This is the best video that I found about Bokashi compost! Thank you very much for your explanation. I will follow you from now on. Greetings from Argentina! 🇦🇷
Hello, thank you so much for such a great video! This is the best one about bokashi that I've ever watched. Literally from A to Z, it is the perfect initiation for newbies!
Looks like I'll be getting one of these. Might use plant pots for step 2 just chucking soil on top with a bit mixed in.. Then I don't need to dig up and can spread it after probably a month wherever I like.. Should work out in theory right? 😅
Both are great and I do both. Worms create such high quality output, but do take more care and attention. Every time I plant something new, I put a handful of fresh worm castings in the hole. As I turn a new area of the garden, I put Bokashi in to fortify all the soil.
I love your step by step guide, super helpful!!! As I do not have a garden, how should I go about part 2 of the process? Can I get a container, add soil then add the fermented food waste and then more soil? Should I cover this container? Thanks!
Glad you found it useful! How are you planning to use the end result? Certainly you can put it into a container of soil. It will smell strongly for a day. But covered with soil, the odor soon goes away.
@@ZeroWasteFamily Thanks! Should this container be covered with a lid? Do I need to drill holes at the sides for ventilation or drainage? Would you recommend adding some worms to this mixture? I am planning to pass on the final product to gardening groups or communities. Sorry for so many questions. I am new to composting, still waiting for my composting bin to arrive and I want to ensure I’m doing it correctly. Thank you for your time!
hmmm...I've seen so many articles boasting this as a composting option for apartment dwellers but what are you supposed to do with it during the second step if you don't have a yard? Bury it on the side of the road?
Thank you for such a descriptive video I know this video is older and you might not see my comment, but this video is super helpful. I have one question though. I live in an apartment and still want to do bokashi, instead of putting food in my yard can I put it in a bucket on my balcony with soil to finish the process. Would that still work. Again thanks for the video
Thanks I loved this video. Have you tried directly burying your scraps? I tried this and it composts the same way in 2-3 weeks as you showed. I don't know if there is a real difference in doing the bokashi first! I'm interested in trying out the bokashi but am confused as there are mixed reviews!
Yeah, this method is better for doing things like meat and other things you don't want to bury or compost directly. He didn't mention it and I don't know why, it's practically useless for everything else.
If you live in climates like we do where the ground got frozen half a year, you won't be able to burry compost in soils. This methods produce the tea which can be used for indoor plants. Besides, the lactobacillus and other beneficial bacteria from the bran will improve micro organisms in your soils. forgive me if I am not 100% correct. I am not an expert but I am trying to learn and be an expert in my own little permaculture world! :)
@@johnellis8401 yeah if you plan on eating the plants you're fertilizing it's better do use this method if you plan on putting meat and dairy in there. That or get the skills to balance a 160° hot compost pile continuously. This method is good to consider if you don't have a yard but still want to save waste and your city doesn't provide compost pick up
Thanks for the feedback and question. I don't know how to qualitatively compare the taste. The way to think about this is for vegetables to grow healthy (and quickly and more robust) you need well composted soil. Bokashi is one method bring compost and nutrients into your soil. There are mosts of methods, I like this particular method because it works much faster than other ways to compost and it is easy for beginners (because you can compost almost any food).
Thank you for your video!! It will really help us reduce wastes. Questions please? Will there be any food that shouldn’t be used? Also which part of the process smells the worst?
Generally what I love at Bokashi is that you can put any organic material in it (e.g. food). But I do avoid an excessive amount of salt (e.g. skip putting a whole bag of stale salted chips in there) and an excessive amount of citrus peels (if I juice a ton of oranges, I worry it could get too acidic). I don't know for a fact that the fermenting process of Bokashi won't neutralize excessive salt or excessive acid, but those are my rules of thumb. Good luck!
I like to keep mine outside the house: garden or shed is fine. I collect my food in a metal bucket for a few days and then add as a full layer. There is some smell when you open the lid and for sure smell when you drain the liquid, so outside the house will be preferred.
Ive live in an apartment and am trying to do the 2nd half of the process by layering my bokashi with soil in a covered container on my balcony. Do you think that would work?
@@ZeroWasteFamily I can use some of it on my mini vegetable and herb garden on planters on the balcony and I guess I can give away the rest of the soil to others
You sure can. Think about these two things. 1) when you drain the buckets what will you do with the liquid. You can dilute it (see video) and water your balcony garden, but you will likely have too much so you would need to put that down your kitchen drain. That liquid will smell, I usually open a window and run water for a bit to get it through the pipes. 2) Where will you busy the Bokashi when you are done. Make a plan for a yard, canyon or garden somewhere you will bury it. Good luck!
You can try layering the fermented compost between layers of dirt in a big plant pot to let it finish composting. Then plant directly in the pot or distribute among a few pots as you like.
It isn't just plain bran, it's been inoculated with lactobacilli, if you're working on a tight budget, you can make a culture at home and inoculate it yourself.
