Bokashi composting, also spelled bocashi composting, is a new way to deal with kitchen scraps. The proponents of the system claim that it has a number of benefits not found in more traditional composting methods. In this blog post, I will have a close look at Bokashi composting and separate myth from reality.
Bokashi Composting—What is it?
From Bokashicomposting.com we have the following description: “Bokashi composting is a safe, convenient, and quick way to compost food waste in your kitchen, garage, or apartment.”
To get started, you need a special bokashi bucket that has a tight lid and a spigot at the bottom to drain off liquids (pictured above). These will run you $60 to $150, or you can make a DIY for $20. You also need the ‘special sauce’! It would not be a very good process if there was no special sauce to sell you. It is normally referred to as bokashi bran or Effective Microbes.
The process is fairly simple. Put your food scraps in the pail and sprinkle some bokashi bran on top. Squish it down tight to get the air out. Close the lid. Each time you have more scraps, add them to the pail, add bran, and squish.
After a few days, liquid starts to form in the bottom of the pail. This needs to be drained, or it will start to stink. This liquid, the ‘bokashi tea,’ can be used to fertilize your house plants or your garden plants.
After a few weeks, when the pail is full, you take the contents outside and either dig it into your garden or add it to your compost pile.
That is the basic process. If you want more details or have specific questions about the process, there is lots of info on the net.
Benefits of Bokashi Composting
I found the following benefits listed at various sites on the net.
1) You can compost dairy products and meat.
2) No strong odors
3) No nutrients lost
4) No insects or rodents
5) No turning necessary
6) No need to worry about the amount of greens and browns
7) Food scraps are inoculated with EM (Effective Microbes)
8) Produces a nutrient-rich tea for plants
9) Can be carried out on a small scale, which is perfect for apartments
10) Very quick—complete in 2 weeks
11) Saying the word ‘bokashi’ will impress friends. 🙂
This sounds like a good system, and any system that returns kitchen scraps to the soil is a good thing. So in general, I have no problem with bokashi composting. If it gets you composting—great.
But… there is always a but. Is this really a method of composting? Is this system better than the more traditional methods of composting? These are the important questions and the ones I will look at in the rest of this post.
Bokashi Composting—Is it Really Composting?
If you read the above quickly, you might have missed the statement that says, “After a few weeks, when the pail is full, you take the contents outside and either dig it into your garden or add it to your compost pile.” Does this make sense? Why would you add fully composted material back to the compost pile?
If you read the fine print, you soon understand that bokashi composting is not a composting process at all. Bokashi in Japanese means to ferment. This process is actually a fermentation process. What you are doing is turning your kitchen scraps into pickled kitchen scraps. At the end of the process, the food looks just like it did when it went into the system, except it’s pickled. An orange looks like an orange, and an apple looks like an apple.
There is no composting taking place in bokashi composting—talk about false advertising!
Knowing this fact makes the earlier statement make more sense. Once you have fermented your scraps, you then need to compost them. You can do this by adding them to a compost pile, or you can just dig them into your garden soil, where they will compost naturally.
This system is especially promoted for apartment owners—what do they do with it after fermentation? Throw it in the garbage? They could have done that before fermenting.
Now that you understand the process, it is also clear why it is so fast—only 2 weeks. It is fast because there is no composting, which is a slow process.
Bokashi composting is not composting!
Bokashi vs Traditional Composting
The benefits listed above as #2 to #6, inclusive, are really not benefits when we compare the two methods. I make compost in bins and don’t worry about greens and browns—I just add whatever I have. It is outside, so the smell does not bother me, and if a mouse comes by for a bite to eat, so what! Nutrients can be lost if it rains too much, but they are lost to the soil below the compost pile—they are not really lost since the tree roots under the compost pile use the nutrients. If I really care about nutrient loss, I can cover the compost pile to keep out the rain.
Traditional composting, if higher temperatures are reached, can even compost meat and cheese.
The difference in the two systems is the pickling process. The apparent benefits of pickling are the Effective Microbes added to soil and the bokashi tea.
For more information on traditional composting, see Compost—What is Compost? and Benefits of Composting.
For a detailed comparison of Bokashi and traditional composting see, Bokashi vs. Composting.
Effective Microbes
Dr. Higa, the person who originally developed the bokashi system, also developed a special sauce that he called ‘Effective Microbes’ (EM). All kinds of special properties have been assigned to this mixture, but nowadays lots of people sell the microbes already added to the bran. Everyone in the industry now has their own ‘secret sauce,’ i.e., Effective Microbes + bran.
Adding the microbes is important since they control the fermentation process. For example, in winemaking, special starter yeast mixtures may be added to start the process. The reason for doing this is that you want the right kind of microbes to grow quickly and outcompete the ones that will create a lot of bad odors.
