bokashi
 

I have just started making bokashi and it isnt hard.

Vancouver BC Canada
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I'll give you a brief overview of how we use EM bokashi in composting, together with a few photos.

We have been using bokashi to treat our kitchen compost for about six or seven years, beginning soon after we cleared a spot for our garden here on Saltspring after moving from Tokyo. I won't go into the details of preparing bokashi, except to say that we mix up 100lb batches every summer, or every other summer, and store the dried mixture in a couple of large plastic barrels. We then keep a smaller bucket of bokashi in the kitchen handy for daily use.
compost

Fresh kitchen compost goes into a white, five-gallon plastic bucket, and can include any vegetable matter or leftover cooked food. We avoid putting any meat or dairy products into it, although small amounts of either are no big deal. We also try to avoid putting in large amounts of liquid. After throwing some stuff in the bucket, we give it a liberal dusting with bokashi; probably the equivalent of two or three generous handfuls before putting the lid back on. More compostable material goes in, then more bokash until the bucket is full. In our three-person household we fill a bucket about every five or six days.

When one bucket is filled, we put the lid on and put it outside on our deck and bring in a clean bucket. When the second bucket is filled, we take the first down to the garden and dig it into the soil. It seems that leaving it in the bucket for a few days helps in the decomposition process. To dig it in, I pick an already harvested or fallow bed, dig a hole about a shovel-blade deep, dump in the compost, put a shovelful of dirt on it, mix the two together, and then cover with dirt. The raccoons often come and dig some of it up, but most of it stays in the ground.
bokashi

We do all of our composting with two plastic buckets reserved for the purpose. To make opening and closing the buckets less of a chore, several years ago we picked up a couple of Gamma Seal lids, an after-market lid that fits on a standard restaurant five-gallon white bucket. Instead of being a snap-fit cap like a standard bucket lid, the Gamma lid spins on like a giant jar lid. This might seem like a small thing, but because it can be taken off and put back on with one hand, it means that you can open the bucket with one hand and fire the compost in with the other, making the process much faster and easier. The Gamma Seal lids are available from Lee Valley for about $10 or $12 each.

Some rather grand claims are made for the bokashi in Japan. Whole towns have taken to using it to manage household waste, and some pretty impressive gardens are being grown with it. The EM bacteria mixture is also used in many other ways such as treating waste water and minimizing odours in livestock operations; here on Saltspring it's being using together with liquid fertilizers in Canada's only organic golf course. Personally, I'm not sure how much better bokashi compost is for your garden than plain-old compost, but I can say that stuff does break down very fast in the soil, and that when I dig in the area a month or two later it is absolutely WRITHING with earthworms. Huge masses of them. I can also quite immodestly brag that the garlic that I grow are absolutely huge, and have taken two blue ribbons at the Fall Fair, on an island where people take garlic growing very, very seriously (see photo!).
garlic

On a more basic level, bokashi certainly makes handling kitchen waste a much more palatable chore; instead of having a bucket of rotting vegetables under your sink, you have a bucket of compost that has a kind of 'fermenty' smell; somewhat pungent, but to my nose at least, not particularly objectionable. And if bokashi does nothing more than make kitchen compost easier to handle, I think its all worth it.

http://www.cityfarmer.org/bokashi.html

Re: bokashi
 

My wife was using EM for composting when she lived in a tokyo apartment. Grew some vegetables and herbs completely on compost on the lanai. Nice option for city dwellers who don't have access to chickens.

Re: bokashi
 

I live in a town house where we have about a 6 foot by 6 foot area for a "garden" and most of that is in pots. We've been composting like this for a while now, though I havent used bokashi, just been throwing it in a 5 gallon bucket and leaving it out back.

I get some darned good compost out of it though, but Im gonna give this method a try for sure.

Re: bokashi
 

This stuff is so good whole farms can run on the stuff

Re: bokashi
 

Fermentation and Bokashi

Conventional composting relies on oxygen-fed organisms to break down organic material. Bokashi uses different kinds of microbes that thrive without oxygen. They decompose organic matter through an anaerobic process. It�s basic fermentation, the same process that gives us wine and pickles.
Advantages of Bokashi Compost

Bokashi works fast - in a matter of days, not months. And, when properly managed, bokashi is practically odorless. That makes it ideal for apartments and other small dwellings. Compared to sink disposals, bokashi or �bucket composting� also promises to save water and reduce the load on sewage treatment plants.

Bokashi is also highly scalable. Larger buckets can be fitted with wheels to ease transportation logistics. For restaurants or schools, prisons and other institutions, bokashi has potential as a speedier, more space-efficient way to recycle large volumes of kitchen waste into valuable compost.
How to Do Bokashi Compost

Making bokashi compost is simple. You need a couple of big containers with tight-fitting lids (to keep the oxygen out), some kitchen scraps, and bokashi mix. The mix contains wheat bran, molasses, and EM�s - the efficient microorganisms that drive the process.

http://cleantechnica.com/2009/03/03/...thers-compost/

Re: bokashi
 

So what exactly is EM? How do you make it. Do yuou buy it? This isn't explained very well in the article

Re: bokashi
 

Where/how do I get it/make it?

Re: bokashi
 

I googled and read that EM (Efficient Microorganisms) is a mix of 60 or so different microorganisms. So it may not be practical to try to make your own EM. Of course, it may be that EM is just a marketing ploy, and that regular beer or wine yeast would do. But I really can't say. Still studying.

Re: bokashi
 

Google it. There is a lot of info on it, including videos. Here is the site that fromserpo listed in the OP: http://www.cityfarmer.org/bokashi.html It explains the process fairly well.

Re: bokashi
 

someone raised this a couple of years back I think. It looks very interesting. It is a very traditional japanese method and I understand some families have recipes and feed stock that go back generations and possibly even centuries.

I get annoyed when I chuck out greens and other compost-ables. I have limited space for traditional composting. This would meet my needs I think.

I have really gotten into veggie growing and I use farmyard manures, however I am not confident about the ingredients in it given what they feed the farmyard animals these days. I'm going to give this a try out.

Re: bokashi
 

I came across bokashi from some people doing it in the tropics but it can be done any where.

EM effective microorganisms
Invented in Japan
Can be used as a basis to agriculture.
Can buy a liquid and make a liquid bokashi,mix with molasses brew 30 degrees 5 days and can dilute and add to garden.
Also can impregnate dry matter using charcoal as an ingredient that lets the micro organisims remain in the soil via the charcoal which has many cavities in it.
This subject is worth investigating but may appear a little confusing at first.
In the tropics they use rice hull charcoal,rice bran some manure a little lime mix it up and add the effective micro organisims..They seem to inhabit the dry material and this is the stuff you add to the bucket.
So the scraps becomes a form of bokashi as well so dont be confused as to what bokashi really is.
It seems to cover a few different things but basically means the process of fermentation is breaking things down,less smell ,seems to work very well,and is compact.