Improve Tree Health with Fermented Food Waste

So, you have discovered the fabulous Bokashi composting method and you now have a few buckets of fermented food waste. What next?  Instead of buying fertilizer sticks for your trees, why not use the fermented food waste to improve the soil around your trees!?

1. Determine the drip ring
Examine the tree or shrub that you will be fertilizing. The top of the tree is called the canopy and the circumference the branches make is called the drip ring, as that is the area that the branches will literally drip upon. Now look at the ground beneath the drip ring and draw a circle in the ground around the tree.

2. Dig your holes
Divide the circle into four to eight slices, like you would a pie or cake. At the edge dig a small trench along the edge of the drip ring (in the “crust of the slice of pie”).

3. Bury the fermented food waste
Now you are ready to use the food waste as fertilizer. Put a few shovels worth of food waste in the trench, mixing some soil in as you go. You can fill the hole if you have enough soil to keep animals away. If not, just repeat in another spot in a few weeks, making your way around the rest of the tree ring.

4. Cover the food waste
The fermented food waste can attract animals if it is not completely covered. We suggest covering it with 12 inches of soil to ensure animals will not come by and dig it up and eat it to avoid a mess. So, make sure the hole or trench was deep enough and that you have saved all the dirt you dug up.

How does Bokashi composting improve tree health?
Amending the soil helps the trees (and plants around them) tremendously. The fermented food wastes are loaded with all sorts of vitamins and minerals, enzymes, microbes, and nutrients that will feed the plants, beneficial fungi, microbes, worms and insects in the area. The added organic matter will also help with moisture retention and drainage, keeping the soil from compacting. This will also help the roots of the tree be able to grow and expand the canopy. As the roots grow the canopy will grow.

So, adding fermented food waste does quite a bit more than just fertilize the soil. Be sure to keep adding throughout the year and you will see your trees and shrubs become more drought tolerant and grow more vigorously than before!

How To Compost Using Bokashi

Bokashi composting has a number of benefits, including almost no odor (the material has its own smell, but it is not like a rotten smell), limited use of space, and it’s one of the quickest composting methods. Another huge benefit of Bokashi composting is the simple, straight-forward process. It’s faster and requires less work, which is always an advantage. In fact, Bokashi composting can be broken down into three very simple steps:

1. Fill an airtight bucket with food waste and layer with EM-1 Bokashi bran
Collecting food waste is standard in any food composting method, but in the bokashi method, it’s important to use an airtight recycling bin. The Bokashi method relies on fermentation to break down food waste, so keeping oxygen away from the organic matter is crucial. It’s also important to layer or coat your scraps with EM-1 Bokashi bran. EM-1 Bokashi bran is a mixture of organic rice bran, molasses, Super Cera, and EM-1 which will aid in the breakdown of food scraps through fermentation. You can also make your own personal mix using this Bokashi recipe.

One thing to remember is that if you’re fermentation bucket doesn’t have a spigot to drain liquid, you should layer the bottom of the bucket with an inch of EM-1 Bokashi bran to capture all the liquid that will build up.

2. Let the bucket sit for 1-2 weeks
Fermentation is an anaerobic process that starts the breakdown of food waste (the sugars are being eaten by the microbes) and causes it to pickle, leaving behind scraps that are perfect for amending soils. Unlike traditional composting that requires churning and monitoring for green to brown ratios, there’s not much you have to do during the Bokashi compost process.
If you have a Bokashi bucket with a spigot, drain the fluid from the bottom of the bucket every other day or so. You can use this liquid as a fertilizer for any of your indoor or outdoor plants, and all it takes is one teaspoon per gallon of water. If you are using a bucket without any drains, you don’t have anything you need to do.

3. Choose how to use your Bokashi compost
After a week or two of fermentation, your Bokashi is ready to use. You have some options with how to use the end product.

• Add the waste to a compost pile: Burying your bokashi mix in a compost pile will actually speed up the breakdown of your compost.
• Bury the waste: Bury the waste in the soil of your garden and cover with 8-12 inches of soil, where it will break down into rich soil for your garden.
• Feed your worms: This compost is full of live bacteria, which is also great for adding to a worm farm to feed worms.
• Feed your livestock: Bokashi food waste is filled with microbes, vitamins, and amino acids that are incredibly nutritious for livestock.

