I wish Don. Nature has it’s own timeline. I can move it up a little by running grow lights at least 16 hours a day and providing some heat. It’s when you start moving things into the real world that things slip from your control. Too many nasty bugs, not enough good ones, A whole lot of animals that want way more than their 10th part. My outside garden is right at the edge of a swamp. Only place on my property that isn’t shaded by trees. As the years go on word seems to have spread through the swamp that there’s free eats over at the old dudes buffet. Most of those critters just laugh at fences. We just have to play the cards we are dealt.
That is why I asked There is no sense in not using your data or method. My exception is that I am not excited about buying a brand new tote and poking a hole in it.
I was looking at growing carrots hydroponically using the kratky method in a 5 gallon bucket as a test, I didn’t have all the materials I needed, and my lights are wrong but I got 1/6 to grow well. Beyond the light issue, I think it was more of a pH issue, so now you have me wondering about putting yeast in the solution because that seems like it should lower pH.
I haven’t tried growing any root crops with Kratky Sean. I have grown tomatoes and cukes. I use Masterblend for fertilizer for Kratky mainly because everything I know about alternate forms of growing I learned from the Guy on MHPgardener that I linked earlier.
I whiz up what food wastes I don’t need for the worms and store it in gallon milk jugs. As long as it’s filled right to the top of the jug so there is no air it doesn’t go bad. Then when I want to make fertilizer out of it I fill a five gallon bucket and pump air into it for a couple days. That’s where the yeast and sugar go to fire up the microbes. Not pretending I know all that much. What I do know I mostly got from youtube.
I may have seen someone do carrots on youtube. I recall seeing someone using the pool noodle seed starter things, and the tops of the carrots were deformed. But I don’t recall if it was kratky or not. I mainly want to appease the carrot lover. The animals leave maybe 10%, and usually carrot tops are fought over.
Your method for other food wastes not for worms reminds me of the “Moonshiner” show where they added lactose enzymes to milk whey from cheese production to make booze. I realize it is similar the korean method for digesting into fertilizer. I didn’t know you added sugar and yeast and aeration at the end though.
Youtube videos can be hit or miss because some people edit out and change stuff to get the results they want to get more views and sometimes they are misinformation (whether intentional or not) Even if you are getting info from youtube, you have actually replicated it (or failed) which is valuable insight.
Im trying to clone trees right now using a youtube method, and at the wrong time of the year to be extremely successful at it.
I agree about a lot of the information on youtube. I have been part of a couple of homesteading sites for many years now. Some very successful market gardeners. That’s how i got steered to the Mhpgardener site. The guy there is very forthright about all he does, showing failures as well as successes. Plus he is likeable and not annoying. His results speak for themselves.
Once you put compost or worm casting tea into the soil it will begin to pick up the O2 that the microbes need as they break down the organic matter. By adding the yeast and sugar before hand and then oxygenating the mixture you are just accelerating the process a lot.
This year I am going to experiment with the JADAM protocols in my outside garden. Similar to the Steiner bio-intensive system I have been doing.
I always felt so dumb as l was never able to grow carrots, such a basic crop… turns out they are among the most tricky ones to grow.
I tryed the method of dispersing the seed in a gelatinised starch slurry and plant with a dressing bag. This actualy works! You can adjust spacing and the gel retains some moisture around the seed
hello johan, excuse the late response, we were busy this week…here the description how to make the rennet…
the rennet is made so: a goat lamb , only feeded with milk of the mother goat, might not eat others, no hay, no grass, for to keep the milk stomach clean and the enzymes active…
you take the last stomach before the thinner intestine begins, cut the connection to the thinner intestin and on the other side the connection to the other stomaches…not to near to the milk stomach the cuts, let 2 or 3 centimeters because it must be closen after with a string…
you turn the stomach inner part to outside, collect all the white cheese parts , clean al dirty parts by hand - no water, the enzymes become weaker- there are always some things inside like hair and some vegetal pieces they find somewhere as straw pieces or hay pieces or from the dry leaves…than when clean, turn it back that the origin outer part is outside again close one side with the string with good nots, take a longer string, half meter for hang up after.
than on the other end, actually open , fill all the white stomach cheese pieces inside and than fill up with fresh milked warm goat milk, before filling blow a bit up, so enters more milk…when filled up, close the end with the other end of the string , and now you can hang it up on a warm place near the stove , so with a while, after two weeks or so dries more and more, and shrumples…
when you feel from outside that the inner part becomes more hard like rubber or resin from trees in warm time, the rennet is ready.
we conserve it in the stomach itselfs and in a jar, when we need some we make a little cut and take some out…my expierience it conserves so for some years -in dark and fresh room protected in jar.
I have seen him before probably from you. He is pretty good.
You take the tea then add how much sugar and yeast to it? You want the aerobic bacteria so you are on the right track… You might take some leaf dirt like they do in the jadam process and throw it in with the yeast. I assume this is normal baking yeast? You never know up in wino country. Do you monitor the pH as well?
The JADAM microbial solution actually looks good, and very similar because the potato is adding sugars, and the leaf residue that is thrown in has the microchozzial fungus, yeasts, and microbes that you need… Im surprised that isn’t oxgenated as well (unless I missed a step)
The only thing I am leary about is the sodium chloride found in the sea salt, especially when they say it is mainly for micro nutrients. I know it isn’t much but I would rather find another source of the micros. But it might fall into the ‘not worth the effort’ category.
It looks like you might be able to do it the -other- way as well. You make the starch, drop the seeds in and dry it as a seed coating into like a rope of the starch. I don’t know if you can rehydrate and do the pre-germination/soaking step later or not, but that would eliminate all thinning and get the seeds spacing exactly right. it would be similar to the commercial biodegradable tape they sell or the pelletized seed. hrm.
