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Someone suggested Bokash composting of non meat kitchen scraps b/c it doesn't attract insects nor does it smell.

What's the easiest way to get started? Do I need to buy more bokashi "microbes" everytime the compost bin is full?

Clay Nichols
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2 Answers2

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As I understand it, you'll need at least two bins. You fill one of them with your nastiest kitchen scraps (meat, fish, mouldy cheese, peelings, whatever) and then you add a sprinkle or small handful of the bokashi bran and leave it to cook for a couple of weeks, by which time it should be ready for use, although that varies slightly depending on the size of the bin and air temperatures. In the meantime you start filling the other bin, and once that's full, you add the bran mix and leave for two weeks. You do have to keep buying the bacterial bran, because you need some for every binful.

Bamboo
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  • Actually, I have not tried this yet, but it would make sense if you ferment a bin with rice (or any) bran this way. It should inoculate the bran with the bacteria after two weeks. – Aschwin Nov 06 '15 at 08:52
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To add to Bamboo's reply, you can make your own bokashi bran if you want and it's much cheaper than buying it. Teraganix has the recipe to make your own bran on their website: Bokashi bran recipe

To compare the price, I can make 50 pounds of bokashi bran for about 40 dollars. When you compare that to 15 bucks for 2.2 pounds for bokashi bran that you buy the saving is significant.

Korbin
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    Thanks for your answer. Would you mind adding some information from behind the link to your answer? Links tend to die with time which is a problem because stack-exchange will last. ;-) – Patrick B. Jun 16 '15 at 18:20
  • So, you're basically making wheat or rice bran sourdough starter with their EM-1 bioremediation innoculant. Which then gets mixed into the Bokashi bin. – Fiasco Labs Jun 16 '15 at 23:10
  • What kind of information are you looking for in addition to the recipe that's posted in the link? I pretty much followed the directions in that link and it provided everything you need to make your own bokashi bran super cheap. – Korbin Jun 17 '15 at 20:04
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    Bokashi bran created with Terrganix EM-1 is rice bran fermented with Lactobacillus Casei, if you've eaten Cheddar Cheese, this is the predominant bacteria in that particular cheese making process. You use this as a pickling ferment starter in your bucket, have enough buckets so that you can keep the last one for two weeks after full before deploying it in your garden. – Fiasco Labs Nov 02 '15 at 01:46