Bokashi Composting: One Of The Least Inexpensive Methods Of Composting

Another interesting method of composting is called bokashi. In fact, the transformation of your organic components into useful materials takes only approximately 10 days. In fact, Bokashi composting solves most kitchen compost problems.

What Is Bokashi Composting?

Bokashi composting is an anaerobic process that depends on inoculated grain to bring kitchen waste. It includes dairy and meat into a safe soil builder and nutrient-rich tea for your plants. At the same time, the nutrient value of the material is among the highest of any method of composting. Hence, most Bokashi sites state that a professor at the University of Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan, Dr. Teuro Higa, discovered the inoculant around 1982. 

Furthermore, bokashi composting is probably one of the least expensive composting systems around. It is pretty easy to handle if you have control of the microbes. Most issues with kitchen compost are resolved by bokashi composting, though it is not that perfect. The biggest mistake for many people is in the pit. That hole you need to dig to bury the waste for a specific process. It is good to learn that you transform your soil into more affluent and safer for your plants. At the same time, you also help stop the polluting greenhouse gases produced during the composting process. 

The Bokashi Tea Composting Method

• In Bokashi composting, you are mixing your kitchen scraps of all kinds with some of the inoculated grain, pressed into the Bokashi bin, covered with another handful of grain, and tightly covered.

• At the same time, you seal it closed and set it aside for 10 to 12 days when the bucket is full.

• Essentially, every other day during that time, the leachate that is an inevitable byproduct of anaerobic composting needs to be drawn off. That is the care required.

• And when you open the bucket, the recognizable contents are fully preserved. In this stage, you can bury the pre-compost terms in an uncultivated spot in your garden. However, it is still acidic that plant roots should not contact it for two to four weeks.

• Moreover, you mix your kitchen waste with a handful or so of Bokashi. Then you press them into the bin, sprinkle another handful of bran over them, and close the lid.

• Large bones will not disappear over ten days. Therefore, it is best to cut up small bones and chop other items into smaller pieces for maximum productivity.

• Afterward, you can cover it tightly when the bin is full and set it aside anywhere in your house where it is out of direct sunlight for ten days or more.

• And every other day, draw off the liquid, which you can use as a fertilizer. Furthermore, after ten to fourteen days, you need to preserve the waste in the tub entirely. You can then dig it into a fallow patch of your garden.

The Benefits Of Bokashi Compost

Essentially, you can use the bokashi system to pre-process food scraps that generally cannot go into your compost bin and worm farm. And since fermentation is way faster than composting, the bokashi system can produce fermented material in one week that will break down quickly when you dig it into the soil. The fermented material breaks down into the soil in four to six weeks when in the ground. Basically, from start to finish, you can turn your raw kitchen scraps into soil that you can use for your plants in 30-45 days maximum. The process is more effective than traditional composting because of the less work. Indeed, you don’t need to get the correct green and brown materials ratio. Just add the food scraps as they are produced. The bokashi system does not need the regular turning required with traditional composting. You leave it to do its thing.

Traditional slow garden composting loses nutrients. Nitrogen is lost to the atmosphere, and water-soluble nutrients leach out into the ground. However, nutrients are not lost in the environment with the bokashi system as the process appears in a sealed airtight container where all liquid is captured. Additionally, another advantage of the bokashi system is that it is all spotless. You usually keep the bokashi container in the kitchen conveniently to add food waste efficiently. Since the whole process works in a closed container without oxygen, there are no issues with odors and pests and it never gets hot like a compost pile either.

Bokashi Composting Techniques

Bokashi is an anaerobic process. Therefore, you need to keep it as free from oxygen as possible. Consequently, it is crucial to compress each day’s waste flat into the container to eliminate air pockets. At the same time, you need to prevent stirring up the previous day’s waste when you put in new foodstuffs. It is best to use a plate to press the food-stuffs flat in the composter. Placing the plate in place prevents the surface of your compost from any air in the composter. Drawing off the liquid regularly helps maintain the environment needed by the bacteria that break down the organic components. And that liquid needs to be used within a day or so.

Moreover, bad smells indicate that something has gone wrong. Bokashi does not smell like spring roses, even at the best of times. The literature discusses the difference between a sweet and sour odor indicating fermentation and a foul odor indicating decay. Bokashi should not smell like other sorts of anaerobic decomposition because the inoculating microbes such as; yeasts, producers of lactic acids, and others do not produce the sulfuric acid that gives outdoor anaerobic piles their characteristic stench.

Conclusion

To sum it up, every gardener knows that composting is good for the garden and the environment. And not everyone knows there are many ways to practice composting. All composting is a process by which organic materials are deliberately decomposed in a controlled fashion to produce a material that you can use to return nutrients to the soil. Traditional composting is a mixture of green materials high in nitrogen, and brown materials high in carbon, air, and water. Yet, there are many ways to practice composting in that general definition.

What additional composting techniques besides Bokashi are there? Comment and share your thoughts below!