Bokashi Bran Recipe - DIY with Rice Water 

100%. Thank you for your simple, clear instructions!

I agree!

I also agree, THANK YOU!

I have some fermented honey. Could I use this instead of the molasses?

Exactly! Very nice to learn about bokashi this way. Thanks!

Thanks so much Jesse

I totally agree!

Hope you can see this after a year. I have some old cultured buttermilk in the fridge… don’t know whether I can use that?

Thanks Jorge. Other viewers have asked this question, so I'm glad you were able to answer.

What about if I use a half of oats and a half of bran?

@@laurecastro4973 that what i was thinking ! I’m trying to figure out if this is actually cost effective and worth it ! I’m gonna do some indoor gardening and some outdoors , but bran is expensive and i don’t know if it will be worth it

@@daciasdiy1861 I've heard someone say she have been successful inoculate sawdust. So i suppose most organic materials with the right consistency will work.

@@SebastianFerenczy good to know. I mean if they can use newspaper , then i guess so! Thanks

Thanks Rosa

Thanks you so much

@@howardatunga6475 much welcome.

My pleasure Lily. Thanks for watching

Happy you found it helpful.

My pleasure

I'm interested to know how much liquid activator you used per amount of wood pellets. Are we talking soaking them to the point of saturation? I'd love to use pellets (which I use to heat my home), rather than track down a source of bulk bran. Thanks

@@Saileahgaz I guestimate all of my quantities and amounts so I don't have a definitive number to give you. I have a small, 1.5 gallon bucket I fill about 1/3 the way with wood pellets then add the amount of LAB I think will make it useful. The wood pellets will absorb any moisture quickly so I keep adding LAB until I get the right consistency, which is saturated but not dripping wet. If you squeeze it and a little moisture comes out is perfect. The wood pellets will not break up nicely, though, so I usually mix it up more with a drill and small paint stirrer. I then seal the bucket to make sure it does not dry out. Any excess LAB is either stored or put in spray bottles and spritzed on the bokashi if I think the wood pellet mix is too dry.

@@ckmbyrnes That's great information. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Hey, I found your reply intriguing but need to ask you some questions please? What are you diluting 50/50? The rice water and milk? Are the only ingredients you use rice, water and milk? No bran, no molasses? And then, when you use it, where do you keep your compost that you want to ferment? Does it have to be dark and/or cool? Can it receive sunlight, will heat speed up the process or not?

Hey, I wondered about this I just wrote a comment above, {or below). ---3. Could you not just take the inoculant + sweetener and pour it directly onto your veggie scraps? You could freeze the rest in ice cubes, thaw, add as much sweetener as needed, and pour directly on food scraps? You could probably use some "juice" or inoculated veggies to start your next batch. I'll experiment soon and I will let you know the results. In the meantime, if you or anyone knows the answers, I would really appreciate hearing from you!---So, thanks for confirming my suspicion.

@@passerby6168 I believe this is what he means: He follows the procedure rice + water, then into milk, water, molasses. Basically, follow the instructions in the video to end up with your liquid. Put your liquid in a bottle in the fridge. Make some holes in the lid of the bottle. When you want to use it, he is suggesting you take a quantity out of the fridge, dilute it with the same quantity of water (and I would say a pinch of sugar), and spray it on your veggie scraps. 1. Take 2 buckets. Make some holes in one bucket and place it inside the other bucket. (The outside bucket is there to catch drippings.) 2. Put your veggies in the inside bucket. 3. Take 1/4 cup of the liquid out of the bottle you placed in the fridge and mix it with 1/4 cup water. If you use tap water, put it in a cup and allow to stay uncovered overnight so that any chlorine in it may evaporate. The chlorine may kill the the beneficial bacteria. Put a pinch of sugar in it (sugar probably not necessary, but it may help). 4. Drizzle or spray the liquid on your veggie scraps which you placed in the inside bucket. Push your veggies down. Cover with a tight lid. Notes 1. The lactobacillus which you created using the rice water + milk + molasses or sugar + water solution likes to live between 68-72 degrees F. just like most of us. Think of it as a pet in terms of temperature. 2. Unlike a pet, it does not like oxygen. It functions by anaerobic respiration. That is one reason you pack down your veggies in the bucket. Also, that is why you put on a tight lid. (There are other bacteria that need oxygen to survive, and yet others that can survive with and without oxygen, but let's forget about those for now.) 3. I am not sure about dark or light requirements. Probably dark. ............ Having said all of the above: It appears that what you are after is lactobacilli. They also exist in white yogurt with live cultures, (no fruit). So, then the question becomes, "why not just use some yogurt and/or yogurt whey. The consensus in the comments seems to be you can forego the above process and just use yogurt. There are also other sources of the above bacterium such as fermented veggies. Kombucha also contains the bacterium as well as yeast. A few dry leaves and a bit of native soil might contain yeast. Sprinkle a little bit on your veggies. In any case, I hope I didn't confuse you. I probably made mistakes. I am sure somebody will correct me if I did. Oh, lactobacillus is a type of bacterium. I should add: What if you had no yogurt? The you would have to start from scratch and this video describes one way of doing it from scratch. Many thanks to the creator of this video!

