It has been a LONG year or two and this post is way overdue (sorry, Cleta!)

Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ) is food for plants. The best candidates are leaves from strong robust plants that already have beneficial health benefits such as comfrey, portulaca, sweet potato, and mugwort to name a few. If you use fruits rather than leaves, it becomes Fermented Fruit Juice (FFJ).

Here is how to make it:

Go out early just before the sun rises (or you can be lazy like me and go out when you wake up) and pick leafy tips of your chosen plant that still have the morning dew on the leaves. (Actually, it has been so hot that I don’t think we have morning dew anymore.). Pick clean ones because you will not be rinsing them. Only use one type of plant per batch of FPJ.

Trim the stems to 2″ or so and pile them in a bowl. Add equal parts of brown sugar and massage gently until they soften. It feels delicious.

Compress and put the mixture in a wide mouth glass jar or container, leaving about an inch or so of space on top. Sprinkle brown sugar to cap the top. Cover with a cloth or breathable cover for 5-7 days.

Use a filter and pour the liquid into a bottle. Discard the plant material. You have made a bottle of FPJ! Cover with a breathable cover. I like to use a small square of cotton secured on the bottle with a rubber band.

FPJ is used in many Korean Natural Farming recipes. It is even good for human consumption – we can benefit from the nutritional qualities of the plants that we use. Comfrey is great for healing and is known as a bone knitter. Mugwort can pull toxins out. Portulaca (aka purslane) is high in nitrogen.

Here is a gallery, step by step:

That’s it! Rather easy, and very delicious. When used in Korean Natural Farming plant recipes, it is diluted to a 1:500 ratio.

Both Chris Trump and Drake of PureKNF talk about a Plant Maintenance Solution (though they don’t call it PMS, lol) that they use as a spray on a weekly basis for their crops and plants.

It is a simple formula based on 2 parts Food (FPJ – Fermented Plant Juice), 2 parts Cleanser (BRV – Brown Rice Vinegar), 1 part Medicine (OHN – Oriental Herbal Nutrient), and Drake also adds 1 part Structure (WCP – Water Soluble Calcium Phosphate – a formula that will I will post about later).

The dilution is 1:500 for both BRV and FPJ and 1:1000 for OHN and WCP. To make a small scale mixture, this would equate to 12 oz of non chlorinated water (rain water or let tap water sit for a day or so). Actually, regarding tap water, Drake says that one could fill a bucket with tap water and by simply swishing your hand in, the chlorine dissipates the water and is good to go. To this 12 oz of water, add a tad less than 1/5 tsp of BRV and FPJ, and a tad less than 1/10 tsp of OHN and WCP. An easier measuring system would be to use 60 oz of water (about a half gallon) and 1 tsp of BRV and FPJ, and 1/2 tsp of OHN and WCP. Put in a spray bottle and mist leaves and stems in the early morning or early evening once a week.

This formula can be stored with a sealed lid if not used up because it is diluted. It is very important to follow the formula and not put more of any one component. More is not better in Korean Natural Farming, but it is tempting for beginners. I can attest to that because I killed a young avocado tree with too strong a solution.

Seed Soak Solution

They don’t really refer to this as SSS – not sure why – BUT it is actually the same as the Plant Maintenance Solution, minus the WCP (Calcium Phosphate). It is good to have a bottle around because one never knows when the growing mood comes upon me and I use the solution quite often when transplanting, feeding, or sticking seeds in pots or ground.

I make a half gallon because I save those Govinda fresh squeezed orange juice bottles that are just the right size and they have a handy handle. SSS = 1 tsp each of BRV (Brown Rice Vinegar), FPJ (Fermented Plant Juice), and 1/2 tsp of OHN (Oriental Herbal Nutrient). I put my seeds on a thin handkerchief and in a bowl. Then I pour some Seed Soak Solution in the bowl and let the seeds bask in the liquid. The smaller the seed, the less time it basks. The bigger harder seeds can soak for at least an hour, sometimes even overnight. Soybeans are large but the skin of the seed is like paper so 10 minutes will do. Take the handkerchief out of the bowl and let the seeds dry naturally.

What this soak does is coat the seed with nutrients and protection. You are giving it everything it needs to start and continue growing.

Poke holes in the prepared garden bed or pot of soil and sprinkle seeds in as dense or sparse as you think. Cover the holes with the seeds, water, and watch for little shoots to emerge. Don’t be surprised if these emerge faster than predicted. You have given the seedlings their best chance of survival and growth.

Ideally your soil bed has been prepared with LAB to clean it up. After a few days, sprinkle IMO4 (that post will be coming) on the surface and water. Poke a hole in the prepped soil, add a little IMO4, then drop in the seed(s). Cover and water.

The formula for potted plants is 30% Leaf soil · 30% IMO4 · 30% Cinder · 10% Biochar. What is leaf soil? I really am not sure so I chop up dead dry leaves. I also add garden soil into this mixture. Make a little hole, drop in the seed(s), and then water.

Great even in existing pots

This post is almost the cart before the horse since I haven’t covered IMO4 or Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ) yet but even without it, the PMS/SSS will work. It will also work on regular soil and mixtures for your plants.

And please make sure you do NOT use coffee grounds unless you want to kill your plants. The only ones in my garden that can tolerate or benefit from coffee grounds are citrus trees and roses. For my other plants, it was the kiss of death. I feel bad for my orchids, gingers, avocado tree, pikake, golden dewberry, staghorn fern and others. I think it also killed my poor compost worms. Sob!