How To Bokashi Compost, Simplified. Cheap Composting Solution For Small Spaces & Cold Climates 

Who is ready to compost!? Free Printable - www.gardeningincanada.net/diy-bokashi-bran-compost-accelerator/ Bran Options: 1 Kg Bag Of Canadian Made Bran - geni.us/Qc5v Non-Amazon Option Sold By A Canadian Small Business - bit.ly/36ve40H For my American friends! geni.us/IeQbYF Bokashi Bucket Making: Pre-made Bokashi Buckets bit.ly/37y5YFc Five Gallon Bucket: geni.us/J8mSC Gamma Lid: geni.us/EuNjIjD Barrel Tap geni.us/r7uez5E Stepper Bit (to make the hole) geni.us/EuAbBa6

Just an FYI I learned from my daughters when they worked at Home Depot. The white buckets they have are food safe plastic. The orange buckets are not. I don't think that makes any difference at all for composting, but they made sure I got the white bucket to use when we set up a portable "tank" in our van for our fish when we moved.

Yes please share a video on how to make your own bokashi bran. Thank you Ashley!!!!

I use a double bucket system (top bucket has holes in the bottom and is nested in another bucket that the liquid drains into). I live in New Hampshire so I have 4 sets of buckets that I use from October - May and let them ferment the entire time and then bury them once the ground thaws. 3?s… 1) Is that okay for it to ferment for a few months? 2) Do I need to keep emptying the liquid or can I just leave it and use it in the compost pile when I bury the bokashi compost in May? 3) What is the recommended amount of bokashi grains that you sprinkle on top of each layer?

Ashley, could you please do a winter composting indoors comparison, now that you have done at least 3 (Bokashi, vermicompost, electric dehydrator/composter)? Especially how much time it takes you, and how you have used the end products? And what method you continue to use. Personally, I had pretty good success with Bokashi soil factory in my garage (Florida, so no freezing), 2 week aged Bokashi ferment layered with spent container soil, dried leaves and shredded "soft" cardboard, and every so often, a few scoops of native soil from a Conservation area. If the smell got beyond slightly funky, I would sprinkle a thin layer of Bokashi bran on top of smelly mess and cover with dry material and topsoil. I was getting dark looking compost around 2 months (especially at the bottom), that was fine for topdressing my outside plants. Unfortunately, I moved my soil factory outside, and Black Soldier Fly Larvae moved in....so lots of organic material breakdown, but little compost left (and though I have no problems feeding those guys with kitchen and garden scraps, just too squeamish to dig in there for the frass-enriched little bit of soil). Ups and downs of gardening. But I am wondering whether to go back to a smaller scale indoor soil factory with Bokashi for compost making, or do something else. So your thoughts would be appreciated.

Awesome video! Thanks for introducing me to this. Bokashi composting is definitely on the list of things to try this year. We’ve been doing traditional composting in the yard. Sort of on-topic… Have you heard of Recompose? It’s a new method of funeral/burial services (sort of) in Washington State. People can choose to be composted after death, and from everything I’ve seen, it’s quite beautiful. Ask A Mortician did a video about it a few months back, and it’s pretty interesting. Definitely worth checking out 🌱

First time hearing about Bokashi composting, thank you! 😊

I unfortunately just feel like I can’t compost because my dogs eat most of my scraps. And the small amount that’s left over wouldn’t be worth it. Plus I’m always scared cause I live in the Yukon. And ya know, bears 🐻 lol

I'm dying to hear more from you about this topic, especially the science behind it! Why are these anaerobic microbes ok for soils? Is it better for soils to have a variety of strains of Lactobacilus/fungi in the bran? Do you think trenching in, or soil factory+top dressing is better for soil and it's structure? I'm so convinced that this needs to be systematized so that city people can contribute back to their soils naturally. The food that goes to the landfill just rots, and produces methane because there is no microbes to decompose them :(

I am wondering if we can put everything into a mason jar for 2 weeks and then dump into soil....

What is the benefit of deliquifying the bucket? What will happen if liquid is not removed?

QUESTION: Do you have any finished compost to show us?

Bokashi fits my composting needs the best!

Do you worry about plastic leeching anytime I grow in old milk bottles or juice bottles people ask me about it?

Instead of installing a tap installed at the bottom could we just lift the top pail and dump out the liquid in the bottom pail every couple days? I have a fancy one with a lid but was thinking of making a double pail system for all my plant trimmings. I have an indoor garden that I trim so instead of throwing it out I can add it to the bucket :)

I bought a bottling spigot for mine and a bucket insert for painting to raise the compost out of the tea. I love the gamma seal lid but it is a pain to put the rim on, I eventually ran in under hot water and turned the whole thing over and sat on it! I looked into composting pet waste and it says to put it in your “ornamental” beds, so I’m going to assume they do not recommend putting it on food crops.