There are also claims that the EM are good for the garden. There are some studies that show a benefit from the microbes, but most show no positive results.
Testing of EM tea on field-grown crops found that they did not increase yield. Similar field studies have shown the same results. Effective microbes are important to make the bokashi system work, but they don’t really add any benefit to your garden.
Note (added April 2021): More recent research indicates that even the EM microbes may not be required for making Bokashi.
Nutritious Bokashi Tea
As fermentation progresses, excess liquid drains into the bottom of the pail, and you need to remove it. It is claimed that this tea is a great source of nutrients for your plants.
How nutritious is it? Some sites say that you can use it straight or dilute it 1:100. That is a huge red flag. A fertilizer that can be effective at full strength and at a 100 dilution rate does not make sense. Some people have commented that “it’s a biology thing, not a chemistry thing, and so the dilution does not matter.” They are saying ignore the nutrients because it is the microbes that are important. I addressed that in the discussion above. The science does not support the idea that the microbes add value. Even if they did, dilution by a factor of 100 would still be important.
There is very little published about the nutrient levels in Bokashi tea, which is odd since so many websites promote it. I did find one study and analyzed it in another post called Is Bokashi Tea a Good Fertilizer?
In short, it contains very little nitrogen, high levels of P and K, and several of the micronutrients are on the low side. It also contains high levels of sodium and chloride, both of which are toxic to plants at low levels.
Bokashi tea should not be used on container plants, and even in the garden it should be diluted 1:100 before it is used to reduce any potential damage from sodium and chloride.
Real Benefits of Bokashi
I am still not sold on Bokashi. The tea has no real value, and the fermented food scraps still need to be disposed of. If you are going to dispose of them in the garden, you might as well compost instead.
In recent years a new way of handling the Bokashi ferment, called Soil Factory, has become popular. I have discussed it in detail in Soil Factory Using Bokashi Ferment. It is a way to process the scraps in the home in a few weeks. You can even use my improved Instant Soil Factory method and eliminate the two-week period. Using these methods, Bokashi makes sense for apartment owners and others with no garden.
Both bokashi composting and traditional composting provide your garden and plants with the same benefits. Bokashi just seems to be an additional extra step that is not necessary. I would not use it.
That leaves us with one benefit from the list presented above, and this one can’t be denied. Saying the word ‘bokashi’ is cool and will impress your friends.
All I have to say is to each is own.
I am new to bokashi and just use regular pail with tight lid. Dug up my 16 x 3 foot raised garden this early spring and buried 6 – 5 gallon pails full of bokashi 3-4 weeks before I was ready to plant. I am never going back. My garden is Awesome…my neigbours are commenting and amazed at how lushest and beautiful my veggies are and producing in abundance amounts… I am very satisfied with the outcome and find it much easier and faster then traditional composting. ‘
I have all the proof I need.
I was just about to buy a bokashi starterkit when I read your article. You saved me a lot if money, I’ll stick to my warm compost. Thank you😀
I think you have entirely missed the point of Bokashi composting, and yes, it is composting. Its a 3 part process. I have never seen anyone claim, at least anyone with knowledge of the technique, that the process is completed within the bucket and you are left with finished compost. Also, why would anyone even compost aerobically if they do not have a garden, let alone anaerobically? I have been using the Bokashi method for over a decade, along with vermicomposting and regular aerobic composting. By far, Bokashi has been the most thorough, fastest, and convenient. Again, no one has claimed that you do not have to continue the process after a few weeks in the bucket. After everything is fermented, including btw meat, bones, dairy, even cat litter, it usually takes about 4 to 5 weeks within a trench or a regular compost pile to finish. Try composting those things aerobically and see what you get. The point is that practically anything can be composted, and again, it is a composting method not just a fermentation method. By fermenting and inoculating food scraps from vegetables to meat to dairy you are able to quickly compost these things in the aerobic step.
The term Bokashi composting is usually used for the process that goes on in the pail, and it is not a form of composting.
Thanks for your comment. I’m a new gardener. but being in the city with a small place, don’t have the space for a large aerobic compost pile, so I chose Bokashi composting. I’m excited to be able to bury my first fermented bucket of food scrapes this week. Anyhow, your comments make sense. The author’s point of view is skewed (and discouraging). Thanks for verbalizing what I was thinking!
hi, sir….i am new to gardening and plants.I just come across bokashi system of composting in facebook advertisement ..I want to start terrace container gardening. I made bokashi bucket system on my own but purchased. bokashi brawn and coco peat facebook advertiser..after setting up I have so many doubts same as you explained.. How bokashi tea is useful as they said microbes will not live in oxygen..so they die soon as the tea is extracted from bucket..also diluting tea dilutes nutrients also..so i lost confidence on bokashi system..but yes these buckets I can use as storage of waste till they are topped up.only..and I have to go for compost yard only…….
