Bokashi for beginners: what is it, and what can it do for me?

Scrappy4 · Feb 14, 2011

Well alrighty then. I have completed my first batch of bakashi. I bought the bakashi bucket, filled it with layered bran and veggies. I took the mush out and fed a portion to my worm friends, and I talked my wife into seal bagging the rest for warmer weather composting. Now that she has had a wiff of it, that might not happen again. So I'm left with about 20oz of the juice. I know ML said he uses his in his drains, but I'm real wanting to see it in action. I read somewhere that you should dilute it at two oz per gallon of water. Has anyone used this juice on their plants? Results? Thanks......scrappy

olddirtybastard · Feb 14, 2011

i would start out at 1 tsp per gallon

Chong_Irie · Feb 14, 2011

Scappy- yup my significant other wanted none of it inside...so i got mine outside now.

I just dumped 5gallons of fermented bokashi into my soil bins that are "cooking" and the rest went into my backyard patch. We'll see how it went by mid-March.

Scrappy4 · Feb 14, 2011

Thanks guys, what I'm really looking for is someone who has used the juice on plants as a fertilizer. The rate I read was 2 oz per gallon of water.

The smell? Well I would say a super sour yeast infection would come close. Next time I mess with this I will wear gloves, my hands still smell after a shower and alcohol gel. At least my wife knows what it is, and what it isn't I guess. But ya my indoor bakashi days might be numbered.........scrappy

3rdEye · Feb 14, 2011

scrappy i'd wager that 2oz/gal is going to be a bit strong for plant application. Unless i'm wrong here the exudate/"juice" you are talking about is going to be very strong. Think of undiluted lacto b solutions.

I'd say take odb's advice and start there and work your way up. Just my thoughts on the matter

I'm thinking i'm going to make my own bokashi bucket. The bought one is working out nicely though for you right?

Scrappy4 · Feb 15, 2011

3rdEye said:
scrappy i'd wager that 2oz/gal is going to be a bit strong for plant application. Unless i'm wrong here the exudate/"juice" you are talking about is going to be very strong. Think of undiluted lacto b solutions.

I'd say take odb's advice and start there and work your way up. Just my thoughts on the matter

I'm thinking i'm going to make my own bokashi bucket. The bought one is working out nicely though for you right?

The rate question is why I'd like to hear from someone who has actually used this stuff. I've used both lacto b, and fpe, and this stuff is veggies and bacteria in a super fpe, so I have an idea.

The store bought bucket works well, but could easily be copied with two buckets one with small drain holes in another, or put a false bottom in one bucket with a drain spigot. Bought one for a x mas gift, so I added one for myself, and got some em1, to make my own inoculant.

ookii · Feb 23, 2011

Thanks for all the great info, everyone.

In response to why or when sea salts should be used, I found this info on the EM-1 company's website:

Use blackstrap molasses due to its high mineral content, which makes it good for activating EM•1®. But if you use other sugar sources such as white sugar, please add a mineral source such as a natural sea salt (0.05 - 0.1% of total volume).

Source:
http://www.emrojapan.com/about-em/em-products/activated-materials/howtomakeaem.html

Here's a post from the yahoo EM group by some guy who wrote a book on EM and SAEM:

In the past 48 hours, I have received four requests from folks who
brew SAEM or EM brews, asking me to clarify my latest and optimal
recommendations regarding use of sea salt or sea mineral concentrates
in brewing either of the above-mentioned EM liquid secondary products.

I have, over the years (and in various settings around the world)
tried many different types of sea salt and sea mineral concentrate
products for use as a mineral and trace element supplement in brewing
SAEM and EM brews. The best approach which I have found so far is to
use a combination of Sea-Crop sea mineral concentrate
(www.sea-crop.com) and a small amount of salt, preferably unrefined
sea salt; the purpose of the salt is to add a bit more sodium than
the sodium-reduced sea mineral concentrate offers. The optimal
amounts of Sea-Crop to use per gallon of SAEM or EM brew seems to
fall in the range of 0.5 ounce (15 ml) to 1.5 ounces (45 ml) per
gallon (about 4 liters). I tend to use the high end of for small
batches, and the lower end for larger batches, and, solely for
reasons of economy, I tend to use even less, on the order of 0.1 to
0.2 ounces per gallon, for very large batches in the 100 gallon to
5,000 gallon range. I still continue to use some salt as well, but
perhaps 1/2 of the amounts which I had recommended in the past and in
my brewing book, when salt alone was employed. And, for salt, while
commercial salt is acceptable, I prefer to use a good unrefined sea
salt, such as pink Himalayan sea salt or a Celtic gray sea salt.

