Bokashi : Using biology on the Farm 

Thanks for the tip!

Have you published the video yet

Hi @Simo Boudarbala Honestly, none of these video would be possible without Denise's help, guidance and questions to keep us on point! Besides working the camera she is also film editor and chief sound engineer too!

I’m jealous here too !!! Seeing them and others on RU-vid work together as a team is so endearing to me, hopefully I’ll find a husband someday 🤷🏼‍♀️

Our pleasure! Thank you for watching.

Wow, that is so nice. We hope that they are helpful. Thank you so much for watching.

I am 63 and still learning too. Thank you for watching.

Yep @Kellen Chase plastic is in and on everything!

Plastic is everywhere was in Bolivia for vacation before this pandemic....Wow Plastic water bottles washing up on the beaches just sad sad sad...

Our pleasure! Hope it is helpful. Thanks for watching.

We find the 2 bucket system didn't have any insect problems. When we dump the leachate we give the collection bucket a spray of LAB to help control odor.

Yes they are! Our neighbors had goats cleanup a huge field of blackberries. Amazing!

Our pleasure. As a former school teacher, I am always trying to anticipate any questions that might come up. Thank you for watching and your comment.

Glad it was helpful! @Ilona Blaut

Thank you so much for watching. Happy to hear that our videos are helpful.

Hmmm @Kellen Chase regarding poultry bones I do run them trhough the bokashi system, same as all the other bones. However, after composting through the second phase I use pork and beef bones to char and make water soluble Calcium Phosphate and then discard the spent crushed charred bones to the garden like bio char. the poultry bones when I have enough I bury their remains like by rose plants under the mulch.

Thanks for watching! We cultivate the LAB using rice wash water and whole milk. We did videos on this just look under our KNF playlist.

Thanks for the reply! I found it and have already made my own! :)

No you don't need to use half the solution. The sugar used in super saturation doesn't displace the lab bacterias but simply binds with the water. So the amount of lab in a teaspoon of unsaturated is essentially the same as the super saturated.

@@BareMtnFarm Awesome, thanks for the quick reply. Happy friday 😁

I guess the LAB made with milk is effective in generating a microbe dense whey solution that can be stored that has a low salinity level. The milk version has a higher lactose sugar content hence food source that allows the LAB to grow rapidly and out compete other spoilage bacteria. The Sauerkraut process is using LAB but it also contains a high salt level in the process. The salt is used to counter act other bacteria that are pathogenic but not as salt tolerant like LAB. However, using it should give the same pickling results in bokashi. I guess my concern would be eventual salt levels, however diluting the juice 1:30 with water probably solves this for the most part. Guess I'd try it out and see if its as effective alone. Interesting experiment! Thanks so much for the comment.

Our food waste is fairly low on sodium and is diluted with the other liquids from fruits veggies etc. that are in the system.

I do agree that a container with a tap does can work great. I have seen Bokashi bins for sale with that installed and they look great. I tried to install one on the Homer Buckets and found the gasket needed to seal plus the spigot was cumbersome for me to use and I kept damaging the buckets when moving them around. That's just me being clumsy I guess. Due to space constraints and since I have multiple buckets running simultaneously that I stack on top of each other I decided to stick with the no spigot method.

Hi @Silke Baumhauer we haven't tried the biochar in the bucket but it sounds interesting. we have experimented in using semi decomposed wood chips as a moisture absorbing method and it works well too. Since we use purely our own LAB and not any EM The pickling process in the bucket is predominantly Lacto fermentation. The dominant microbe will be LAB so I'm not sure what affect this may have of putting the sulfate compounds into solution such that the ions are absorbable by the biochar. Very curious...have you had any experience with this? On John Kemp we are fascinated by his approach although for small scale growers such as us Plant Sap analysis for us is pretty expensive. Love his podcast!

I’ve heard that having a jar/bucket of water from the tap that is left 24 hours to “off gas” it’s fine. In other words leave your water in a bucket for 24 hours to air out

Newspapers switched to soy based ink over a decade ago. It's all good.

We found that the liquid diluted in a spray bottle worked just as well. So we basically eliminated this interim step since we make our own LAB from scratch as needed.

