We often get asked by our customers exactly what can and cannot be put into their kitchen Bokashi Bins. With a Bokashi Composter you can compost food and vegetable scraps in the kitchen, without the fear of smells by using EM’s – Effective Microrganisms!
Every time you have scraps to throw, be it meat fish or vegetable, just open the lid and drop them in the Bokashi Bucket along with a ‘sprinkling’ of the Bokashi Bran and re-seal the lid.
When the bucket is full, leave for two weeks with the lid sealed and then either dig the resultant Bokashi into the garden or add to your compost heap. As the Bokashi is ‘composting’ in the Bokashi bucket, a nutrient rich liquor is produced which is collected by using the tap on the bucket every couple of days.
Dilute the liquor with water at 1:100 and use as plant feed throughout the home and garden.
However in answer to the question, basically, you can add any food waste – but not liquids or wet foods!
Apart form veg scraps, meat and fish you can also add bread, however don’t add things that have already started to go moldy. Tea bags are also fine, but let them drain off surplus liquid before adding. The liquid ‘aspect’ is very important, because if the contents of the bokashi bucket becomes too wet, the EM microbes will suffer and the contents will start to rot.
When the bucket is working properly, you will might start to see white mold growing on the contents and will have a distinctive vinegary smell. When you have left the contents to ferment for the 2 weeks when full, they will look very similar to when they went in and not like traditional compost! See below.
Bokashi Compost
The scraps have been in this bucket for at least four months and as you can see, little has changed. It is this fact that confuses some first time users of the bokashi system. The contents have been preserved by the action of the lactic acid bacteria in the EM bran and at the same time they are being fermented by the other EMs. In other words, bokashi compost is completely different to traditional compost – it hasn’t heated up like a compost bin and so therefore no ‘energy’ has been lost to the atmosphere, meaning that it will all end up in the soil to be used by both the soil microbes and your plants.
When you dig it into the garden, it will disappear V rapidly, but do note, that as it is acidic, leave it for a few weeks before planting on top. You can also add it to a traditional compost bin, to boost it’s efficiency.
Hope that helps and a huge thank you to Simon for answering that very frequently asked question!
Great post, Simon. One thing to add is that the food scraps you add to your bokashi bin, whether cooked or uncooked, will break down more effectively if cut into small pieces. The smaller the scraps, the more EM bran is in contact with the organic waste and the more efficient the ‘pickling’ process.
I’ve been a successful composter for more than 10 years.
My compost was delicious – like crumbly Christmas cake – I spread it on my large garden – I and the garden loved it.
However – we moved house 2 years ago – to a brand new house with a fenced-round square of turf. – I looked forward to the ‘blank canvas’ and have enjoyed starting off my new garden – but the composting has been a disaster!
We began with a ‘tardis’ supplied by the council – didn’t work – so last year forked in the unbelievably smelly mess and started off a proper wooden-slatted compost bin – this also didn’t make progress – even though I turned it and bought a duvet etc. etc. – to me, it just never became hot enough, I never saw the profusion of tiny wriggly worms I had seen in my previous bin. But the final straw was the RATS! – not that I’d object to rats – they’re wild creatures after all – if everything else had been OK – I really wouldn’t have bothered and would have been glad to support a balanced ecology of living things – but the compost was still a hopeless smelly mess – and was harbouring rats! – I at last watched a rat climbing up to my bird table to get at the seeds and thought I’d better deter them. I have, sadly, removed my compost bin. Is a bokashi system the answer?
I’d be really sorry to say goodbye to composting.
Wendy
The one great thing about bokashi composting is that the process is quick – you only have to leave you bokashi to ‘ferment’ for a couple of weeks, once the bucket is full.
Once ready, it can then be dug straight into the garden – and what’s more, rats and mice don’t like bokashi!
You find more information here
Hello,
Can I put paper (like paper towels and napkins) in my bokashi bin?
Yes you can, but don’t over do it! Might be worth making sure that the paper is ‘damp’ before adding, otherwise it will make the contents of your bucket too dry, which will hinder the process.
Re: recycleworks’ comment on paper:
How can you say that tissues and paper towels would make it too ‘dry’ and that would hinder the fermentation process? Bokashi thrives in dry environments, and therefore one should never add excessive amounts of liquid to the bokashi bin. Wetting tissues and paper is therefore not necessary and in fact is likely to hinder the fermentation.
I have read about bokashi in many places, as well as used bins myself for a few months now. From what I’ve learnt, it is wise never to add any liquid in any form. Fruit is okay, but even then you don’t want to add excessive amount of watermelon flesh, for example.
Cheers,
Thomas
The EM microbes in bokashi do need moisture as do all living things – preferably around 30%. Adding too many dry tissues will upset the process, adding vegetables scraps is always the best.
question?! can you add your bokashi compost to a vermicompost? what happens then?
Bin
If you are adding your bokashi to a direct to a wormery, then you need to remember that the bokashi is acidic so add sparing or at least add only in say one corner. Once the bokashi is exposed to the air and the lactic acid bacteria stop working, then the pH will balance out and the worms will start to eat it pretty rapidly.
If you intend to mix it with the vermicompost itself, you won’t have a problem either. Infact, the mixture of both will prove to be excellent for growing.
being Christmas we have an excessive amount of nut shells. The general consensus seems to be that you shouldn’t add it to the Bokashi bin, do you agree with it?
Hi Hanna. I think that all the nut shells may just end up filling you bokashi bucket, besides as they have virtually no moisture content, they may make the contents to dry?
Simon