If you have very bad soil, after only a few additions of food waste, you’ll be able to start growing plants. If you have established beds, just dig small holes around the plants and add a shovel or two of fermented food waste and cover with soil. You can keep amending your soil year round and eliminate the need for having to purchase fertilizers.

How to Make Bokashi for Food Waste Recycling

Hundreds of years ago Japanese farmers began the process of bokashi composting. Today, it has become a popular way to compost due to its many practical advantages. Unlike other forms of aerobic composting, bokashi utilizes anaerobic process to break down material. For the most effective bokashi mix, you can also incorporate a microbial inoculant like Effective Microorganisms® or EM. EM ferments and accelerates the break down of green waste.



Benefits of bokashi composting over traditional composting:
· Faster than standard composting
· Requires no churning or turning
· Creates rich compost soil
· Significantly reduces foul odors
· Can be used to recycle more types of waste, including meats and dairy

If you’d like to take your composting to the next level by making your very own bokashi check out our recipe below.

Teraganix’s Easy EM•1® Bokashi Recipe:
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Fermentation: 2 weeks (minimum)
Bokashi Ingredients and Materials

The following ingredients and materials are needed to make a 50-pound bag of EM•1® Bokashi. Visit the EM® Bokashi page of our recipes section for instructions on how to make alternative quantities of bokashi.

Ingredients:
¾ Cup EM•1®
¾ Cup Molasses
3-4 Gallons of Water
50lbs Bran (carbon material)

Materials:
1 Large Black Plastic Bag or Airtight Container
Container or Surface to Mix the Ingredients In/On

Directions:
Step 1: Mix one gallon of the water with the molasses until the molasses has dissolved.
Step 2: Add the EM•1® to the liquid and mix thoroughly.
Step 3: Mix the liquid thoroughly into the bran.
Step 4: Test to make sure the moisture level is correct. Squeeze some of the bran into a ball. If it holds shape and no extra liquid comes out, it’s the correct moisture. If it is too dry, add more water and mix thoroughly once more.
Step 5: Once the mixture is the correct moisture, put it into your bag or container. If using a bag, tie the bag tightly, squeezing out excess air. If using a container, press down mixture and cover container tightly.
Step 6: Place the mixture somewhere warm and dry. Let it ferment for a minimum of two weeks.

After the two week fermentation period check the bokashi to ensure that no black, brown or green mold is growing on it. If you see white mold that’s fine as it’s a natural part the fermentation process. Now that you know how to make bokashi it’s time to start mixing. If you have any questions or would like to share your own tips and experiences with bokashi composting, please post a comment below.

Bokashi Composting: Less Labor, Better Results & a Healthier Method Overall

Without a doubt, the easiest way to engage in eco-friendly recycling food and green waste is to participate in some form of composting. Over the past several decades, the practice of composting has caught on with homeowners and eco-friendly individuals all around the world. Its roots, though, are firmly in the agriculture industry. Agriculture has always relied on composting to eliminate green waste efficiently, to create healthier soils, stronger crops, and better overall results. Today, the Bokashi method of composting is favored by farmers and laymen alike because it actually involves less time, fuel costs due to less turning- and therefore less work - than traditional composting. The Bokashi method is faster and helps to return more nutrients to the soil from the green waste that is being decomposed by the process.

Leaving the Dirt Behind: The Benefits of Less Turning and More Pickling Any farmer familiar with the traditional composting knows that waste must be turned quite often in order introduce the oxygen to feed the microbes (aerobic microbes and fungii) that essentially breaks the waste down. Meanwhile, as the waste decomposes, the compost emits foul smelling gasses and attracts various pests.

The Bokashi method, on the other hand, does not use decomposition to break down materials and therefore does not rely on oxygen and thus requires little to no turning. (The main turning is just mixing in the inoculant and water for proper moisture) The first benefit of this is that there is simply less labor involved. You mix the Bokashi, you add the materials to be broken down, and at the end of the process you add it to the garden... that's it.