I love bokashi composting in my small backyard! I just take the finished compost from the bokashi bin and then pour it into my above ground subpod composter (helps minimize flies vs an open air compost bin). Like what you said, it helps accelerate the composting process and after about a month, the food waste pretty much just melts into the composting system. And I love that you called the gamma seal the cadillac of bokashi!! It really is! I bought buckets on Amazon specifically made for bokashi composting and they don't always seal completely, letting oxygen in. Save the money and just buy a basic 5 gallon bucket with a gamma seal as mentioned. Great video!

We've never had to drain our bokashi for some reason. Maybe the grain is really really dry or something, but we've never had liquid coming out. It's definitely fermented, it doesn't smell like rotting garbage unless we didn't throw enough grain in there. There's a company in the San Diego area that uses spent grain from beer production, which is where I source my bokashi grain. They started using a tight sealing disc in their kits that is designed for food preservation, so I might go to the source and try some. Garbage bag as oxygen isolation seems to work really well for us.

I've been told to place the food scraps in the bin, add the bokashi bran on top, then squash in down. Wouldn't it be better to mix the bran in the scraps, then squash it down ?.

I used to aerate my fermented comfrey tea before I realized the anaerobes will just die off in my oxygen rich? soil. A home made bokashi video from start to finish would be an interest to me. Tired of throwing out food scraps I do not feed the worms or put into a hot compost. Stay Well!!!

You are spending the time to innoculate your bokashi compost with lactobacillus, but then aren't you killing off the microbes if you stick it outdoors and allow it to freeze?!?! 🤔 Or do the microbes survive the cold weather?!?!

I like the plastic bin idea for winter! Will give this a try :)

We put our leftover thanks giving turkey in our bin last year, then put it in the compost. It was completely gone in the a few weeks!! I harvested thistle and made a bokashi, coffee ground stew. With 3 weeks the thistle was basically green slime, just added it to the compost pile 🤞🤞🤞 We grab 4 buckets from the back of a restaurant (we asked 1st) and drilled holes in 2 of them. The others collect the juices. Awesome video !! Cheers Jason and Colleen 🌱🌱🌱

Thank you so much for this video! Do you have a video where you show how to make the buckets with spigots? Or one that you recommend even if you weren't the one who filmed it? That would be very helpful to me. Thanks again!

Cheers for the info overload 😜😂 seriously them gamma lids are good stuff price not bad for Australia 👍

I think rabbit poo is ok. They’re vegetarian and make great compost. Just as good as manure. Dog or cat compost?? I wouldn’t!!

What is the difference between using cow/sheep/chicken "manure" (which I have used often in the past); fish "waste" from a fishtank when changing the water (which I have used often in the past); and adding pet "waste" to a compost (I have 2 dogs and haven't composted their poop)? Is that a mental hang up? I would love to hear the science behind it.

Hello I have been putting my food waste in a 5 gallon bucket for a long time. My question is what happens if you do not drain it? I basically fill the bucket to the rim which takes awhile then It goes to the garden.

When you say you have a 2 bin system do you mean just 2 bins or 4 bins with one bin slotting over another. The inside bin with holes in the bottom and the outside bin with the tap on it?

I am definitely interested in how to make my own bokashi bran.

Do you have any suggestions for doing the “soil factory “ indoors? I had very successful Bokashi batches and decided to try the soil factory method in 30 gallon bins in the basement and they have turned putrid. My basement temp is between 60 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit with a relative humidity at 50%. I don’t have a yard to garden in. Everything thing is in containers . Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you, I have been looking forward to a video on this a lot!

wait white fungus is good? i accidentally opened a bag of contaminated orchid bark that i found a dead lizzard in and squishy orchid bark with white mold

Great ideas going to try this! Have you read the book "Humanure" that vast majority of the world do not have flush toilets. They compost a lot of their waste for gardening.

Never heard of this one before

You spoke about food storage long term, and that oxygen is a product you don’t want, in the bucket. What I used to do, was go to the store and get a hunk of dry ice, then put it in the top of the bucket, and close the bucket tightly that drives all the oxygen out of a bucket, sealing it in an airtight, with no oxygen situation. Would that be something that you would want in doing this process?

Hey Ashley, im Costa Rica and i can make my own LABs, can I use my own labs serum straight from my strained rice water milk mixture?

I’m not sure I understand completely. The entire process is supposed to be anaerobic so if I have a bin or bucket in the kitchen for food waste can I add food scraps daily?

Where do you buy bokashi cuz I would like to try this thank you for this information. 👩‍🌾👍

Thanks. More demonstration would’ve been great but this is a start for me.

in one of you video you mentioned a tutorial site you used for learning how to shoot videos etc...

What is your opinion about bio had please?

Do you think the "pet waste" bran would work on human solid waste ? We use a composting toilet during deep Winter. Plan for that compost is for non-editable plants. I can't generate enough compost for all my needs even with gathering leaves from neighbors. Like you we have very few table scraps after feeding chickens.

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Thank you

I don't know if they are the same brand, but Home Deathspot sells those screw on lids and adapter rings too...