Regarding the sea mineral concentrates, I have tried many over the
years, and I vastly prefer Sea-Crop over all the others which I have tried.

Chong_Irie · Feb 26, 2011

I can confirm that worms go apesh*t over bokashi. :dance013:

mad librettist · Feb 26, 2011

Bokashi for beginners: what is it, and what can it do for me?

Scrappy4 said:
The rate question is why I'd like to hear from someone who has actually used this stuff. I've used both lacto b, and fpe, and this stuff is veggies and bacteria in a super fpe, so I have an idea.

The store bought bucket works well, but could easily be copied with two buckets one with small drain holes in another, or put a false bottom in one bucket with a drain spigot. Bought one for a x mas gift, so I added one for myself, and got some em1, to make my own inoculant.

1:1000 is the rate for the leach or straight em-1.

mosstrooper · Feb 27, 2011

This is the most exciting reading i have had in a long long time. Its kind of microbe porn, thanks Librettist, and everyone else who has contributed. Im going to pimp some microbes now, im totally converted.

Corpsey · Feb 27, 2011

i have to agree this is a great read. Im buying my bokashi bucket this week!

mosstrooper · Feb 27, 2011

mad librettist said:
There is one group of food scraps, though, that you can't put in the bokashi bin: spoiled or rotten food.

Why is this? Is it due to unhelpful microbes already being present in large numbers?

The reason im interested is because i want to be able to rot down seaweed, but a lot of the seaweed i get is already quite smelly and in great rotting heaps. I definitely need to make a sack of the bran microbe medium to play with.

mad librettist · Feb 27, 2011

Bokashi for beginners: what is it, and what can it do for me?

mosstrooper said:
Why is this? Is it due to unhelpful microbes already being present in large numbers?

The reason im interested is because i want to be able to rot down seaweed, but a lot of the seaweed i get is already quite smelly and in great rotting heaps. I definitely need to make a sack of the bran microbe medium to play with.

in that case do an outdoor bokashi pile. that's super traditional. pile up your seaweed and inoculate it with EM. if you can mix in the bran that's nice. you can cover it and throw some old tires or something.

you usually avoid spoiled food because it will not be nice in your bucket.

anyway, seaweed breaks down fast as it is.

mosstrooper · Feb 27, 2011

Aye, seaweed does breakdown very quick, the only prob is it supports a huge population of flies and thus millions of maggots, i usually drag it home by the van full, and spread it out a bit, let all the wee birds eat their fill, they shit the maggots out on my garden anyway.

I really like the idea of making a compost from bokashi, seaweed and dry bracken.
In fact my imagination has been running riot with the possibilities.

I might have to buy a book on the topic.

mad librettist · Feb 28, 2011

read up on silage/ensiling, it's the same process.

or think of making kraut from seaweed, in a barrel maybe.

Clackamas Coot · Feb 28, 2011

Harry Arakaki

mosstrooper · Feb 28, 2011

I could see a whole new career here, but i suppose the million dollar question is:
Can you make your own EM? Or, more especially can you brew your own EM?

mad librettist · Feb 28, 2011

Bokashi for beginners: what is it, and what can it do for me?

mosstrooper said:
I could see a whole new career here, but i suppose the million dollar question is:
Can you make your own EM? Or, more especially can you brew your own EM?

you can't make your own EM, but you can replace it with homemade lactobacillus serum.

mosstrooper · Feb 28, 2011

mad librettist said:
you can't make your own EM, but you can replace it with homemade lactobacillus serum.

Thats good news then, i did a bit of grubbing about in google and found this article homemade root inoculate or EM/BAM(beneficial active microorganism) made with rice water, milk and sugar

This seems simple enough. It reminds me of making ginger beer when i was a kid, we used to grow what was called a "ginger beer plant" sometimes called an "Albert" that you split and use again and again to reinoculate your ginger sugar water mix.

Clackamas Coot · Feb 28, 2011

mosstrooper

Here's the process/method that Mad L. was referring to. Many can make a legitimate argument that this lacto serum is preferable to the commercial EM-1 products (and there are a slew of them).

I'd probably be in that group as well.

HTH

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