Comments on: Making Bokashi

By: Lee_in_Iowa

Lee_in_Iowa — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:42:38 +0000

Well, darn. Forgot I only used half the wheat bran in the first batch–only 6 pounds. Sorry to keep revising…. Got it now.

So, no need for the $20 “EM”s and no need for the fancy shmancy $70 bucket, either. No need for a spigot at the bottom. Just any old closeable container, and this wheat/pickle-y concoction.

By: Lee_in_Iowa

Lee_in_Iowa — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:21:56 +0000

I just made my first batch of bokashi with ALL around-the-house ingredients–NO expensive bottle of EMs. It came out just like it was supposed to, very pickle-y smelling and then with the white mold over the top. Here’s my recipe for “essential microbes” to mix with a quart of warm water and about a third a cup of molasses:

a couple tablespoons of yogurt,
a good-sized pinch of any soil inoculants you have around (for peas, beans, alfalfa),
a tiny smidgeon of sea salt,
about a teaspoon of mixed minerals (actually, some health food stuff I had for people),
a little of a fertilizer with “mycorhizoids” in it,
about four tablespoons from the very bottom of my Rubbermaid worm bins (for the most anaerobic bacteria in the house!).

Shake it well, leave it open overnight in a warm place, then put a lid on it for a week.

Shake it again to get everything well mixed, and start mixing it with about 12 pounds of wheat bran ($1.12 a pound at my nearby health food store; ASK; they are buying 50 pound bags and may be able to give you a better deal from what they have stashed in the “back” of the store.)

Once i had the bran well-wet-down, I covered it and waited. After about 2 days, I got hold of a good bucket and took some very pickle-y bran out and used it to start bokashi. That’s going very well, seems okay to use it earlier.

So, that’s what I know….. (My pix are over on Vermicomposters.com; come join us!)

By: Randy Wiser

Randy Wiser — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:19:14 +0000

Couple things. Food co-ops usually sell bulk amounts of most grains products, use google to find. I found that those 5 gal (sometimes larger) water “coolers” that one sees on construction sites makes a good airtight bokashi fermenter. Has a spiget in the bottom, tight fitting push on or screw on and its insolated. Much cheaper than any of the bokashi buckets I’ve seen and sometimes can be found at discount stores (found mine at Big Lots)

Randy