I am an mechanical engineer in my 50’s..I have limited place, no soil or back yard..I want to start terrace container gardening..please suggest ,me genuine sites for composting, pot mix preparation, self watering container …I want to prepare everything on my own..I have all tools..
There is lots on Google, but this link may be useful about soils; http://www.gardenfundamentals.com/soil-for-raised-beds/
Hi.I have been using the bokashi method for few years now. The only way I can compost in the two environments I live in (in the arctic where we have no soil, and in our townhouse with a back deck, no yard) is using this method. I have found that it’s not necessary to use bran. Neither is it necessary to have a bucket with a spigot. I make an inoculant using equal parts dairy kefir whey and molasses – added to water in a spray bottle. I ferment our food scraps (everything our kitchen produces, but cut up quite small) in a bucket, anaerobically, for a couple of weeks, and then mix the lot with soil in rubbermaid bin which I store in the house or basement until warmer weather, and the resulting compost can be added to raised beds or cold frames. I have recently found that my rich compost is lacking phosphorous, so I have started adding in sheep manure. Took me three years to figure that one out.
The same procedure is being done in Scandinavia. The ferment is added to soil, allowed to sit for a couple of weeks, and mixed in.
What is not clear is how composted the material is at that point. But there is no doubt that method works.
Hi Lynn, I’m curious about the serum you’ve used to replace the bran. I hope you don’t mind answering a couple of questions:
-How much water do you add to the equal part mixture of kefir whey and molasses?
-Do you buy the molasses or make your own, and if so, how do you make them?
Thanks!
Hi Robert,
I really enjoyed reading this post and only wish I had read it before buying my apartment dwelling daughter a bokashi bin. We have had some issues with using the end result, unless you are careful it really reeks – like lawn clippings. The only advantage I can see is that if you live in apartment and want to compost, the bokashi reduces the volume considerably, enabling your mum to come and collect the bucket now and then rather than emptying it every day. The alternative would be that the food scraps end up in the garbage I suppose.
You are right. “Bokashi” is not composting. It is the Japanese word for fermented organic matter.
The fermentation denatures organic matter, including proteins and fats. This is why bokashi will accept virtually anything.
“Bokashi composting” is what happens after you add bokashi to soil.
Then, and only then, the soil’s ecosystem – a legion of many types of organism – breaks down the denatured matter even further and feeds on it.
Ecosystem science has a concept called “carrying capacity”, which is governed by the balance of energy inputs and outputs.
Bokashi retains most of the energy embodied in organics, because the pickling process does not emit much. Traditional composting loses embodied energy.
(a) Aerobic decomposition emits copious amounts of heat.
(b) Anaerobic decompostion emits copious amount of methane, into whose embodied energy the original has been converted.
So from a given amount of organics, the net energy in a bokashi-fed ecosystem is higher, and so is its carrying capacity. This can be seen in the mass and diversity of organisms. The mass of organisms also governs the mass of soil carbon, of which the more the better.
Most else between fermentation vs decomposition comes out the same in the long run. However, less than perfect heaps and compost bins – i.e. all of them – also leach nutrients into the uncultivated ground beneath, reducing the target soil’s plant (as opposed to ecosystem) carrying capacity. Bokashi composting (see above) goes straight to the soil.
You should also be interested in the lactic acid that pickles bokashi. As you know, our muscles produce it as a by-product of energy conversion, and our liver breaks it down into ingredients for more chemical energy (the ADP to ATP reaction). Some of the soil’s organisms act, in effect if not mechanism, as a gigantic liver. They feed on lactic acid, and get energy from it. This is why bokashi breaks down so unbelievably quickly in the soil, and also why worms shun bokashi at first (too acid for them) but are all over it after a few days.
This is all basic science. Go read the literature. Increasingly desperate recourse to “not peer reviewed” doesn’t wash any more. Traditional composting is simply less effective, less efficient, slower and smellier. Time for a rethink.
Re: “The fermentation denatures organic matter, including proteins and fats”. I searched for information to support this and found none. I also do not think the term denaturation has anything to do with fats – just proteins. I am willing to look at your proof.
Re: ““Bokashi composting” is what happens after you add bokashi to soil.” I have never seen the term used this way. Once in the soil regular composting will happen. How is bokashi composting different in the soil?
“So from a given amount of organics, the net energy in a bokashi-fed ecosystem is higher, and so is its carrying capacity. This can be seen in the mass and diversity of organisms. ” – why would that add to diversity??
