If you are like me and sick of the stink of the smelly scrap bucket, or of wrapping your scraps in paper and putting them in the bin just to attract flies and then cleaning up those pesky maggots that crawl out all over the place and make your stomach heave.
Then there is a better way, you can do yourself and the planet a favor and stop sending organic waste to landfills and rubbish tips where it feeds rodents and pests, creates methane and causes toxic leaching into under ground water systems. Get yourself a Bokashi bucket. or bokashi composter bin.
Not only is Bokashi good for the environment but it can also save you money, less paid out for rubbish removal and less money spent on fertilizer for your plants and garden, which will make you much more self-sufficient.
Bokashi is an anaerobic fermentation method using natural microorganisms, without air, without heat, good for retaining nutrients, unlike normal composting which controls pathogens and and microbes through heat, burning them off.
Bokashi uses a seeding of bran, molasses and microorganisms (dry crumbly additive – which you can make yourself when you are more familiar and have some starter) To start the fermentation process add at the start and a small amount evenly with scraps till the bucket is full. Keep the lid on tight to keep the air out during fermentation, this will also keep out other foreign yeasts from growing.
Bokashi Composter Advantages
Bokashi composting (while not true composting) is faster than traditional composting systems and makes beautiful rich soil, bury every 2-4 weeks when full or can be left for weeks at a time without a problem. Gets rid of the scraps that you can’t add directly to worm farm or traditional composting like citrus, onion rinds, dairy, meat, bones and fish left overs, as-well as all the other scraps including spent flowers and coffee grounds.
Bokashi has higher nitrogen levels than traditional composting because there is no heat involved in the fermentation process. Meat and protein is high in nitrogen and Bokashi is the best method of breaking down these scraps, and making the nutrients available to plants. If you have small a garden than 2 buckets are recommended to allow one to fully ferment (about 2 weeks) while you fill the second bucket with scraps.
To use the Bokashi method you must have or have access to a garden to bury the contents which can be dug up later, or add to a compost pile or compost tumbler, to spread where ever you want fertilizer when the process is complete.
If you don’t have a garden but have access to a roof top or large balcony you can still use Bokashi by burying the pickled remains in a large pot or container with dirt to complete the process, this can be dug up and distributed to your other pot plants later as fertilizer.
The Bokashi compost at the burying stage does not look all that different to when you put it in, still looks like scraps and leftovers except that now it is for want of a better word pickled and smells OK and different.
During the Bokashi making fluid will form, this should be drained off and is very beneficial for your plants diluted 1 / 100 add to dirt, potting mix etc near roots but not to leaves or stems as if could burn, it’s very strong stuff. So strong indeed that you can clean your drains with it and is a great pep-up and clean for a sluggish septic tank.
What I love about Bokashi is it does not attract pests or rodents so you can leave the bokashi bucket indoors in the kitchen, office staff room or maybe a few for the school canteen.