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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Bokashi

3 replies

7Days · 03/11/2018 17:48

Has anyone been using one for a long time?
I have moved to a house with a big garden, and a scrappy waste collection service.
I've started a compost pile, but the cooked food waste i this house is an absolute sin.
Are bokashI all mouth and no trousers?

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BobTheDuvet · 03/11/2018 18:24

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lilyclover1 · 04/11/2018 09:48

I did bokashi for a few years when we had a large garden, it worked out well.

I had two bokashi bins as when one is filled it needs to 'cure' for some time. Our council sold bokashi bran and bins online alongside composters and other waste management for households, but it was cheaper to get the bins and the bran, which you need to buy continually, on eBay. Some say there are better brans and not so good ones; guess I was lucky as the stuff I bought (whatever was cheapest on eBay) seemed ok.

I used an old potato masher to push the kitchen waste down; like making lasagne except with the bran and kitchen waste in layers. Then I put a sheet of plastic on top before closing the bin to keep things anaerobic. All the raw and cooked food, except large bones, went in. I did cut up/tear things like banana peels so it took some extra time, but it's worthwhile as you get more surface area and can spread the waste out more evenly.

It was also a bit of a pain having to dig up a large pit and bury the bokashi (I think on a website I read you can create a compost-like large pot with open bottom instead). But plants and trees that liked acidic soil really flourished where the bokashi had been buried, after waiting the appropriate time for the bokashi to have neutralised. In particular I remember a rhododendron and an acer we had that the gardener admired a lot. And lots, I mean lots, of happy fat earthworms!

I didn't use it for vegetables so maybe look up whether some veg may not get on well with bokashi. I had a thought about contacting people with allotments to see if they'd want future bokashi donations, but then we moved to a smaller house and garden.

Houseplants and garden plants also liked the small amount of 'juice' that came from the bins. This needs to be diluted before use.

About the smell, it was fine for me. A bit like pickle juice when the bin is opened or when burying the bokashi, which you can quickly cover up with soil.

There are quite a few websites and YouTube videos about bokashi, so worth visiting/watching them to learn more.

7Days · 04/11/2018 19:20

Thanks!
I am thinking about getting a starter set for Christmas.
But I didn't want something smelly and troublesome that wouldn't be worth it.
It's mostly to deal with cooked food waste.

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