I have to say this is certainly an interesting counter-post / argument for the bokashi method, which I am new to. Robert, while I can appreciate your need for scientific research, as many have stated in this post – and you yourself have stated the need for in the studies cited to have controls – the need for scientific research in any one particular thing, and then related to others, as controls or not, would be (for many) too complicated a process to undertake while trying to maintain a garden. On the other hand, many studies have been done about alternate methods of gardening, composting, using fertilizers, pesticides, etc… and in the end I believe it is a combination of things we’ve tried that worked and things we’ve tried that failed vs. things we’ve only read about (whether anecdotal or scientific). Perhaps the structure of truly “healthy” soil – a soil that grows a general variety of plants that are within the realm of palate-ability to humans – is what should be studied first to understand what a particular person’s soil would actually need to achieve that general range they are looking to grow the foods they want to grow (think soil tests at Cooperative Extensions or Universities – a truly scientific approach based on contemporary agricultural methods, aka 20-century ag,) while trying to whittle down the work to an easy process that fits into their lifestyle (apartment dweller vs. property owner vs. farmer, etc.. I, on the other hand, practice gardening and farming from a permaculturalist perspective, looking at a much wider range of foods and food crops that are placed in functional design on an x,y,z dimensional that includes time and considers the entire ecosystem, mimicking complex systems in nature which seek to achieve a long term balance, or health, one could say. Considering bokashi in this light, one could make parallels to studies that have previously been done on those ecosystems in light of the soil in those healthy environs – forests and the transitional zones around them. It seems to me that the overall guiding factor with bokashi is the pH produced – of the tea and the fermented “waste” product, which must then be composted to truly achieve a full net-benefit, which, yes, your correct, many commercial websites leave out (I too was very perplexed by this and felt more like I was being sold something, then told something). Here is a study I see as a direct relation to the debate, which may prove (through further scientific study) bokashi to be corollary: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jobm.3620370506/full (just one out of many I could have googled and put here)
Robert, you yourself have stated that nature composts (and has been for time immoral (paraphrasing)) so let’s look to nature for the evidence – forest soils are among the healthiest soils (and environments in general) for humans and living species here on the surface of our planet, so it seems to me the study paves the path for a natural bokashi style fermentation process at the very top of the forest floor that provides the path for a) disrupting the colonization and proliferation of certain types of (pathogenic) bacteria (to that particular forest ecosystem, at least) while b) promoting the growth (or at least providing an environment for the continued in-habitability) of *fungi* which are beneficial (the world over) to the soil micro-ecosystem within the greater forest/plain/tundra/desert/whatever ecosystem, and in fact most places on earth where soil is considered “living.”
Bring humans back into play now – we disrupt a natural cycle, create our “garden,” and start promoting what WE favor (tomatoes, greens, herbs, insert the food you love here) and of course the ecosystem in the soil changes and adapts, or not, providing niches for other inhabitants to move in. Bokashi, in this regard, could be seen – again, yes, further study could be done – as a soil chemistry tool to lower pH, causing pathogenic bacteria to fall in population and fungi to either maintain, or increase in growth which work in concert with plants in symbiotic relationships as has been proven in many soil types, from volcanic areas to rain forests and in places across the globe (and yes, I know fungi can also harm in soil ecosystems.)
Rather than imposing a change in ecosystem, as humans have been doing for centuries now, creating niche areas for unwanted inhabitants to move in (many people call these pests, “bugs,” weeds, etc.) And, rather than trying to continue to extend our control into the natural environs by having to spread compost, or spray teas, or fertilizers, or pesticides, etc… why do we not *study* the complex patterns and interactions between all the living things (which came from the dead things, so we’d have to study that also) in the soil… around roots… next to micro-organisms… who craw around the hyphae and mycelium of fungi, eaten by worms, exchanged with root nodules, etc… to develop guilds of desirable plants that reach from within the ground (tubers, bulbs, fungi, etc.) to the soil surface (leafy greens, small herbs, “cover” crops such as white clovers,) to an herbaceous zone (oregano, parsley, basil, etc.,) and further up to a bush zone (blueberry, cranberry, etc.,) to a sub-canopy (apple, pear, plum, etc.,) to a canopy (chestnut, oak, hickory, etc.,) while vines and climbers transverse the entire vertical space (peas, beans, grapes, hops, etc.,) producing the widest area possible of edible plants while allowing nature to provide, and do, the composting for us with very little effort involved at all – perhaps, just maybe, some chop and drop as you yourself use, Robert, but that’s about it. That is Permaculture.
Compost – whether “chop and drop” style, or Berkley Method (which we’ve done in 21 days!), or long-term 5-year humanure style (also doing) – is, just like bokashi, a *tool* or *method* to achieve a favorable or healthy environment for the things WE want to ultimately eat, in a faster, easier way (or for the animals we want to eat – the top of the food chain). Tools must be created for specific purpose, and sharpened, and perhaps modified, re-used/tested, re-sharpened, refined – a cycle. Science can’t always break down the absolute specifics, though we convince ourselves that it can because we’ve seen what that level of control can do for OUR species – just as much as we can convince ourselves that it can’t as you seem to be doing by requesting someone – anyone – provide a journal-published study that has covered all the bases you need to make it believable and until such a time as they do, it is not worthy of approach.
