The Bokashi Composting System

I am sure you have heard about the latest idea in composting, the Bokashi system, but what is Bokashi composting? Well it is not a real composting system at all but a way of treating your food waste before you compost it.

I have been composting for years and in the summer can produce rich sweet smelling compost in a couple of months using a custom built hotbox composting system I have come up with. This just works with normal composting materials but now I can compost all the things I would have avoided putting in my hotbox system.

Have you ever composted a chicken carcass or uncooked fish skins? I know where I live this would attract vermin from the local farms. They would be attracted by the smell of the food I had put into the hot compost box. I do not think I would have been happy with the smell either.

Now I have a Bokashi composting system and all this goes in. You name it; I compost it, well all the normal waste from my kitchen. I also add waste cooked food, bread, raw meat and fat and even things like duck carcasses left behind after a meal.

Yep, I can hear your brain working with questions like. "What do you do about the smell"; "How far from the house do you have to keep the bin" and "What about the neighbours. Are they trying to run you out of town because you stink the neighbourhood up"?

There is none of that – no bad smells and I would be happy to keep my Bokashi composting system in my house. I do not do this because there is a slight bran smell from the main ingredient you have to add so I just keep my Bokashi system by my back door. I do not mind this smell but my wife does not like it, so I keep things outdoors.

A Bokashi system comprises a minimum of two special Bokashi bins and you can leave one to work while you are filling the other up and just keep this process going. This is what I bought but a friend gave me a third bin so I now use three bins. It allows the first one to work that little bit longer. The bins are airtight and have a close fitting lid as the Bokashi system works aerobically with a lack of oxygen. All the bins have a sump on them and while the system is working, a liquid is produced – this needs to drain off. Even this is not wasted though as you can do two things with it and they both work.

The first one is to add it into your soil. Dilute it about 1 to 10 with water and add to your soil. It will help develop the soil food web, which leads to better, stronger and healthier plants. I tried an experiment by watering a couple of square yards of my lawn every week with a diluted solution of this liquid and the grass is greener, healthier, stronger and longer after a couple of months so it must have done some good.

The other thing you can do with the liquid is just to pour it down your drains undiluted. I had a slight smell coming from the outlet of one of the baths in my house after a build up of gunge in it. One treatment with the Bokashi fluid and it was gone.

So how does it all work? You need to use the special bran, which should come with your system. Sprinkle some of this on the drain plate at the bottom of your bin and start adding food. Each time you add food sprinkle some more bran in. You do not need a lot of bran, certainly not enough to cover the food. Just keep going until the bin is full. Remember to keep the lid on all the time unless you are adding food. You also need to keep pressing the food down to get rid of air pockets. Keep going until the bin is full then start on the next one.

What happens next is that the effective microorganisms, which the bran has been treated with start to work on the food and ferment it. Your waste comes out looking like it has been pickled. Just dig this into your soil about a foot deep. It seems to disappear within a couple of months. Any bones you put in there will not disappear though and I try not to add these but you can. You can also put it in your compost heap and it seems to disappear very quickly. As long as you keep draining the fluid off and keep the lid sealed the system works. If any air does get in, the food starts to rot and the system stinks so watch out. Once you have bought the bins you will need to keep a supply of bran in and there is a company near to where I live where I can order the bran to be delivered every two months. I just order it and forget about it until it turns up. If you use too much bran though, you will need to order some in-between the normal delivery as it is the activated bran that makes the system work.

Article by Richard Wiley 
About the Author

Ric Wiley is an internet writer and gardener. His latest website about High Density Gardening can be found at http://www.highdensitygardening.com