted fermented weed juice + more than 500 parts of latter of rain water.
I applied each to lettuce every 2 days because of rainy days.
Unfortunately pouring rainy days! I didn't find the effect. The liquid became mouldy. I had to add extra sugar. Anyway I found this liquid is easy to make and also even the rice water(just washed) is good for garden I guess. The bubbling stuff is so obvious & amazing to see!!
CONCLUSIONS
To readers, 8th August, 1999
I wanted to make good compost from rice bran with Local bacteria, new manure, local soil & FPJ. The rice bran with local bacteria is left for more than 1 week but I have to go back Japan so I put them in the new compost on 8th August.
There is not enough results in other test, neither. But I must go soon.
About EM by mass production - In Japan some people are keen to use EM. Others say that's not useful. Mr. Higa suggest using EM until the effect appears. Masako told me that sometimes EM by mass production was effective like in Okinawa where Mr. Higa is moving actively but that the EM doesn't appear to be effective in other areas because of different climate, soil, water retentitive, and so on. I am not sure whether EM is safe and effective or not.
I read 3 books about EM and 1 book about Korean agricultural methods. All of them said that microorganisms are necessary and effective especially for organic farmers. I felt the good thing like FPJ for plants are good for human being. To make good ones we may need the sense of smelling & tasting .... more time and care. Anyway I was amazed at invisible creature's power while I was collecting each bacteria and enzyme. The other day someone told me that enzyme in sprouts are active when they are raw but in most traditional Japanese dishes they are processed like boiling, baking, drying, pickling but this test makes me think about invisible power in our food . We Japanese people eat a lot of fermented food instead of eating raw vegetables. I thought old people knew the fermented food included a lot of enzymes or bacteria that are good for our health!!! I want to know and feel more after I am going back to Japan. From Masami Sakaban/Japanese.
JUDE'S CONCLUSION: It confirms my modus operandi in the garden based on looking after the soil microorganisms - working on keeping the same temperature and soil moisture and aeration as they are used to. And now there is more to do on running controlled comparative trials using the five different preparations.
Subject Sustainable Agriculture
Regional relation Global
Audience farmers - general
Physical format Archives and databases
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