Bokashi Composting from Start to Finish (DIY Bokashi Bucket)

Bokashi composting is one of my favorite ways to make extra use of an abundance of food scraps. By building a simple bokashi bin or bokashi bucket, and using inoculated bran as a fermentation agent, you can 'pre-digest' food scraps before you put them into your soil.

It's an absolutely amazing way to compost quicker, and compost MORE. You can compost meats, fats, oils, and cooked food with bokashi, none of which you'd put in your hot compost pile or worm bin.

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[epicgardening]

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
1:44 - 5 Benefits of Bokashi
3:09 - Building and Filling a Bokashi Bin
8:11 - Checking Up on Bin
9:09 - Adding to Soil
10:55 - 1 Month Checkup

Perfect video. This is how this kind of videos supposed to be. Showing all the processes within 2 months span. So we can see the process and the result. Appreciate the time and effort. Thanks

[judyedwards]

I live in the Northeast and have used bokashi to ferment my kitchen scraps all winter long. When my bucket got full, I would let it ferment for two weeks and then bury it in a raised bed in my garden. Now that it's spring, I'm looking forward to top dressing my garden with this awesome soil. I find the breakdown was much faster than a normal compost pile in winter (here in Connecticut).

[itsasickness]

Kevin, I do all types of composting and have recently learned that bokashi is high in Organic NH4. Worm castings on the other hand are high in NO3. Both are plant available under different conditions. One when it’s hot and the other when it’s cool. Considering it was 40f in New Orleans a few days ago and today it’s over 70f, my garden is covered. Btw I’m enjoying watching you build up the new garden. Keep the great content coming. Thanks

[RonniR]

I’ve been doing bokashi composting for several years with good results. I use a fraction of the inoculate bran that you use in the video. It simply doesn’t take that much to get good microbe activity.

[sweetnsassie]

A really GREAT tip for the buffer rock in the bottom bucket. The top one can get so heavy it sticks in the bottom bucket and it's a struggle to separate them. I use newspaper as a filter at the bottom of the top bucket.

[mdoreneb]

I live in Mesa, AZ and the soil can be very hard. I have a small are to garden in., I have a coffee can with a lid that I put my table scrapes in. When it is full, I walk out to the garden and dig a hole and dump the coffee can contents into hole and then cover it with dirt. My garden rows can be turned over with very little effort. Anyone that lives in AZ understands what that means. I'm in my 70's and need very little work. My method works for me. Good luck on all the methods suggested.

[leekawu]

My mom is an agriculturist in the Philippines and we’ve been composting with bokashi for years! Never knew this is what happens tho 😬😳😳

[novastar]

I do all grain home brewed beer and use the spend grains in my composter all the time. The added heat from the mashing stage really helps kick the compost pile into overdrive. Usually find it still steaming a few days on. Gets compacted a bit easily however so you need to turn it from time to time.

[mzlimitless]

Super excited to see you using SD Microbes. I was using them in my cannabis composting operation. I now use them for food waste composting. One of the most active bokashi products I've used.

[KeikoBushnell]

Should save a little bit of the bokashi and the juice from each batch to start your next batch —it will help and you won’t have to start from scratch and use new grain each time

[KathyBecklin]

I’ve made my own Bokashi for years with shredded paper and em1. I live in maui where bran is imported so tried paper. I love it because I continue to fill my bin with very little smell. I just have a single bin that I keep under my kitchen sink. I dump into my garden or compost every 3-4 weeks. It looks a lot more broken down than yours did. Plus it is great way to get rid of paper you don’t want anyone reading!

[marsefarinas]

I'm from Philippines and I've been doing bokashi composting for months now. My plants are doing well. 😊

[danitza]

Thank you for this video. I wanted to compost but didn't want the hassle of the "traditional" way. Now I will just put this on my patio and save up compost for next year! I was thinking of using the urban worm bag for this but instead of worms, alternating compost/soil with bokashi fermented scraps. That way my finished compost can be harvested from the bottom.

[BrendanMcGinley]

It can be really hard finding any kind of useful bokashi info. This clears up a lot of questions I've had. Thanks!

[maxfreeman]

Adding this as a mulch with a layer of compost on top at the end of the season would be beautiful

[padredemishijos]

I did what you did with the bokashi. However, I did it differently. I got woodchips (the more decomposed the better also decomposed leaves.) I got seaweed from the beach, washed the salt out of it, and I got fish waste from my Chinese fish market. Mixed fish waste and wood chips and washed seaweed, and put it in a bucket capped it off with fresh woodchips and spent coffee grounds from Starbucks, and voila. In one week composed. Instead of a bucket, you can put it in a pit.

[ecobluefarms]

I watched your video in early 2020 and now I’ve moved to my newest farm and am doing this method I’m on my first bucket which is ready to sit for a couple weeks before going out to the garden bed

Thanks for sharing

[Qmocean]

I bury all the plant remnants at the end of the season. I was skeptical at first, but it worked great. I live in Edmonton, Alberta which is a zone 3b/4a, and have a very dense clay based soil. The section I buried the plants in turned into incredible soil in one winter. So needless to say it gets done every year now.

[simonstclare]

I enjoy watching these videos and finding out about the different ways to compost. As a teenager (before the internet) I tried adding dog poop to our compost thinking it'd add useful nutrients [True story!]. Unsurprisingly the costs ended up outweighing the benefits; especially with regards to my mum's hanging baskets.