If you need a study to explain every aspect of a particular method or tool that can be used to garden, you are missing the point, which in my mind is to grow the food that we love as quickly and easily as possible, while dealing with the waste products in such a way as to make the process truly, truly sustainable, meaning energy is neither created nor destroyed – it is moved from one state (potential) to another (kinetic) and back again while we benefit from that cycle of death and life within our lifetime, hopefully giving back our life to the cycle so the cycle can continue. Humans have lost sight of that natural cycle because we’ve become convinced that science will prove otherwise – we can control it all.
If a method works for one person with or without scientific study, it may not work for another because the ingredients, or temperature, or moisture content, or methodology, etc. was not followed exactly the same. The variables could be endless and you yourself eluded to this above in many replies and even stated that ag studies are typically in a lab where every control is just-so, which is NOT how nature works.
Sure, you can target websites that sell bokashi EM, buckets, etc.. and chide them for lack of statements and research, or you could tout one method you’ve used for many years as the absolute best (for you, without citing scientific study in return, I might add) when at the end of the day it is up to the practitioner to determine for him or herself what works, what takes too much work, or is desirable work, or acceptable work, or even tolerable work. to get the food output and type desired.
For me, it’sPermaculture, which is a design process that doesn’t see the tool as the answer, but merely part of the path to achieving a truly sustainable food producing environment that considers the patterns of nature and the living things in nature to create that balance/symbiosis necessary to mimick nature so that the life/death cycle repeats in a way that is favorable not only to humans but to all the components of the food web within a bio-region, free of complete and total human imposition, like a factory farm, or even a backyard “garden.”
Have a look but be warned – you won’t find a scientific study explaining it all. There never will be one because our planet is just too complex to take all those variables into consideration in a single study. It is an evolutionary process just as nature herself is, and that is the crux of it: We all learn as we all go, with eyes either open or closed to what others find in nature as either working or not working, modified for their location, point in time, climate, ecosystem, and liking. There isn’t necessarily a panacea anywhere.
I feel as though you refuse to accept this point throughout this post and rather than truly seek the answer for yourself, you merely repeat the mantra that no *scientific* study has been done and therefore this is all suspect until such a study is done, yet even that study would be suspect if done in a lab and not in an environment to your liking, or if not reviewed in a notable scientific journal. Rather cyclic, hypocritical, and against the true nature of your blog which seems to be a platform for proving what you’ve found works for you. Try it, Mikey – you might like it.
We all have opinions, even the scientists. And here you say “Learn the *truth* about gardening,” which is actually mainly from your perspective. SO, I say to you – where’s your scientific “evidence.” And, who’s to say that’s really “truth” ? I’m sure we could all come up with variables that would prove otherwise. You say on the “Don’t Buy these products” page that “Most gardeners should not be adding phosphorus.” REALLY? Who are “most” gardeners, and, where are they? At what altitude, climate, solar aspect, wind speed, barometric pressure, etc. ???
Our science fails us time and time again and we’ve staked our present and future on it, leaving behind the knowledge of our ancestors because it was anecdotal at best, yet it lead us to where we are now, only bolstered by science in the last perhaps 10000 years since the agricultural revolution within a period of tens of thousands of years, if not hundreds of thousands or even millions when we look, using science, at our long history on this planet.
Good luck with your garden, whether you shit right on your plants or bokashi your mother into your compost pile. I’m gonna keep on using my methods because I’ve found they work, I like them, and I eat REALLY, really well while building soil and a community around me that includes all living things, and dead. FO’KASHI! 🙂
Thank you Robert for some needed second thoughts. Greenies, of which I am proudly one, get sucked into miracle solutions.
Firstly, no composting process can produce more than is put into the system. Bokashi is a closed system, so whatever NPK is there can’t be increased by microbes. So whatever difference there is between nature, trad composting, vermiculture, and bokashi it isn’t the production of nutrients.
Secondly, claims of increased speed may be deceiving because breaking down the material from large to small doesn’t equate to producing anything that might be called soil. Every report of fully functioning bokashi states the material doesn’t change much in gross appearance, let alone at the microscopic or chemical levels. Much of the change is probably due to mechanically crushing the air out of the household waste, and then digging it into the compost pit or garden bed. From descriptions, I doubt bokashi processes are better at softening kitchen waste than multiple freeze-thaw cycles.
Thirdly, I don’t see how bokashi pickled waste produces soil faster than simply rotting with full fungal and bacterial growth, traditional composting, or vermiculture. Body farm experiments indicate a human body, exposed on a normal forest floor, can decompose in 2 weeks with only insect and microbial activity (no animals). Burial multiplies the time by a factor of eight so it could take 16 weeks for bokashi to break down meat and fat. I suggest the anaerobic methods and sealed pail reduces oxygen more than burial.
