How Bokashi Composting Can Surprise Anyone with its Effectiveness

Ok, so you have want to call me on a bluff. No bluff. You were were not told the whole truth about plants in primary school and with the knowledge in this article, your plants and gardens will grow like never before.

Previously, I wrote about "Our Exemplary Journey..." on how we stumbled across the bokashi composting method - a 3.5 or 5 gallon bucket approach to composting any food scraps you have with none of the bad smells from the very moment you put some magical bran on it.

Ok wait; stop. You said, “…any food scraps,” but did you really mean any food scraps? Yes. Eggs, eggshells, bones, meat, fruit and veggie clippings, cheese, coffee grinds…. The only thing I would NOT put in it are liquids like fats, soups, water, etc. But yes, actual scrap from food, A N Y.

Ok, so how does it work and why do plants dig it so much? Read on.

You see, most of us were taught in primary school that plants take what they need out of the ground and from the sun in order to live. So very wrong. You see, plants make a lot of nice things via their leaves and they first put those (exudates) into the soil right next to their roots. Why the free giveaway? Because microbes come by, snack on those treats right next to the plant roots, and then release hearty nutrients, again, right up close to the roots for the plants to absorb. They literally feed each other, kind of like how we feed plants carbon dioxide and plants feed us oxygen. Plants and microbes go hand-in-hand.

Without microbes in the soil, most plants will not live.

Ok, so how do you get those beneficial microbes into my (potting) soil? You need to use a composting method that keeps them there, as opposed to having those microbes disappear by the time a heap of “traditional” compost is ready for use. The bokashi method accomplishes this for you.

Fermented compost has microbes beneficial to plants in it. BONUS!!

How do you keep the microbes around? Fermentation. In the world of composting, that’s a fancy way of saying ‘in an air-tight container’.

Wait; is that why it has no bad smell? This has nothing to do with smell. It simply enables the process of fermentation because the microbes simply need the airtight environment to do their thing. What’s so great about fermented versus regular compost? The microbes stick around afterward!

Compost in a container with no smell. Genius!

Bokashi makes easy composting possible for us urban city folk as well, including apartment dwellers!

Ok, so how do you get these microbes to begin with? First up, they need a home while they wait to be exposed to plant roots. The item that seems to work best is bran - although do NOT eat the bran loaded with those microbes. Second, you have a choice, buy or harvest. (I will skip over the buying part since you asked and since this is the slightly more technical version of my primer to bokashi.)

To harvest, you will need some uncooked rice in some panty hose. Then, go to a sizeable tree that seems to be doing well and bury it right next to it (although not too deep). Two to three weeks later, go dig up and bring it back home.

Then, follow the instructions in this video that involve mixing it with some milk, storing it for a while, then mixing it with bran and some sugar before drying it out. Yes, you will need a hefty area to spread out the bran thinly so it can dry. Then, you have your bokashi bran and it only took you a solid month and only a few dollars.

With a farm, harvesting could be possible, but in a big city, I doubt it unless you have ample space to spare to dry bran.

So it’s the bran that controls the smell? Yup. The very second you put it on food scraps, the whole shebang smells like dirt if you really stick your nose in it - which I sincerely recommend since it really does not smell. The bran itself smells like strange dirt, but hey, who cares? It needs to stay in a sealed bag unless being used up within a month.

Do I have to wait before planting as with regular compost? Any compost that has not fully converted to soil runs the risk of burn the roots of plants. If you want to plant where you compost, wait two weeks from burying the bokashi to planting. Then, your plants will be safe.

What is the Achilles heel of fermented compost? That’s the same question as ‘what kills microbes?’ Alcohol, harsh chemicals, detergents…. The list is obvious and easy to avoid when gardening, save one. Think of swimming pools. How do those prevent from becoming vats of bacteria? Chlorine. It is even in tap water to prevent bad bacteria from spreading in all the pipes and into your drinking water. Well, don’t use chlorinated tap water on your microbe-rich soil. The plants won’t die, but the microbes that feed them will drastically decrease in number, which means less food for your plants, which means your plants won’t grow as well.

How do I remove chlorine for watering plants? You have a choice of three main types of filters. You can do it for your whole house, just for your kitchen sink, or any outdoor tap to which you connect a garden hose. None of these filters last forever, in fact, they will likely need to be replaced annually. Using one of these will drastically reduce the chlorine content in the water so more microbes will stick around after watering. Tip: for inline garden hose filters, use a flexible connector, NEVER let it freeze, and NEVER empty the water out of it.

How much will the filters set me back? Well, the one for your whole house can get pricey. As for the other two options, well, at the time of writing this article anything less than $40 USD and you will likely not get the performance you will need. Remember in my primer article how I mentioned designer bokashi containers are a waste of $40? Well, spend that $40 on a water filter instead and you will be MUCH happier with your gardening results.

How to I setup those $2 airtight buckets? You need to use buckets in pairs because one holds the food and bran while the bucket under it collects dripping “bokashi tea” (nutrient-rich liquid compost for potted plants). Drill a few small holes in the bottom of one bucket and stack it into a bucket - with no holes - of the same size. If you want to store it under your kitchen sink, 3.5 gallon buckets will do and if you have space elsewhere, standard 5-gallon buckets will not overwhelm you. You will also need to get lids (sold separately) that, when you attach them, allow you to screw a lid on or off - with ‘on’ resulting in an airtight seal. Use a mallet - hot a hammer - to install.

To sum up, the bokashi method, supported with a water filter, results in compost rich with microbes that benefit your plants while eating all your food scraps leaving no bad smells in the air. It is a simple solution that can work in an apartment, house, farm…wherever you find yourself wanting to grow something.

Bokashi. Go explore how it can work for you.

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