That's right. Cardboard is not a substitute from Bokashi Bran. The bran creates a chemical process that ferments the food significantly speeding up the composting process. You can definitely make your own brand, there are lots of recipes on the internet.
That makes sense. One idea is that you could setup a box outside with soil to finish the composting process then bring in the finished compost into your pots.
Apartment dwellers can make a “soil factory”. Mix you bokashi 1:3 with soil and put it in a large bin. The bin can be stored indoors. Leave for at least 4 weeks. Then you should have rich compost. :) You can also put bokashi straight into planting pots, but the roots should not touch the bokashi for at least two weeks, due to the acidity. Her86m2 has a good video on bokashi as does Sara Bäckmo.
Right... you want to add this directly to soil and let sit for at least 2 weeks. I often find worms thriving in that soil after I mix it a couple of weeks later.
Thank you for this video! Composting isn't just a "TWO for one," it's like a SEVEN for one! 1) Reducing food waste means reducing methane production, which food gives off when it rots anaerobically in trash bags or buried under heaps of other trash. Methane warms the planet 33 times faster than CO2!!!! 2) Compost adds nutrients to the ground which allows more plants to be grown which means more clean oxygen 3) More plants means more habitats for bees and other endangered species 4) More plants means more carbon sequestration! 5) Adding nutrients to the soil means food crops have more minerals (aka, more nutritious food)! This has the potential to reduce/eliminate modern diseases caused by lack of proper nutrition IF the fresh food is much more widely and equitably distributed. 6) Healthier soil retains more water, reducing the need for farms and garden to use water from aquifers (less wasted water)! 7) Healthy soil absorbs more water during heavy rainfall, reducing floods! 8... ? I think there's also a way healthy soil reduces the risk of wildfires?!
Great job! Composting is so important for your garden (and the planet). Bokashi is really different from those two methods. It works much faster than a hot compost pile and is less finicky than worms.
QUESTION: Can this be mixed into a compost bin instead of the soil? Our native soil cannot be dug AT ALL. It is DENSE clay and rock. I’d need a pick axe.
I look forward to starting bokashi composting. I have 4 rain barrels that I use to water the garden, and I'm wondering if I could add the bokashi juice to the barrels to kill may possible algae or pathogens. I often find racoon feces in the gutters. Also, my soil pH is usually on the high end. I'd like to lower that a bit. BTW, I grew up in Ramona, and love that town.
Thanks. I was hoping to understand how meat broke down using this system. It looks like after three weeks of burying in the soil, much of the organic matter broke down. Was there meat in buried in as well? Would meat break down after 3 weeks of being buried? Did you have to protect the soil to keep rodents and such out? Thanks for the great video!
I have had no problems with Rodents. I believe because 1) I cover with enough soil (at least 2 inches) and 2) the 'pickling' process changes the smell of the food that doesn't seem to attract them. Regarding your question of meat, we are vegetarian so I personally have less direct experience with this. However, everything I've read is that this process breaks down meat effectively.
i believe if you put straight to the soil , it will attract some rodent that will dig in to the soil, since the smell probably stronger and some other bad garden insect
@@ratnarusli3595 Only if your hole is too shallow. If you have dug a deep hole at least 7 or more inches into the soil and cover well with at least 4 inches soil rodents won’t dig that far. Personally I like to dig real deep, more like trench composting. Also with Bokashi, the “smell” if done right it doesn’t have a foul, decomposing odour - there’s a definitive smell but more like a fermented/sour like smell. We’ve used meat scraps and all sorts and the smell isn’t what you expect, I mean it’s not rose water but definitely not a terrible scent, you do get used to it. But it’s not a really bad, smelly, awful odour.
You use a lot of bran, meaning your cost can get pretty high for that. I have been doing bokashi composting for about 16 months now, quite successfully, but I probably use half the amount of bran that you use.
Heads up. The best info video on the subject of Bokashi on RU-vid in my books. I have been using this system for over 18 months now. Blessings from Australia ❤️
Hi. I only have a small garden and have been growing for the last few years in containers. Any ideas what I can do for the second stage as I don’t have ground to dig into. Thank you
Do do need some soil somewhere for the 2nd phase. if you don't have any space around your living area to do a whole, you could buy a large plastic tub and fill with dirt/soil and bury it in that.
Quick question! Since I live in a household with only 2 people, we don't really produce that much food waste but I usually throw out my food scraps every other day so that it won't get gross and stinky. Should I wait until I have enough scraps to fill a SOLID layer or is it okay to add any amount as long as I press it down and cover it with bran?? :o (And thank you for the video! I live in Japan and recently learned about this and was so curious! It seems so convenient!)
I would consider three options. I have a sealed metal container that I put food scraps in and every 2-3 days iI add to my Bokashi bucket (see link below). If you have concerns with smell, you can keep your food scraps in a bag in your freezer. Lastly, I often will just put food scraps at the top of my Bokashi bucket and then add a layer for brand after I've added food a couple of times and there is a suitable amount of food for a layer. www.amazon.com/dp/B074J49SDG/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_A8ZTNGM00WHH4VT6VDB7
I would add that the metal container as a collection bin also helps to maintain the anaerobic needs of the bokashi system by reducing the need to open the sealed lid too often. Try to avoid just opening and closing along the day and get into the habit of at least a 24 period if possible.