The key decomposition determinants are temperature, oxygen, enough but not too much water, and a healthy microbial community. In normal decomposition there is a large anaerobic community that specializes in the breakdown of fats and proteins releasing putrid cadaver odours and an effluent that creates a plant dead zone around the rotting meat, fat, and bone. Anaerobic bacteria typically reduce nitrate fertilizer accessibility by breaking down fertilizers into nitrogen gas or nitrous oxides that is lost to the atmosphere. It takes further aerobic decomposition from large, incredibly complex soil microorganism communities to turn these decomp effluents into nutrients for plant use.
Similarly, bokashi can’t tolerate oxygen, or a vibrant microbial community, and is hostile to normal fungi and bacteria. So I doubt that meat, dairy, fats and small bones will change their chemical nature in a mildly acidic, anaerobic medium in 2 weeks. Similar to Kimchee, Sauerkraut, Yoghurt and Kefir, Dill pickles, or ancient Roman Garum I would expect bokashi to preserve kitchen waste. It shouldn’t break kitchen waste down into nutrients available to other soil communities or for speedy plant growth.
Fourthly, just try planting anything into raw bokashi. I’m thinking the acidic, anaerobic nature would kill any aerobic process, which is essential for growing plants. A ‘mild vinegar’ smell indicates a proper bokashi culture, which worms avoid until the acid is diluted or neutralized by a base producing a salt (not so good for healthy soil and plants). Further composting is always recommended to break down bokashi into a viable growth medium.
Fifthly, my worm composter breaks down normal kitchen waste in 4 to 8 weeks. My worm composter does not smell of vinegar, but of soil, a smell that this farm boy is long familiar. Things sprout and grow even in poor light conditions, and not just plants either. There are whole communities of biota found in proper worm compost. From macro scale worms, bugs, and beetles, to zoos full of mesofauna, to microscopic rotifers, bacteria and fungi. Of them all, Actinobacteria are the most important soil community. Bokashi must remain a speculative, unproven process for soil improvement until someone can prove that these bacteria, and other soil communities, are made more vibrant by bokashi compost processes.
By itself, I conclude that bokashi can not produce productive soil. As an intermediate step it appears counterproductive to the process, and no better than any other composting technique. Bokashi’s major benefit is convenience, and the mild reassurance that we might be doing something positive for the earth. This is the definitive difference between the two methods: bokashi produces more or less sterile, hostile to life, and unchanged kitchen waste; composting produces a fertile medium with a vibrant ecosystem not unlike soil from a long-established community.
We used Bokashi with our art teacher in our special needs school, we used it as part of a science art project over several weeks. We started from the grass roots, so started learning and understanding about the composition of soil, then so on, the students loved the whole program, it was fascinating and so did the staff…I would say it was one of the most interesting fun and meaningful learning activities we had done over the years of working there… The students had hands on practical experience throughout the whole program, and I just could not believe the quality of the veggies we harvested, I have been a keen gardener for years but never produced myself or seen other friends produce such amazing organic goodness… The broccoli had larger heads than the supermarkets, and were bug free, just proves you don’t need all the nasty heavy fertilizers or pesticides if you do the job well……
Thank you Sean! I’m am an avid lover of all aspects of nature and completely agree with you. Science is an evolving field that seems to depend on being able to say it has the final voice, until they realize something new in this awesome world and then incorporate that. I’m going into my second year of using bokashi and I am gob smacked with how quickly it makes work of the kitchen scraps I take home from a community food centre I volunteer at. I’m happy, as they are, that I divert the scraps from the bin and turn them into compost and I hope this coming year has me diverting even more.
Nature is so complex we don’t even understand a fraction of it and that is the true magic. If I were to make a t-shirt to explain it, it would say ‘I believe in science and fairies.’ I respect the scientists but I will never discount the magic. – that to me, leaves room for an open mind to take in far more than the scientifically, peer reviewed data.
Hi, I was thinking of use this method to get rid of the left overs in my kitchen and then add it in my earthworm bins. Will/or can this help as a sort of pre-earthworm food to help the little wigger to do there work faster? Thanks for this post.
I am not a worm expert, but people do report feeding fermented bokashi to worms.
The first time I tried feeding my bokashi’d waste to worms, the worms died. I believe the fermented waste is too acidic for the worms. However you do not need the worms at all. For years now, I have been fermenting my kitchen waste in five gallon buckets and burying it in bins mixed with plenty of soil. The more soil the better, when you are doing this indoors, as it helps speed the decomposition. My most exciting recent discovery is that you don’t need to bother with bran at all. For the past several months I have been making a serum from equal parts kefir whey and molasses and diluting this with water in a spray bottle. I just spray mist the daily kitchen waste contribution to the five gallon bucket. Doesn’t take much more than a fine mist, and the process dispenses with the hassle of making or buying the bran bokashi.
