Bokashi Update – Feb 21, 2008
Just thought I would post a quick update today. My bucket is pretty well jammed to the top so I’ve added a healthy amount of bokashi over the top, sealed it back up and will now let it brew for a couple of weeks before testing it out as worm food. I’m going to be starting up a second bucket very soon as well.
So far I’ve been really impressed with this ‘composting’ method. Making the bokashi mix itself did take some time and effort, but the actual process of filling up my bucket has been unbelievably easy and convenient. Best of all I’ve been able to jam a LOT of material into my bucket without any resulting bad odours. If I was aging wastes in a bucket in preparation to feed my worms (something I often will do), I would definitely need to make sure I mixed in lots of absorbent cardboard in order to prevent bad smells from being generated. My worm composting itself never creates foul odours, but I can at times be limited in terms of the amount of waste I can add at one time (although not really an issue these days since I have multiple bins to feed) – this is never an issue with a bokashi bucket. As long as you have other buckets to use, and more dry bokashi mix you can add waste till the cows come home (and then you can add some manure while you’re at it – haha).
I had a funny experience with it yesterday. I walked into my work room (down in the basement) and could smell a strong smell of decaying waste. It wasn’t terrible, but it was quite obvious. I thought for sure that my bokashi bucket was starting to stink!
As it turned out, it was a bag of semi-aged food waste that I had put down there in preparation for adding it to the bucket! When I opened up the bucket to make sure, I was greeted by the usual sweet bokashi odour and nothing more.
8)
I’m pretty sure bokashi is going to remain an important part of my overall household waste management plan. But we’ll see what the worms have to say about that before I jump to any conclusions!
😉
[tags]bokashi, em, effective microorganisms, friendly microorganisms, bokashi bucket, compost, composting, worm composting, vermicomposting, waste management[/tags]
Written by Compost Guy on February 21st, 2008 with
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Tracy B
sophe
#1. February 22nd, 2008, at 10:45 AM.
The only time my Bokashi bucket has smelled nasty has been high summer and not enough Bokashi bran added (it costs money and I was being too frugal). Also, again during hot weather, if the bucket gets knocked (or kicked my young people swinging their legs in the kitchen) then you get the occasional silage type smell.
Both times another handful of Bokashi bran has sorted it and the only time you notice the smell is when you draw off the liquid – it is foul smelling stuff yet stops nasty odours in drains or makes your plants go mad if you water it down and use it as a liquid feed.