The bokashi bins are sealed and as you will to the top the idea is to remove all/most oxygen from the big as the food 'ferments' so this minimizes the risk of moles.
Good question Howee. Bokashi accelerates the composting process. The bran can improve the quality of your compost by ensuring you have enough microorganisms during the fermentation process.
i have a worm bin. I just emptied it and it was smelly and wet so had to add more leaves, dry material and layer again. I think I may try Bokashi since I want to make our veg patch bigger
Thank you for the informative video. Can the contents of the bokashi bin go into an AeroBin - ie a traditional aerated composting bin - instead of burying it. We found the native animals dug it up when we buried it.
@@ZeroWasteFamily Hi - we buried it to about a spade depth but it was dug up by rabbits and foxes. We have been putting some cardboard pellets on top of the compost. Would this work in the same way as putting soil on top. Thank you.
What do you think of using the bokashi compost for amending clay soil? I'm just 1 person so my food waste is minimal but in season my garden waste is huge. So. Would I need to keep purchasing the bokashi flakes or could some of the 1st container material ve saved to "innoculare" a new bucket? Thank you for a very informative video.
Hi Amy. You do keep buying the bran flakes. We have clay soil as well (hard to dig in) but the bokashi will really help amend your soil. I would bury the bokashi output int the soil and put your leaves and garden waste on top of the soil
Hi I would love to know if you can do the composting bit in a bin or something with plenty of soil?? If living in an apartment and there is no real garden...
I have never done that but I can’t see why it would not work. Make sure you have plenty of soil and a lid since at first the bokashi does smell like ferment 😃
What kind of PH soil thermometer is that? Could you please add a link to where you got it? And would you recommend this one or another one? Thanks in advance!!
The liquid that you drain off does smell. So mix it with water (100:1) right away. It hardly smells then and you sprinkle it into the garden. When you pour out the compost into a hole, it certainly does smell. But once you bury it with soil, you can no longer smell it.
Hi, I am new to composting. I started with bokashi composting. Unfortunately, I close the lid of the wheat bran that I was using for composting. I see white fungus growing on it now. Can I still use the bran for composting?
No way will I bury my bokashi again! I buried mine in my glasshouse and the rats loved it - food and warmth. I’m going to put my next bokashi in a tumbler composting bin!
my problem with this is cost it cost 30 pounds for 2kg of bokashi, were any fermentation is just yeast and sugars so wouldn't this work with just sugar as most plants have yeast on them so the formation would start if you just added sugars
You can definitely make your own, but the key is EM-1 Micro-organisms (which you can order from Amazon). Here is a good recipe: www.turningtogreen.com/post/diy-bokashi-bran
Thanks for the comment and question. It depends on how thick your layers of food are. My rule of thumb is to just barely cover the food so as you press the food and bran down, you can see a bit of the food. I have tried using less, but had the sense that it needed an extra week or two in the bucket... but I don't have a way to scientifically measure the process in the bucket.
No the bran is a key part because it introduces the micro organisms that compost the food. You can buy it online or you can make your own. thecompostess.com/2015/04/22/how-to-make-bokashi/
I want to do hugelkultur which produces fungal dominant soil biology. Dr Elaine Ingham says fungal dominant soil biology would be great for berries, blueberries, strawberries and for pasture forage. How about adding bokashi at the bottom of a long trench? Then adding a little soil and then my ground up trees branches and logs and leaves with soil, worm castings and compost on top. Then I can plant my blueberry bushes and strawberry transplants. Do you think bokashi could add something to hugelkultur?
If I understand you correctly, you are asking if you need to take out your composted soil if you are mixing it in pots. The answer is no. But you will need to mix it. One bucket of Bokashi has a surprising amount in it. You will need several pots for one bucket. Fill each pot with soil that needs amending (perhaps 3/4 full). I would fill no more than 1/4 of the pot with the Bokashi (so divide it across several pots). After letting it sit buried in soil in each pot for 3 weeks, stir before planting (I often give it an initial stir at 2 weeks as I did in the video).
I buy bags. But I don't use nearly as much. Top and bottom mainly, and only a sprinkle or two. I'm too frugal to be using half a bag per bin. Still works. The microbes only really need something to help kickstart the process
i just make the fermenting liquid myself and spray it on the kitchen waste instead of using the bran. It's lasted over a year. Dig around youtube and you can find out how...rice....water....milk
@@tinawong7825 That's LAB. Lacto Bacillus. Good bacteria starter for microbes. Not quite as fast as bokashi for breaking down organic waste, but has other uses that bokashi doesn't.
Hello sir, can i use your video for my bokashi composting project ? Your video is really easy to understand and so informative. Looking forward for your reply !!
