bOKASHI!

[SilverSurfer_OG]

I want to buy some wheat bran and make me a batch of bokashi as it looks like fun and quite easy. It will also turbo charge my worm castings too.

I have read the recipes and watched a you tube vid and they both require EM1 which is bottled. Can i be a cheapskate and just use a nice compost tea in place of the EM1?

 

[spiral]

oh yeah Bokashi! Gonna whip up a batch of this too, the rice bran kind for the compost pile.
Also I'm gonna try the cheap method, but instead of compost tea gonna try the homemade Lacto Bacillus. Thats pretty much what EM is anyway minus the couple other strains of bacteria. The homemade LB is great at fermenting stuff. Check it out I think its on the first or second page of the OFC.

 

[jaykush]

or go to the lacto bacillus thread, much better instructions and info.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=96325&highlight=lacto+bacillus

 

[alaikiek]

I have always broken down and bought the EM. It really isn't that expensive when you looks at it will last you 2 years of making extended EM. At $20 a liter that will last 2 years, I extend 2 liters of EM each month, and have a continous supply, each liter I make and extend costs less than 50 cents. I use it for everything from my girls to my vegis and DW roses and herbs, give it away to friends, pour old bottles in my compost. The only thing I haven't done is make bokashi because I can't get cheap meal here. After it is extended and fermented you use it at the same strength as the bottled EM, I mostly use 1TBS per gallon for everything.
I would have to say EM is one of the better organic products I tried in my gardens, actually lives up to its claims IMHO

Peace,
Ala

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yeah cool thanx for the info.

I have a nice fresh batch of Lacto B i made last week. Think i can find some wheat bran locally and then i will give it a go.

 

[confused]

I researched bokashi on youtube :smile: after I read this thread. Just picked up a 50 lb bag of wheat bran to try it out.

Do people really feed it to their livestock?

 

[alaikiek]

I researched bokashi on youtube :smile: after I read this thread. Just picked up a 50 lb bag of wheat bran to try it out.

Do people really feed it to their livestock?

Yes, they do feed it to their livestock, I believe at a rate of 5% of their food. There are even people who drink the EM on a daily basis for the natural probiotics and good gut bacteria. I personally haven't made bokashi because I can't find a cheap source of meal. But it does get sprayed on everything. Every week I mix up 1 TBS extended EM in a gallon of water and spray down the chicken coop and it gets in their food and water they eat with never a problem. I even spray it on the chickens and they just preen their feathers like nothing.

Peace,
Ala

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yah i watched the youtube vid with the podchef guy. Easy as pie

Got myself a nice 25kg bag of wheatbran sold as horse feed. $33.

I have ordered some of the ceramic powder needed from NZ and once that gets here try mixing a batch using LactoB and maybe some mollasses tea?

I shall experiment and see what happens.

 

[confused]

I made my first batch yesterday. I will let you know how it turned out in two or so weeks.


I warmed up the water at the ratio and just used grandma's molassess and em1. Then mixed it in with the bran and set it away covered. I hope it is really as easy as it seems.

 

[confused]

I dried out my first batch of bokashi today and would like to say that it was very easy to make. I didn't take any measurment precautions or sterilization. Just threw everything together and covered it for two and a half weeks.

Don't go paying like $20/gal when you can make an almost infinite amount for $20 (just need to keep buying the wheat bran).

I am going to make up some outdoor plots with blood/bone and toss some bokashi on it and let it sit for a few weeks.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Hey i made my first batch last week and now have it sitting in a warm spot.

I used some fresh mollasses/worm casting tea and Lacto B.

When i checked a day later it was already smelling quite fusty and well on its way...

Hey confused! When you say infinite amount whatcha mean? Using some as a mother culture?? Cheers!!!

 

[confused]

I was also a little vague in my last post - I was refering to $20 for a gallon bag of dried bokashi. I feel like I made like 15 gallon bags for $35 total, and that is only because my EM1 cost $26. I haven't researched too much into how they make the mother culture, but I was refering to extending the EM1 over and over and over and over and over.

Some info is here...

http://eminfo.vmicrobial.info/getstarted1.html#Extension

When I made the bokashi - I didn't add salt, or the ceramic powder... Just wheat bran and some EM1 (didn't extend it, just used from the bottle). I dried it out and spread it all over my pig pen to try and get the smell down. I am making up some homemade bokashi buckets today if the rain holds off.

It will be fun to see this stuff work.

 

[spiral]

Yeah just finished a batch made with rice bran/molasses/lacto b. I just mixed it up, not getting it to wet, threw it in a garbage bag wrapped it up real good and let it sit for 2 weeks. Has that lovely sweet and sour smell.

Check out this link seems pretty interestingwww.bokashicomposting.com

Seems easy enough. I'm makin a bucket today.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

I mix one batch using rice bran (pretty damn cheap! LOL) and I recently finished another batch using rice hulls. They're used by the micro-brew companies at some point in the process to filter the batch before it goes into some other tank. I don't know the process but given the large number of micro-breweries in the Pacific Northwest they're easily available and cheap.

I've experimenting using both in the soil as well as for 'bokashi composting' and it appears that the bokashi rice hulls do not release their fermented microbes for that usage as well or as quickly as using the traditional rice or wheat bran.

As far as using in the soil I can't see any difference which didn't surprise me all that much, i.e. it was about what I expected.

BTW - using the EM-1 product to make your own 'Activated EM-1' is about as simple as it gets. My best advice is to buy bottled spring water that they sell by the gallon at the supermarket unless you're on a well. This has to do with both the concerns with chlorine as well as chloramine usually found in municipal water.

I made small batches with the EM-1 that I made from the original bottle and saw absolutely no difference in its effectiveness.

For what it adds to your plant's health and overall growth, this stuff is CHEAP!

HTH

 

[Clackamas Coot]

An interesting article on a commercial bokashi process from India.

 

[confused]

I'll be honest and say I sort of gave up on my bokashi compost. I did a few bucket fulls and then ended up spreading it all out/ feeding it to some livestock. I used the em1 all around the house and still have enough wheat bran and em1 for one more go at it.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

High peeps!

Well my bokashi has gone all moldy in quite large patches... sucks!!

I have left it for quite a while and maybe too long? Anyhoos gonna try and salvage what i can and chuck the rest on the compost heap.

What went wrong with urs confused?

 

[confused]

Nothing went wrong beside a bit of laziness. I fermented it right; dried it out; started a bokashi bucked. I made a few buckets of bokashi compost and then just spread the rest of the dried bokashi around the garden and yard. I'm pretty sure I'm going to give it one more honest shot.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

If you have mold when making the 'bokashi bran' it indicates that air got to the mix during the fermentation process. White fungus is perfect and in fact that's what you want to see. If the 'mold' is green or blue then it's spoiled.

If you're talking about mold in the bokashi bucket and it has a putrid smell vs. a vinegar aroma you need to add more bokashi bran.

Spreading bokashi bran around your garden as well as using it in your container plants is a very good thing to do. Also adding bokashi bran to worm bins and compost piles is another good usage. Most of the bokashi bran that I mix up is never used for bokashi composing but as a soil amendment and compost activator.

HTH

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yeah one box is covered in blue mold and this liquidy stuff. The other two just have a tiny bit of blue and some white fungi streaks going through... i tipped the blue one on my compost heap and it seemed pretty right underneath... the other two look ok and have that nice sweet and sour smell. They should be ok? Only one way to find out i guess... time to make my bokashi kitchen scrap box!!!

Peas!!!!