Very interesting.
Just this past week there was a good discussion on The Garden Professors Facebook group about mixing finished bokashi with soil. They claimed, and supported it with pictures, that in 10 days the material was no longer recognizable and they ended up with nice soil. What is not clear is how much if any decomposition really took place. You can get the same effect by putting kitchen waste in a blender and mixing the smoothy with soil.
I am not surprised that the bokashi method works without bran. Many people in India and Asia make a similar mixture without bran – they use different names to describe the fermentation process.
But! With the bokashi’d waste, the waste is not buzzed in a blender. The microbes manage to reduce the fermented stuff quite admirably in a very short time. I also have experienced this. As much as 10 gallons of bokashi’d waste mixed with lots of soil in a box pretty much disappeared in 2 weeks – except for the few really large chunks (big onion tops from the local soup kitchen). Also, though the box was in a south facing location, it did not have a cover, and the average temperatures over 24 hours were only about 10C (arctic…). The decomposition acts so much better when there is plenty of soil. Since I do all of 90% of my actual composting indoors in rubbermaid bins, this is an important point. In the early years, I tried to skimp (because purchasing bags of soil was very expensive ) but the results of last summer’s experiments showed how quickly the decomposition could take place when much more soil was used.
I never said the bokashi waste is buzzed with a blender. I am comparing bokashi with blending – another way of getting rid of kitchen waste. Both make the visible, recognizable kitchen waste disappear. With blending we know that no decomposition has taken place. Since the results of both methods look the same, there may also not be decomposition with blokashi.
You say that “microbes manage to reduce the fermented stuff quite admirably”, and many others say this too, but there seems to be no science to support this statement. All you can say is that the material is no longer visible.
The following observations are very interesting and valuable. Thanks so much for posting.
The observation “average temperatures over 24 hours were only about 10C ” also points to a lack of decomposition and microbe activity, which generally increase temperature.
“The decomposition acts so much better when there is plenty of soil”, an important observation, but why? Does the soil neutralize the pH of the bokashi mixture, allowing the microbes in the soil to act on the material? That would indicate that the EM in the bokashi are not needed. Or does the added soil simply dry up the material which then more easily falls apart into pieces we can’t easily see?
I have no doubt that the material seems to disappear, but I am still not convinced that this is due to decomposition, which is a chemical change whereby large molecules are broken down into smaller molecules. This is not something that can be measured or detected by eye – it can only be confirmed by lab analysis.
Your method certainly seems like a good way to make use of kitchen waste. You might be interested to know that the method of adding bokashi to soil in a container is also practiced in Scandinavian countries. The soil is then used in the garden or for house plants.
The Bokashi process produces vinegar… This is part of why Bokashi is good for getting rid of pathogenic bacteria & fungi… The problem is it leaves the material too acidic to use instantly.
What you could do to make it usable instantly is add lime to bring down the acid…
Or simply let the vinegar evaporate before putting in the worm bin…
Alternatives could be add baking soda to interact with the vinegar, but I am afraid that would raise salt content…
Reasons Bokashi is such a nice precursor to worm bins is the infusion of bacteria & fungi it naturally produces… These will mostly die in the first couple of weeks exposed to air, but the worms will not care if they are dead or alive… They will still consume them…
Bokashi softens the materials for faster composting as well…
I think it may be too acidic right out of the ferment bin for worms. But I could be wrong. My suggestion would be to start with a small bit and see if they like it.
Many of my clients put the Bokashi fermented scraps in their worm bins. The key is to put about a cups worth in a corner of the bin and let the worms get accustomed to the waste. Soon it won’t be an issue. Many also claim that the process is twice as fast when using Bokashi.
Many claim that it is faster – but none provide evidence that it is. What they are reporting on is what they see – not what they test. They see the material disappear, and assume that it has composted. I have yet to find any evidence that it composts faster.
Bokashi is also made with many different recipes – it may be that some are more worm friendly than others? The input ingredients – is the kitchen waste – may also have an influence. Just a guess.
OK Robert…
Lets do this… A step by step explanation of how the fermentation process speeds up composting…
First, your waste material is put into an air tight container with a bokashi mix… note the mix of microbes is not very critical as it can be any of the microbes found in raw milk + yeast…
This mix produces vinegar as it actively softens most of the wastes in the container.
The vinegar prevents actual putrification which is what we are trying to avoid (smelly rotting).
Then, you must do something about the excess vinegar produced in order to make these scraps usable for the garden or whatever.
This is where normal composting comes in, but this can be done easily by burying in a hole in part of your garden or placing in an open bin to let air out with soil mixed in to further dry out the vinegar.
Alternatively you can add lime before mixing in soil to bring the PH to levels worms & aerobic bacteria & micro-fauna can endure.