Bare Mtn Farm that great but seeing that lab is alive and needs air, when u placed in spray bottle, there is no means for air. How do I explain that part, I was thinking of doing same but placing a 1/8 hole upper where handle is and to spray placing thumb on top.. however if this is not needed please advise thanks

@@brothersofjesus My guess is that when you store the solution in the fridge, it slows them down and maybe cause them to require less or no oxygen... just my guess, I don't really know :)

Rainwater or ground well water works well. However, the chlorine and amines in city water can be neutralized by allowing the water to sit in a protect place open to the air for 1-2 days or until you don't smell it anymore. Same tip to use when making the rice wash mix to make LAB. Using chlorinated water out of the tap will kill the microrganisms.

Yes you can put ferment Bokashi in the compost tumbler as long as there are other regular compost materials to mix well with it. Then just use your regular process for making compost. I would think you'd not want to go over 40% bokashi in any batch, first because of the acidity and second in most cases the Bokashi will act as a green.

Adding carbon in the bin is a good idea whenever you think the material is way too wet. Take for example adding something like applesauce it would benefit well to add say shredded cardboard or the case you said rice husks. The other thing is that you want to be certain that you add more than enough LAB or (EM if you're using that method ) to inoculate the material well. There are some Folks who have had success in a one bucket system by adding to the bottom of their bucket enough shredded carbon materials to absorb leachate liquid. I think some folks think that carbon doesn't belong in a bokashi bucket but adding enough to balance excess liquid is fine.

Hi @Jo Cox The process of making LAB room stable for several months is called super saturation. We use brown sugar instead of molasses. Molasses contains a fair fraction of water and will not drive the LAB into hibernation. The reason sugar is the most effective is that the sugar molecule has a stronger affinity to the water molecules than the LAB bacteria. In essence as we add sugar to the mix to the point where the solution will not dissolve anymore sugar the sugar is now out competing the bacteria for water. The Bacteria reacts the same as if in nature when its environment becomes extremely dry like in summer with no rain. Under extreme dry conditions the bacteria encapsulate themselves, slow their metabolism way down and in a sense hibernate until water becomes available again. Using molasses you can never get to this supersaturated condition. That being said the plain LAB in the fridge has lasted me 6 months. I usually use it all before then anyway😀

Hi @Camp Davidson The Bokashi leachate is highly acidic, talking pH in the 4 range so it needs to be dilutes at minimum to 1:100 with water. The leachate contains a fair dose of LAB and depending on how long the leachate has been at ambient temps in may have begun to grow other anaerobic bacteria as well. It does have a fertility value when highly diluted and applied as a soil drench but I'm not sure it would add much benefit to the biology in your AACT brew. I have to say it might be worth an experiment but be careful on how much you add try to keep the ratio in that 1:100 zone maybe.

Ok then maybe !'ll just add to the leaf pile out back. Thanks for getting back. I also added some of the lab to bran grain, It's in a bag with no air and some molasses. When I dry that out in a few weeks I can save it in another bucket and it will last for weeks still alive? I have the rest of the lab in the fridge.

Hi @Carolyn Qammaz PA. Yes, LAB is excellent for controlling odors. Try at a dilution of 1:500 if things are really bad try 1:300. Try every 5-7 days.

The gap between the holes and the bottom bucket is pretty air tight.

If you're referring to the original LAB serum that comes from the whey in your original process of making LAB. That is okay in small amounts for animal consumption. But like anything you want to try to avoid getting anything like that in your eyes. It's like the same thing as saying well vinegar won't kill you but you definitely don't want to get it in your eyes. You can give LAB in the water for livestock or a dog or a cat at a dilution rate of about 1 to 300. And you can consume that yourself probably not more than a liter of it in a day diluted but I'm not going to give you any advice on that I'm not a medical person and of course everything always depends on your own personal situation and health. So before consuming anything like that for yourself you would definitely need to take that into account. But when you're making LAB the curds or cheese is also edible. Now once you use the LAB in bokashi the leachate at the bottom of the bokashi bucket contains more than LAB and it should not be consumed or let animals consume it. This leachate contains minerals half digested proteins, some LAB, as well as other bacteria that may have grown in the leachate after it's drained to the bottom of the pail. I use the leachate in my aerobic compost piles straight it tends to quickly be consumed by the aerobic bacterias, fungi, and other life. As always when you're making these things like bokashi or LAB you have to be as careful as possible not to get the stuff in your eyes and to use it in such a way that it doesn't cause any problems

Typically traditional Bokashi Bran is made with EM1 fermented wheat bran. The bran is dried and is used the same as an LAB spray that is enough evenly to act as an inoculation. LAB is primarily Lactobacillus bacterium with a minor amount of yeasts. EM! contains specific strains of Lactobacillus, yeasts, and photosynthetic bacteria . However in a Bokashi bucket the Lactobacillus in the anaerobic environment quickly become dominant and primarily are what ferments the food wastes. So using a cheap homemade LAB solution accomplishes the same thing as the Bokashi Bran.

