Bokashi Bin!

[Libra19752]

I have just ordered one, drawn in by the promise of zero food waste and improving my soil without having to trudge down to the compost heap during the cold winter days.

Anyone else have one? Do you like it? Any tips?

@Libra19752 You must be the only mumsnetter with one of these then! Can I ask how it’s going? I’m thinking of getting one as we keep getting rats in the compost bins and I hate throwing the food waste away!

I've wondered about this too

I've had two forever, in fact I had to replace them last year when the tops broke and the lids stopped fitting tightly.

Because the lids have to be airtight they're a bit of a pain to get on and off. You can't just open the bin and tip the waste in as if it was a pedal bin, you need two hands. Because of this I have a 3 stage system, kitchen bin, then to bokashi bin outside back door every few days, then to compost heap. This works fine.

I don't use anything like the suggested amount of bran, just a sprinkling when it goes into the bokashi bin. I don't use the bran in the kitchen bin.

I compost pretty much everything except eggshells and avocado stones, both of which take forever to rot down, bokashi or no. I can't say whether bokashi speeds the composting process because I've never tried composting without it.

I think that a major factor in making good compost quickly is the size of your bin. I had limited success with two 1 cubic meter bins. After I did a course with Charles Dowding I changed to one 1m x 1m x 2m bin and that made a huge difference.

Finally I have repurposed the old bins with broken lids into presses for comfrey tea. As they are designed to separate solids from liquids they're brilliant for this and you get comfrey tea in huge quantities with no smell.

Happy to answer any specific questions.

I think that a major factor in making good compost quickly is the size of your bin. I had limited success with two 1 cubic meter bins. After I did a course with Charles Dowding I changed to one 1m x 1m x 2m bin and that made a huge difference. Also shape of bin. Heat generated is proportional to volume, heat lost is proportional to surface area. So maximise the volume to surface area ratio, so theoretically you’d do even better with a cubic bin whose measurements are all equal to the cube root of 2.

Actually I do well with 3 1m cubed bins. I think length of time is important - you build up an efficient set of microorganisms.

And worms! But I'll resist the temptation to turn this into a thread about the black art of composting....

Worms are easy. They breed very rapidly, so all you need to do is find a few under a log or in leaf litter and you’re away. (Different species from the general earthworms).

In fact, if your bin is open to the soil, they’ll arrive by themselves.

Used them for a while but I stopped using them when we had builders in.

IMO they did smell really bad (the bokashi not the builders), but I'm prepared to accept I was doing it wrong. The bins had to be kept outside, and the stuff that came out stank to high heaven, so you need somewhere, like a big compost heap, where you can dig it in quite quickly. I think you need quite a big garden to manage bokashi.

I prefer my wormeries TBH. Most of my food waste goes there or on the compost. Meat and other things likely to attract rats are put out for the council collection.

We used to used them - we got rats, so we stopped.

I used them. After a few rounds I could no longer bear the smell. I think some people find it less offensive than others.

It was effective but best added to the compost rather than dug in directly. I also found a rat had tunnelled in to get at it when I buried it, though I had read that the process was meant to deter rats 🤷🏻‍♀️