Bokashi for beginners: what is it, and what can it do for me?

[QuentinQuark]

I use rice hulls as bokashi bran substrate. Wheat bran soaked the EM-1 up better, but I am up to my ears in rice hulls, so rice hulls it is.

Rice hulls are great, they are the traditional media for bokashi as the technique is of oriental origin. Good for you for using what you have available!

 

[QuentinQuark]

I make bokashi with newspapers and have for a couple years now. The first batches I used EM1, then a homemade lacto b.

Any difference that you could notice, between using EM1 and using your own LAB?

I layer veggie scraps, egg shells, apple cores, banana peels and things like that. Once or twice I might throw in some azomite or comfrey or whatever goodie I have around.

So not anaerobic?

The finished bokashi gets used with alfalfa meal and soy bean meal to activate my leaf mold compost pile. Then after the hot phase I add what worms I have.

Holy SMOKES that sounds like a lot of work. And I bet it's worth every minute.

Not that making bakashi with newspapers is all that special, or any of my methods, but the resulting compost i have, I'm actually moving with me 2.5 hours away. That's how much I reguard my compost. Serious....scrappy

Awesome Scrappy, thanks.

 

[QuentinQuark]

<opinion>The quality of a fermenting process is directly related to the ingredients used<opinion>

The one, only and last time I made a 'bokashi bran' I used 50 lbs. of organic pelletized rice hulls and the same amount of a dry mix I had bagged which included alfalfa, soybean meal, canola meal, flaxseed meal, sunflower meal, fish meal and probably something else.

As a soil amendment it sucked so I used it to activate compost piles for a couple of seasons. Then that compost was run through my worm bins so I ended up with a very nice vermicompost but it was a really stupid way of getting there.

CC

So you were trying to use the "bran mix" as a direct soil amendment instead of using it to pre-compost batches of bokashi, correct? What sucked about it? I was planning on doing this with spent coffee grounds, which I have access to basically an unlimited amount. I don't have enough food wastes to use it as pre-compost, so I thought I would ferment it the same way the bran is made, and then just put it in a soil-generator dealy... CC you think it will suck?

 

[ClackamasCootz]

So you were trying to use the "bran mix" as a direct soil amendment instead of using it to pre-compost batches of bokashi, correct? What sucked about it? I was planning on doing this with spent coffee grounds, which I have access to basically an unlimited amount. I don't have enough food wastes to use it as pre-compost, so I thought I would ferment it the same way the bran is made, and then just put it in a soil-generator dealy... CC you think it will suck?

QQ

I had taken the bokashi mix down to 2.8 pH and it definitely slowed things up and I am not one to hi-dose with anything.

Aside from all of the false claims made for Dr. Higa's magical elixirs, at the end of the day it's just fermented plant material though one former poster here was convinced that tossing in a couple of pork chops would enhance some fantasy running around his/her pea brain.

This fermented material has to be deconstructed by microbes before there is any value to your plants. Fermenting doesn't magically chelate the elements that they contain. That's absurd and completely illogical.

Compost it, run it through a vermicomposting set-up, something. Or add it to large amounts of soil and let it 'cook' for several weeks.

If you want to prove this then pick-up a cheap color-spot plant at Home Depot (marigold, pansy, petunia, etc) and stop at the grocery store and pick up a small container of 'live' yogurt.

Mix 2 tablespoons with 1/2 gallon of clean water and hit the soil with this 'tea' and see for yourself.

CC

 

[QuentinQuark]

Thanks CC. So I'll get the used coffee grounds, "pickle" them with some LAB like I would with bran to make bokashi innoculant, and then put it outside in a soil generator type setup. Around two weeks to pickle, and then six weeks in the soil generator, so two months start to finish and I should be able to easily get a 5-gal pail every day. That's gonna be a lot of soil....

 

[quinoa64]

I also stole a LAB strain from store-bought yogurt, just strained some through a coffee filter.

That is exactly the kind of thing that biotech companies would make illegal when the start sequencing proprietary strains for the big food processing conglomerates!

But seriously, great job sourcing your own microbes.

 

[scai]

That is exactly what I a was asking Clackamas Coot.

That when I was child, we used to make sour milk, I don't know if you are familiar with it?
Never seen it sold in England...

Mom used to take 1-2 litres milk in a bowl or jar and put it in cool cupboard, open, after one day, it was sourmilk, but if you forgot it for few days, it had serum in it?

Another thing that quite similar, is to make homecheese.You have a large kettle full of milk, then you add some citrus and heet it gently, collect the solid thing and you have left clear liquid...I suppose, if you keep that in open, it might form lactob?

And to add, sourmilk is sold here in shops, and it contain bifilus, acidophilus and gefilus, bacteria...lacto? Is it right kind? for serum for EM?

Am I totally in the woods? or weeds

 

[QuentinQuark]

Alrighty, my first 10lb batch of used coffee grounds have been inoculated with my home-made LAB and some molasses, and sealed up tight in a double plastic bag. The plan is to let it sit for two weeks and give it a smell test, looking for a fermenty smell and nothing nasty. Then into a soil generator.

 

[ORGANICSPUNK]

i have some fruit and vegetables fermenting with lactic acid bacteria

 

[pseudostelariae]

recently i saw there was some bokashi bran at the local greenhouse supply and decided to pick some up to experiment. the guy running the store said it was great and he used it as a top dressing and in his teas. not sure why considering i've always read bokashi doesn't do a whole lot unless it's in an anaerobic environment but he swears he couldn't argue with the results.

anyway, i just made my first bokashi bin with a mixture of dry and fresh leaves layered in a rubbermaid with handfulls of bokashi mix between each. soaked it until some water ran off and then sealed it up.

from what i've read, i just let this sit for 2-3 weeks and come back to a bin full of pre-composted leaves ready for the worms? the point of this project was to help feed the worm farm. plus this way you can potentially feed worms all sorts of scraps. thanks for any replies

 

[rrog]

Yep. It's acidic, and you should bury it a ways from the worms. In a corner, or such and let them come to it. And rest assured, they will...

 

[Midgar06]

Great thread. Bokashi is some amazing stuff. Learned some stuff off this thread that I didnt know after a few years of bokashi composting myself! Thanks to all!

 

[Hauna]

Here is the end all bokashi guide. It was written by the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Ag. Written for the layman and clear as can be. Have fun! and get dirty!

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/BIO-9.pdf

 

[Waldgärtner]

What do you guys do with the "cheese" that forms on top of the milk? I don't have any animals to feed it to and I'd hate to just throw it away.

Can I mix it in with the foodscraps in the bucket?

 

[johnd]

That's what I do.

What my dog doesn't eat I put into the bin.

 

[keingrower]

this thread is awesome!! should be a sticky here in organic soil

 

[Boyd Crowder]

why is this thread not stickied ?

 

[Boyd Crowder]

made my initial culture last week , gottem eatimg up some mollasses now. 2 weeks ill be ready to start my bokashi bin woot!

 

[Mattskibop]

That's what I do.

What my dog doesn't eat I put into the bin.

This is what I do too.
Haven't had much experience with Bokassa, some great info here.
Thanks

 

[War horse]

Have anyone used Fermented milk instead of raw milk when making Bokashi ?