A secondary benefit is the Bokashi process emits no offensive smell and - because it occurs in an airtight Bokashi bucket - the process does not attract unwanted pests. These two aspects make the process far more appropriate for families in suburban and urban environments. (An alternate version of this can be conducted on a large scale for farmers.)

But perhaps the biggest benefit of Bokashi is one that directly deals with nutrients that result from the process. Rather than breaking down the compost into a dirt-like substance, the Bokashi method of composting actually pickles the green waste during the process. This preserves a great deal more nutrients than traditional composting, and makes the waste more readily available for worms, beneficial fungi, and future crops. The resulting nutrients from the wastes become “slow release" nutrients, meaning the nutrients are more stable and will last for longer durations. The nutrients are tied up into vitamins and amino acids as well as in the actual microbes themselves. With more nutrients retained during the process, Bokashi composting actually benefits future crops by allowing them to be healthier, more resilient, and more fruitful.

Summary of the Advantages to Bokashi

• Easier, faster and less labor intensive than traditional composting
• Highly scalable – you can use the Bokashi method in an apartment or a commercial farm
• Does not result in foul odors – making it ideal for people living in more urban environments.
• Produces higher quality, “slow release” nutrients for gardens and farms.
• It can be used to recycle a variety of wastes that cannot be composted, including meat and dairy.

Bokashi composting allows for more nutrients to be returned to the soil, all while requiring less time and labor than traditional methods. In a world that is becoming more focused on natural ways to provide nutrients, rather than synthetic chemicals that perform the same task, it's easy to see why Bokashi itself is becoming so widely implemented.

The History of Bokashi & How It Works

TeraGanix Food Waste Recycling kit

Bokashi composting is not only an ancient practice, but it is also an excellent alternative to traditional aerobic composting. No one is 100% sure exactly where bokashi first originated, or the precise steps in its evolution that brought it to the system we have today, but there are respected theories that tie this tradition to northeast and central Asia. One thing is for certain: bokashi composting is ideal for modern society.

Bokashi is a powder made from bran used in anaerobic composting. This type of composting has several key benefits for the average Joe. A traditional compost heap is a requires a significant amount of work to keep properly maintained. Compost needs to be monitored, turned, aged and sifted... not to mention the pungent smell of compost is off-putting for many people.

Today's EM Bokashi compost eliminates the work, pests and smell associated with decompostion based composting. The practice is believed to have its earliest roots in ancient Korea. Through Korean composting traditions and new scientific research, compost engineers were able to design what we know as bokashi today. Korean natural farming encourages the growth of certain natural indigenous microorganisms (IMs). These IMs are generally cultivated in cooked rice, milk or another media. Surprisingly similar to the way yogurt is created and maintained, a single culture can be kept alive and producing starters for compost heaps for generations.

EM Bokashi is made with Effective Microorganisms®, or EM•1® Microbial Inoculant. EM•1® is mixed with molasses, water and bran and fermented. The EM•1® ensures a consistent finished product. Effective Microorganisms® was discovered by a man named Dr. Teruo Higa in Japan. Dr. Higa has a doctorate in agricultural research and fruit tree cultivation from Ryukyus University in Okinawa, Japan. Like many great discoveries, EM® came about through an accident -- Higa threw out some waste from his experiments with microorganisms and found the surrounding plants began to flourish.

The EM® that Dr. Higa found in his waste pile was not the EM® that we see today. The current batch of EM•1® took a degree of refining before becoming the product sold today. The current EM•1® Microbial Inoculant mostly consists of lactic acid and phototrophic bacteria as well as yeast.

EM Bokashi came shortly after the EM® concentrate in 1982 and was combined with a special airtight bucket to be easily used in homes and schools. Since that humble beginning, Bokashi has spread to over 120 countries around the world.