@@GreekVegetarianRecip Thank you for taking the trouble to write your very useful comment. Really appreciate it.

Half a gallon of milk? I was told to use 1

did the spent grain from beer making work?

​@@dilaur2983 I think I would say hard to verify how effective the end product was. Took some effort to get moisture levels to a good place and ended up with some other molds being cultivated on it.. so I would say no, but perhaps other people have developed a better system.

You bet. My pleasure.

I think it should work okay - not sure I'd bother with sterilizing.

I've heard about a year (and that's the batch size I make) - but if it's stored dry and cool, it may be okay a lot longer.

Just wondering how this worked out? I saw someone else used sawdust...so I’m thinking the pellets would be brilliant!

I haven't done any of that myself. My only caution would be that a clear bag in a sunny spot could pick up a fair amount of heat. Lactobacillus grows well up to 40 C, but much past that, and you run a risk of damaging their growth. I wonder if it makes more sense to culture the yeast and psb separately and add them to the mix shortly before drying. I know that they're present in far lower concentrations in the EM type starters.

Using the sediment should be ok, the sour smell is normal as the milk coagulates during the fermentation. You should still be able to us the liquid from that process.

@@tyrexpolie yes !! It worked !! Be using it all summer with great results with various applications. Really glad I kept trying:) Cheers

Hi Joe. To keep the air out. The lactobacillus grows best without too much oxygen

Thanks anajinn. No, I haven't tried anything out with spent grains - but so long as they're fairly stable (won't rot in storage) they should be a decent substrate instead of bran.

Hi Daniel. Just a small handful. Probably the equivalent of 2 tablespoons (30ml)

I can't really comment too much on its other supposed uses: there were some experiments done with agricultural use of EM as a growth stimulant, biopesticide, etc. but the results were never consistent enough to support widespread use. I think the general principle of inoculating a soil or potting mix with known "good guys" to in theory squeeze out the bad plant pathogens is valid enough, and I've seen evidence of the benefits when soil producers add bacteria like Bacillus subtilis to their mix. The EM (or EM1, or whatever the proprietary brand is) just doesn't have enough convincing evidence that I've seen.

@@FraserValleyRoseFarm that’s my concern too. I’ve seen many reviews and they all sounds vague and not convincing enough, but some people did have positive effect by using it. It seems like an ‘all purpose but no purpose’ kind of product. So I’m confused and like to know your professional insight. Thank you again, Jason!

Simple mathematics helped me create 600lbs. Thanks for for very informative video

I think it should be no problem - it's lactic acid bacteria you're after, and I think that's what you'll have from cheese making

What amount of brown sugar would you use for 10lbs of substrate? What you're speaking of is osmotic pressure. I'm not totally sure if brown sugar is recommended over molasses tho, the few bokashi I have seen have all been made with molasses. Could you link me to a write up or recipe please?

Yes, rice bran would be fine

Also, for step 4, does it need direct sunlight or being air dried is enough?

Hi Freedom Fighter - I got it from the local feed store

Thanks Fernando - for that step, it's room temperature.