I found this. It is a homemade garlic, onion, potato, bulb planter… It looks like a motorcycle chain. There is another video in russian where they do almost the same exact thing but they were a bit smarter and attached the spoons to a piece of metal that was fastened to the chain to be able to remove/change or adjust them rather then just welding directly to the chain… Then I saw a video for a commercial chinese/asian planter where they added a vibrator motor perpendicular to the chain axle to knock doubles off the spoons.
I’m planning on doing some videos about some of this stuff Sean in case any of it is of use to anyone else. For a five gallon pail of compost tea it only takes a couple of tablespoons of regular bread making yeast and the same amount of sugar. It multiplies rapidly when you keep the air pumping into it. I always monitor pH. In soil, just one of those probes and I’m never real confident about the accuracy but it good for a ball park. For the kratky fertilizer solution I use a regular calibrated tester. I’ll look up the one I use and link it.
Thank you Giorgio, no worries about late or not replies. You are a busy man, you answer when you want and have time and that is no problem.
Two or actually three things surprise me about the rennet, I thought that it would be more of a liquid but you get a more spongy solid part when you use it, does the ’mother bit’ have to be removed when you have used it or does it desolve?
I am also surprised it holds for so long, just putting it into a jar or is it conserved in some way after?
Third thing is that I thought it had to be done more things to it, some more work after the taking of the stomach.
Thank you again, this is interesting. More to put into the memory bank, I just hope nothing falls out when new things are put in.
Does it foam up like booze does? What do you aim the pH for? I have a cheapo digital one and a tds meter for the kratky stuff as well. i don’t trust it completely but it is ballpark. I’m not growing pot so having 1/100th accuracy isn’t that important. I really dont trust the soil pH probes so I don’t have one. I probably should have one of those. They are probably ballpark accurate now. (they weren’t that accurate when they first came out.)
Speaking of compost tea, I was at a course some years back and I picked up this recipe for compost tea. Perhaps it is obvious to you guys but here it is:
2kg molasses (4pounds) - sugar for microbes + trace elements
1l whole milk (1quart) - sugar
2packs bread yeast - kickstarter
4kg rock dust (8pounds) - phosphorous + trace minerals
50l fresh cow manure (13gallons) - nitrogen and bacteria + trace elements
Mix in a normal 208l (55gallon) barrel with water
Don’t remember how long it was supposed to be left before use though
Sometimes they aerated it with one of those aquarium airpumps and an air stone for some time (tht I don’t remember either
When you are aireating the tea will get a little frothy on the surface. Lets you know it’s working but not so much if you are only doing it for one day. I usually go two days. If I were technical like pot growers I would calibrate the PH for each plant. Most of what I grow likes a slightly sour soil so I try and mix my fertilizers around 6 but tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and many other would be happier around 5 or 5.5. Since I don’t brew separate batches for them I just add in some sulfur into the mix I feed them.
Harvested the winter run of Worm castings today. Only 12 gallons. It was a little colder in the root cellar where they were than I had anticipated even though I kept a heat mat in the bin. I should have kept them in the house. They don’t eat much when the temps get below 50f. Still have to separate the worms and cocoons from the castings. I’m sure the next run will be a lot better.
Two days is probably good for the fungal replication. I was curious about how full I could fill the bucket without it overflowing and not making a mess
I don’t know if pot growers do individual plants but they do their hydroponic systems to the 100ths like 6.23 and they will start correcting if it is 6.24 from what I have heard. For soil it is different beast altogether and you are trying to hit a bigger range.
I signed up for this webinar about the soil fungus, i assume mainly mycorrhizal (that stringy white stuff from the leaf pile from the JADAM system). I doubt I will watch it live because you can’t skim through it.
https://webinar.soilfoodweb.com/reg-webinar-farming-with-fungi-1
I have a bit of a grudge aginst leaf fertilisers like compost tea. Or any fertilisation for that matter… pouring cow shit over my salad isnt my kinda dressing l know its all decomposed and smells real nice by the time its applyed but still the mental image is there.
Also, l find it unnessesery work. If the beds are prepared well in spring and maintained helthy, generaly l hadnt realy seen the need to do much more and to me thats the point if you are serious of growing your own food, not just garden as a hobby.
To me, deep mulch was the revelation. Its a lot of work too, collecting leaves and all that… but all the work can be done in colder months, where there is less of other stuff to do.
I feel its way easyer to make compost on tge spot and feed the worms under the plants rather thain doing both these things separately…
The “fetid swamp water” has been working pretty great. I just wouldn’t use it on a plant that stores water like leafy greens or tomatoes. Also not use it for the last month in the plants life so it’s totally gone.
It smells bad while it’s still going unless you put a lid on it, after a while it stops stinking but all that’s left is the minerals and nutrients from the plant matter you put into the water. The bacteria eats the plant matter and leaves nutrient behind. It made my pomegranate spring up last year.
I think this winter killed the sapling though, I hope it makes some foliage soon to let me know it’s still alive.
conserving the rennet in closed jars, stored in a cellar ambient
you can see the string, where the stomach was attached near the oven…
on the left side is to see a white stuff, where the stomach is opened a bit… this is the rennet
it is not always white, also brown, consistence like chewing gum, smell as parmesan cheese…
a bit , depends on quantity of milk, is given in a little cup of water…it goes not easy in solution, it must be treated with the spoon and mixed, than can be used immediately all without filtering…the cheese gets an excellent taste, better as with bought rennet…i think this home made rennet acts also a bit like a cheese-culture.