@@BareMtnFarm So one could use LAB to ferment the wheat bran instead of EM1? To make "Bokashi Bran"?

Thank you for your question. It is 15 ml per tablespoon. Thanks for watching.

@@BareMtnFarm thanks for answering,, can we use lactic acid by mixing it only with water to make the spray for bokashi, i mean without mixing it with molasses?

Hi @Chris Zinck The brown sugar is used to supersaturate an LAB serum to be able to store the LAB at room temperature. If you store your LAB in the refrigerator it will keep fine for 3-5 months no problem and you don't have to use sugar to supersaturate it.

You were also sprinkling some BSugar onto food scraps in your bokashi bucket…….as well as spritzing with the super saturated lab? I was just wondering if that extra sprinkle of brown sugar was necessary? I really like the idea of just spraying the lab onto food scraps rather than making the bokashi out of wheat bran ( finding a place to dry it is always a challenge)

@@hobin1433 Right! The brown sugar was totally optional because I had a fair amount of paper towels in the scraps that were going into the Bokashi Bucket. I just did that to give the LAB a little extra food to juice it so to speak. So no if your scraps are really low in cellulose like the towels totally not necessary. Thanks!

Thank you for your time

Hi @A Nother There are quite a few studies that have been conducted over the last several years regarding Bokashi leachate and the compost itself. Although the leachate is quite acidic (in my own measurements I have seen Ph of 3.5-4) it also contains some LAB and some alcohols but also quite a abit of enzymes/metabolites, nitrogen and minerals like K, Fe, Mn that plants can use. However like anything what is exactly in your leachate will depend upon what you put into the fermentation bucket. Here is a sample link to a study done on the effects on growing corn/maize using food waste bokashi leachate: www.google.com/search?q=bokashi+leachate+used+as+plant+food+academic+journal&client=firefox-b-1-d&channel=tus5&sxsrf=AOaemvKCbbnDgB_7uhS8BRGwD8EcOC7rjQ%3A1637474462290&ei=nuCZYe-fEaHA7gL40rT4Bg&ved=0ahUKEwjv5pzd46j0AhUhoFsKHXgpDW8Q4dUDCA0&uact=5&oq=bokashi+leachate+used+as+plant+food+academic+journal&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6BwgAEEcQsAM6BAghEApKBAhBGABQ3wZYyUpg0l9oAXACeACAAeECiAHAIZIBCDIuMjAuNC4xmAEAoAEByAEIwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz Apologize for the URL length and it is a PDF. This was published in the : Politeknik & Kolej Komuniti Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2019 The result of this study showed a substantial positive difference in better plant height, stem thickness, # of leaves and leaf length then a control of no fertilizer. The leachate in this study that had the best results was applied at a 1:30 rate approx. Although you can find other studies showing in some cases negative impacts and some with no statistical differences at all. My personal experience in using food waste leachate at a 1:100 dilution on a 10 day rotation during the summer growing seasons in 2020 and 2021 on perennial plants such as boxwood and hybrid roses has been positive with stronger growth. I think the key here is what you put in the bokashi bucket and the right dilution rate and this may differ depending on the plants. Hope this helps.

@Sislertx The key here is that the materials are in essence pickled in a low oxygen environment with cheaply made LAB. Many folks try and sell you a system, fancy buckets with drains plus inoculated grains with EM1 or whatever. Fact is it is cheap and easy to do this at home. You can do several things with the Bokashi once it has fermented. 1). put it in an active compost pile and let nature take its course, 2.) Make an easy aerobic digester out of an old rubber maid tote, mix the ferment with lots of carbon 60% of the bin (cardboard , egg cartons, wood chips, dry leaves etc all work) let it sit for two weeks, no turning, then either feed it to your worms or put it in your garden. 3.) Dig a hole in your garden such that the materials are covered when dumped into the hole by 6-8 inches of top soil. Water it well & give it 2-3 weeks before planting over the spot to allow the acidity to dissipate and the soil biology to consume it. By the way the leachate always diluted 1:100 is an excellent low yield fertilizer for perennials such as roses