Bokashi requires a high carbon media on which the microorganisms colonize. The media of choice today is wheat bran or rice bran. Bokashi starters are sold in a dried form and are mostly used in home composting. The method does not produce the smell of normal composting. The sealed container encourages a pickling process, preventing the materials from rotting, and keeps out pests such as insects.

Because EM Bokashi can be used in tight quarters and in sealed containers, it is ideal for people who want to compost in a small living space. The most common application is using an EM Bokashi bin in a household kitchen. The homeowner can dump kitchen scraps and vegetable matter into the bin and spread a layer of EM Bokashi mix over top of the scraps.

The EM Bokashi awakens in this nutrient-rich environment and the microbes quickly begin to grow. While they grow, they ferment and break down the organic (lignin and cellulose) components of the kitchen scraps in the bin. This causes the food scraps to pickle, mainainting their original shape, but preparing them to final breakdown in the soil. A liquid can be drained out of the Bokashi Bucket Fermenter and used as compost tea, which is a liquid fertilizer useful for growing plants. If the user has no desire to make use of the compost tea, the material is perfectly safe to be drained down a sewer line.

Once the Bokashi bin is filled with alternating layers of bokashi mix and food scraps, is full it is then left to ferment for a couple of weeks. When this time is up, the contents are then buried six to eight inches under the soil and left to finish breaking down. Microbes, worms, and insects in the soil digest the materials into humus in as little as two weeks. This is all done without the tools and work associated with traditional composting!

Different Types of Food Waste Recycling: Aerobic Vs. Anaerobic Composting

There are two different categories that are used to describe the different kinds of composting according to the way the microorganisms work. The main difference lies in the fact that Aerobic microorganisms need air, and anaerobic microorganisms do not. Before deciding which type of composting you are going to use, it is important to learn a little more about what kind of benefits each type will provide, as well as each type’s drawbacks.

Aerobic Composting
Aerobic composting is the type of composting that naturally occurs above the ground. This is because aerobic microorganisms require air to function. Typical aerobic composting areas take place in a simple pile, or in a container that allows air in to circulate around the materials. Aerobic piles also generate more heat than anaerobic composts. Temperatures may even get high enough to kill weeds and pathogens.

There are a few drawbacks to aerobic composting. First, the process can result in gaseous by-products that smell unpleasant to humans and attract pests. If you notice an odor similar to rotten eggs, your compost pile may be too wet and you need add more dry material – or – the pile may need to mixed/turned more thoroughly. This constant need to monitor and adjust the pile makes aerobic composting a bit labor intensive… which is drawback number two. The third drawback is that eventually the spaces holding oxygen between organic matter will be depleted. When this happens, the decomposition process slows down tremendously. A way to avoid this happening is to use a form of aeration during the construction of your compost pile. You can do this by placing an object like a recycled shipping pallet underneath the pile to allow air to travel beneath your compost. Also, adding beneficial microbes in the form of a microbial inoculant will help enhance the bacterial environment and speed along the process.

If your compost pile is shrinking and needs more oxygen, there are a few ways that you can get more air to it. One way is to turn your compost pile over by either dumping it into a new container or moving it over using a shovel or pitch fork. You can also stir your compost pile using a pitchfork to allow air to access other parts of your compost pile. Or, there are some tools on the market that look like giant corkscrews that can aerate the pile.

Anaerobic Composting
The alternate method of food waste recycling is anaerobic composting. This method does not use oxygen, therefore it must take place underground or in a sealed container. In the past, farmers in Japan used this method of composting in the fields. Traditionally, you would dig a hole or pit and place your compost materials in it, then cover it with a thick layer of soil so that no oxygen gets to it.

Today – thanks to specially designed composting buckets – anaerobic composting is much more convenient than ever. It is a faster process than traditional composting and does not emit an unpleasant smell. Anaerobic composting is actually a method of fermentation rather than composting. This is beneficial because the nutrients are not broken down like traditional compost methods, but are instead preserved in a bio-available form that plants can absorb.

