Post date: Jul 15, 2020 9:58:01 PM
Bokashi composting is an Asian technique that is very popular with Koreans who are master gardeners. It works with the idea that food can be fermented and made plant ready before being converted to soil ready compost.
The main advantage is you can compost anything - milk products, meat, cooked food - anything that has once lived. And you don’t need brown leaves. You just need some infused bran to pickle the kitchen waste.
The disadvantage is that it is a two step process. The pickle leaches and if you don’t collect the liquid it smells - some like it and some hate it. The second step requires mixing the pickle with soil and can be offensive to sight, smell and touch. Critters can get the pickle if you don’t secure it.
Here is the process:
Make Bokashi bran with crushed dry leaves. Or any brown matter. Easy process with LAB. Look up YT for many helpful videos. You can also buy it.
Take a 5 gallon plastic bucket. Then make a drainage hole and fit a tap at the bottom. Place a perforated lid or a layer of sticks at the bottom to ensure tap is not blocked. Leachete must flow out. If your compost gets too moist it will spoil.
Add daily kitchen waste and bran and make sure there is no air. Use another bucket or anything flat to push it all in. Air will make your pickle smelly. You must have no air gaps in the pickle. Remember the bucket is in your kitchen. Below the sink. Leave it outdoors, critters will drill a hole to get the food.
The leachate must be collected and can used on plants. Dilute 200 times. If you don’t collect leachete every other day your kitchen will be infused with the pickle smells.
Once filled, cover with a layer of Bokashi bran and set aside for 10 days in the garage.
Then collect 3 buckets of garden soil. On a large tarpaulin sheet, put the soil and the pickle. The pickle will be softened kitchen waste its colors in tact. Gross to look at. Wear a mask and tell yourself you are doing a good thing. Mix and fill five buckets (pressed pickle will be more volume) cover to allow air (brown cardboard and wire mesh) and set aside for 21 days.
Wonderfully crumbly compost that is super nutritious will be done.
Most important : Protect from critters at all times. I gave up because the critters beat me to the game. Every time.