Comments on: Vermicomposting vs Bokashi

By: Yeti

Yeti — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 16:47:15 +0000

Oh and by the way, my hopes are that with this formulation of sorts I can quickly blend a fermented bucket, establish a curing time for the bokashi to inoculate the bedding materials aerobically and for the minerals to bring the pH up a little(~1wk), fill worm factory trays and forget it. The worms will get to it when they are ready. My thoughts are that they will process it much more quickly than they would conventional kitchen scraps.

By: Yeti

Yeti — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 16:34:56 +0000

Hey all,
I know this article is long dead but I’ve been surfing these very questions for some time. I have been using bokashi composting and just filled my second bucket, the first finishing now, and am excited to find a good way to mingle this system with the worm factory.

I believe that the white fungi are plenty good for decomposition and exist in parallel with worms in almost any sort of compost bin. They are very common in animal manure/straw mixtures. Surprisingly I used the juice every few days from the 3wk fermented bucket on a fresh built 4x4x4 compost pile of my garden waste and have never seen so much of this white fungi so immediately, and have also never seen a pile diminish so quickly. It was dropping inches every day in height. Generally I see inches/week on these sized piles.

My plan with the full bokashi bucket is to add an equal part to twice as much of a mixture of paper scraps/egg cartons/peat moss/coco coir/leaf duff/leaves/whatever I have around. I will also add my mixture of minerals that I add to my soil amendments, including basalt, bentonite, oyster shell powder, and glacial rock dust. To this mixture I will be experimenting with the quantity needed of oyster shell powder to balance the pH as I have read a fully pickled bucket will generally gives pH readings as low as 3.0, which is probably quite a bit lower than any worms would prefer.

Hope this helps and if anyone still cares, feel free to respond.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 23:06:46 +0000

I’m just now getting into bokashi. It’s very interesting and I’m curious if the meats and things will break down enough to throw into my worm bins. I’ll be doing a Bently-type experiment with one bin to see how they react when I throw bokashi with all foods in it. I’m really curious about meats, dairy, and oily foods, but also salty foods. If any experts know this information, please chime in.

Thanks,

Adam

By: Graham

Graham — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:51:05 +0000

HI Holly in Detroit and Composy Guy
Sorry for the delay in answering but I have Been away. The bin I added the Bokashi to was fairly new. There were food scraps in direct
contact with the Bokashi so I guess it just did the natural thing.
Since the removal of the fungi etc. the bin is thriving. I have a mixture
of shredded leaves, paper and cardboard (this I wet down with left
over tea) and worms of course. The bin is housed in my heated
garage. In regard to the Bokashi juice, I have some in a plastic
container in the fridge, after 1 week there is no sign fo any
fungi growth. Good luck with the worm wigwam Holly.
TNX FOR THE HELP

By: Holly in Detroit

Holly in Detroit — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:58:06 +0000

Graham, I didn’t have excessive fungal growth- a little, but nothing I was concerned about. CG was right, I only put a little in, and as well, I buried the waste rather deep under the surface and under a lot of damp top-bedding. I’m new to bokashi, so I proceeded with caution.

A few questions–
How is the overall health of your biosphere?
Do you have a lot of other critters in there?
If the bin is new, did you innoculate the bin with finished compost or garden soil?
Is the bin indoors or out?
Is the bin well-established- at least a year old or more?
Did the bin already have a lot of finished castings in it?

A well-established bin can handle almost anything is small amounts. it’s harder for a young bin to adjust to new methods or additions, especially if it’s a lot of “new” of anything at once. I don’t think I’d put a lot, or any, of bokashi’d waste in a young bin.

—
On my end, I’ve stopped feeding anything for now- I’ve recently upgraded to the Worm Wigwam (20 lbs of worms just to start the bin) and the bin needs to settle for at least a month or more. Scaling up my bokashi feeding in this giant bin should be really interesting, but I’m going to wait a while until it’s more stable in there.

By: Compost Guy

Compost Guy — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:08:04 +0000

Hi Graham,
I certainly don’t have Al’s bokashi expertise (hopefully he’ll see your comment), but let me offer my thoughts on the worm front. I’ve literally had mushrooms spring up in my outdoor worm bin, and plenty of other fungal growths along the way. Definitely don’t be afraid of fungi – don’t forget, composting worms actually feed on various fungi and other microbes.
That being said, excessive mycelial mats can be an indication of low pH conditions (unlike bacteria, fungi often thrive in acidic conditions) – which makes sense given the fact that bokashi is a fermentation (acid producing) process.
What I would personally do is add the bokashi in small amounts and see how the worms manage – but definitely don’t give up on the whole thing. You could be missing out on a serious worm delicacy!
😉

By: graham

graham — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:48:46 +0000

Hi Al
my worms are doing really great, lots of little guys showing up.
I have two buckets of Bokashi working. I tried putting some Bokashi on top of one of my worm bins and the whole top of the bin became quite firm and covered with white fungi. I didn’t wait to see what would happen, thinking of harm to the worms, so I cleaned off the whole top layer of the bin. There was no sign of worms in this area.
SORRY I HIT THE TAB KEY AND I THINK IT SENT MY COMMENT TO SOON.
As a result I’m a little hesitant to add the finished product from my bokashi bin to the worms because of the fungi.
In regard to the Bokashi bins. The juice from the bin is good to use on the plants etc. but if I leave this in a container in undiluted
form white fungi growth appears on top. This apparently is actomycetes which are natural antibiotics. This liquid is volatile and can turn pathogenic if kept for extended periods.
So my question is how can you keep the juice on tap to be used on the garden or for watering plants? Also I was told not to spray the juice on the plant foilage.

ANY COMMENTS APPRECIATED (ALSO FROM HOLY IN DETROIT)

By: Compost Guy

Compost Guy — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:21:05 +0000

Thanks for sharing, Holly.
I can’t wait to try this out myself!

Thanks also for the compliments! Hoping to develop the site a lot more in coming months!

By: Holly in Detroit

Holly in Detroit — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:00:23 +0000

Graham,

I have recently began using bokashi and vermicomposting in tandem (I’m new to bokashi, but have been vermicomposting for a couple of years). The worms definately eat the food waste much faster, and though I haven’t had the finished castings formally tested through a soil lab (yet)…, (insert completely unscientific observation HERE) the resulting castings- so far- look, feel, and smell better. Who knew worm castings could actually smell *better*, since castings already smell like heaven…

Oh yeah, and I seem to have a bit of a breeding rally going on- since I’ve been adding the bokashi, I have many more worm casings/ baby worms. My worm bin is makin’ babies like crazy.

Oh yeah– and Comopst guy, I really love your site.

By: Compost Guy

Compost Guy — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:02:31 +0000

Hi Graham,
I’ll definitely be trying this out myself once I have a finished bokashi bucket to use!

Thanks for sharing the link, JBB!