INDIGENOUS MICRO ORGANISMS

Materials / ingredients needed:

1. Wooden box (made of Natural wood / bamboo / cedar, etc)
2. Hard-cooked rice (Less moisture to collect aerobic microbes)
3. Porous Paper (paper Towel)
4. Rubber band / Thread
5. Container Box / Basket made out of Bamboo
6. Jaggery / Brown sugar (Unrefined sugar)
7. Glass jar / Clay pot

How to collect IMOs:

1. A wooden box of Length 12 inches x Width 8 inches Height 4 inches is made with ½ an inch thickness wood.

2. Fill the wooden box with steamed rice. Its moisture content will attract the indigenous micro organisms living in the local soil. Allow adequate air supply by not stuffing the rice higher than 3 inches
(do not hard the rice in the box). Without sufficient supply of air, the anaerobic IMOs will get collected. Aerobic IMOs are more commonly recommended.

3. Cover the wooden box with white plain paper (avoid news paper) and use a rubber band or thread to hold the paper to the box. Paper allows air to pass through.

4. Mark an area 12 inches x 8 inches in the soil and excavate 2 inches of soil. Place the rice-filled wooden box in this pit, where IMOs abound, such as in a forest / field or at the site where many decomposed leaf molds are found. Cover the box with leaves.

NOTE : It will take 3 days in summer and 5 days in winter. You can experiment based on the climate of the place where you live. Black molds on the steamed rice indicate that you have exceeded the number of days

5. The container box or basket is placed on this set-up to protect the wooden box from stray animals.

6. Prevent rain from getting through by covering with leaves. (use plastic sheet only if necessary during excess rains) At 20°C, it will take about 5 to 6 days to grow the microbes in the box filled with IMOs. Collection will be faster if the temperature is higher than 30°C to 35°C it will take 2 to 3 days

7. After 3 days the rice will be covered with microorganisms. Move the IMO formed rice to a clay pot / glass jar. The IMOs thus collected is called as IMO-1.

8. Mix jaggery with the IMO-1 in 1:1 ratio. For Eg 1 Kg of jaggery should be mixed with 1 Kg of IMO-1. This mixture of brown sugar and IMO-1 is called as IMO-2. The closer the state of sugar is to nature, the better. The less process the sugar has undergone, the more effective it is. Therefore, white refined sugar is not recommended. Brown sugar is advisable, but crude and unrefined sugar (jaggery) is better.

9. Cover the container using paper and hold in position using a rubber band or thread.