Anaerobic composting is a great alternative to traditional composting and is the best method to use when you have waste that attracts bugs, has a bad odor, or is wet… common qualities of food scraps. It is also a great option if composting above ground is not allowed in your area (in some urban areas it is actually against city ordinances to compost), you have limited space, or you don’t enjoy the look (or smell) of a compost pile in your yard. With anaerobic composting you can begin improving the soil much faster than aerobic composting (within 2 weeks), so it is perfect if you are trying to start a fertile garden with quality soil. You can also use the anaerobic compost in planters by layering the compost with potting soil.

Bokashi Composting
If you live in an apartment or a home that does not have space for composting, the Bokashi Food Recycling System is a super convenient way to recycle your food waste no matter what sort of restrictions your residence has. This method is a type of anaerobic composting that uses a smaller container and sometimes two so you can process the first batch while you have another batch forming. This method is ideal for people who still want to compost but feel as if they can’t due to renting restrictions or lack of space.

What is Bokashi Composting?

Bokashi is powder made of certified-organic rice bran. This powder is commonly used to activate anaerobic fermentation; a method of food waste recycling that has many advantages to traditional composting. The Bokashi concept is based on an ancient Japanese farming practice, where farmers used microbe rich soil to break down food and harvest waste, creating a nutrient dense humus for fertilizing future fields.

Decomposition, or rotting, is usually a result of anaerobic microbes, microbes that require little to no oxygen. These putrefying microbes dominate the materials, releasing foul smelling gases in the process. The more commonly known composting methods use microbes that require oxygen...lots of it. If poorly managed, even aerobic composting can produce lots of odors and attract all kinds of pests. And, aerobic composting can also be very time-consuming, laborious and inefficient.

The Bokashi method is anaerobic, but is not putrefactive or rotting. Bokashi anaerobic composting utilizes microorganisms that require little to know oxygen (they are known as facultative) to break down organic materials. For this reason, the process generates few if any bad smelling by-products and, compared to traditional composting, requires very little oversight or time. Bokashi is far more convenient than traditional composting and is so innocuous, that you can perform it indoors. Since the microbes do not require oxygen, the process can be contained within an airtight space and once the process is complete, you simply add the nutrient-rich humus to your garden, worm bed, animal feed or lawn.

Benefits of Bokashi Composting:

• Effective breaks down food waste including heavier items that traditional composting cannot, including dairy, fish and meat.
• No noxious byproduct, which means no disgusting smell and no greenhouse gases. The final Bokashi product has a sweet, pickled smell as opposed to a rancid decomposition smell.
• An enclosed system guards against attracting insect and pests, a major drawback of traditional composting that must be left in “open air” so that the compost pile microbes have access to oxygen.
• Takes approximately two weeks to complete, much faster than traditional composting! And Bokashi bran powder can be coupled with Super Cera (Super C) Powder to create EM-1 Bokashi for super accelerated composting.
• Minimal involvement required – no turning or monitoring green to brown ratios. Simply add food scraps and the bran, and walk away. The microorganisms do the rest. After two week, bury the fermented matter wherever you want to enhance plant life and the compost will fully break down in the soil over the next 2 to 4 weeks.
• Super compact! No more need for backyard space… Bokashi bins can fit in a pantry or under the sink. This makes Bokashi ideal for businesses and urban dwellers (or anyone sick of maintaining their traditional compost heap’s green to brown ratio.)
• Super-efficient! The materials break down quickly in a small amount of space… and since the process is contained, no nutrients are lost.

What you need to get started with Bokashi:

• Unwanted food waste
• Bokashi rice bran or EM Bokashi for accelerated composting
• A Bokashi Bucket / Composting Bin - should be compact and feature a flexible, easy-open, air-tight lids. The Deluxe Bokashi Bucket Fermenter is also infused with EM-X® Ceramic powders that accelerate the fermentation process.
• Having two buckets on hand is even more convenient as you can switch them out quickly for greater efficiency.
• Consider a Bokashi bin featuring a spigot if you want to use compost tea during the two week cycle.
• A space to bury the resulting fermented contents of the Bokashi bin (garden beds, pots, etc).

That’s it! It’s obvious why Bokashi is considered the easiest food recycling method available. Give it a try, and you’ll never go back to aerobic food waste composting again!