After this, well the worms will eat the dead/dying anaerobic bacteria/yeasts & populate the heck out of your soil mixture… This is a known enriching method for soils…The worms also introduce aerobic bacteria that are good for soil.
NOTE: Bokashi is a softening & pickling process which is a precursor to composting… It is not composting…
Bokashi does produce acetic acid – vinegar, but it also produces a number of other organic acids, so the process is different than pickling.
The acids produced are not a problem when added to soil. The amount added is very small in comparison to the volume of soil and soil is a great buffer – it simply neutralizes the acid. the exception is very sandy soil. The acids are also not a problem to soil life.
I agree entirely that Bokashi is not a composting process – wrote about that in https://www.gardenmyths.com/bokashi-composting-myths/
A key question: does Bokashi speed up subsequent composting? My recent research indicates that scientists don’t know the answer. I will be discussing some of these questions in a future post.
Is there a site with a chemical analysis of both the tea, and the finished product? Figures of merit would include pH, oxidation reduction potential, and total kjieldahl nitrogen.
Every tea is different. If you look at some research studies of tea they may provide things like nitrogen and pH.
Mistakenly posted on the blog about “compost tea”, this comment may be more relevant here. Thanks.
Bokashi composting is a composting method consisting in returning to the soil pre-fermented organic matter.
Advantages over traditional composting are:
1) Compost times are greatly reduced.
2) Any kind of organic wastes can be composted easily and without any unhygienic odor due to the putrefaction of matter, which makes of it a universal method for composting possible even in urban environments and for indoor gardening, as well as in most climates conditions.
3) The Bokashi method prevents the development of pathogens which are current in anaerobic systems without any direct human interaction and with very few management need compared to traditional composting.
4) The pre-fermented organic matter is enriched in enzimes and nutrients, compared to the same organic matter not pre-fermented. The Bokashi composting method preserves most of those nutrients during the composting process, contrary to traditional composting methods who lose a part of it even in the best composting conditions.
5) The Bokashi composting method allows to compost at any scale, from a handful of home daily organic wastes to big industrial containers without changing any of the processes involved in it.
6)The by-product of the fermentation process prior to composting constitutes a natural organic fertilizer that may complement the organic nutrients already present in the soil while cultivating in a Bokashi system.
7) The Bokashi composting method results of one of the practical and technical use of a biome called “effective micro-organisms”, which is also studied in domains adjacent to agriculture and gardening like water treatments (swimming-pools, natural ponds), animal care, health and skin care and other domains where beneficial micro-organisms activity for human beings may play a role.
Hoping that it may help to dissolve some misunderstanding about the Bokashi composting method.
1) Effective microorganism substance (EM-S) reduces development and aggravation of atopic dermatitis-like skin lesions in NC/Nga mice
http://link.springer.com/article/10.3839/jksabc.2011.035
Reply using your number system.
1) any proof of this?
2) accepted as a benefit.
3) where is the proof on this?
4) re: “The pre-fermented organic matter is enriched in enzimes and nutrients, compared to the same organic matter not pre-fermented.” Not possible. Were would these enzymes and nutrients come from? They have to come from the material in the bucket, in which case there is no enrichment.
Re: “Bokashi composting method preserves most of those nutrients”. Most of the nutrients will not be released until complete decomposition occurs. At that point nutrients are simple ions. The whole point of composting is to release the nutrients, not keep them trapped inside organic molecules. I suspect Bokashi actually prevents decomposition until the material is moved to soil, in which case it actually slows down the release of nutrients which is not as good for plants.
5) same with regular composting. I just throw my kitchen wastes on the ground and they compost.
6) re: “constitutes a natural organic fertilizer that may complement the organic nutrients already present in the soil while cultivating in a Bokashi system” – that is just mumbo jumbo. Explain this in chemical terms. By the way – nutrients are not organic.
7) Horticulture science does not accept the benefits attributed to EM. Where are the references that EM adds any value to the garden?
When you throw your kitchen wastes on the ground, they rot, develop pathogens, and lose a significant part of the nutrients in various gasses associated with the decomposition process. So it is not very efficient. The Bokashi way (fermenting before composting) does not have those side-effects.
The fermentation process, which is best known in human food and notably in Orient, allows to preserve and enrich the food substrates in vitamins, enzyms, proteins and help to eliminate anti-nutrients. This is basic zymology.
If we compare the soil to a digestive system delivering nutrients to plants, the fermentation process helps the digestion of organic matter done by all the micro and macro organisms present in the soil. That is why fermented food is digested more quickly in the human stomach and intestines than non fermented one. And it is why as well the bokashi composting is faster than other traditional composting method. The fermentation process acts as a catalyst for human digestion as well as for the soil fauna digestion of organic matters, also increasing the diversity and quality of nutrients assimilable by the plant (plants roots assimilate what is present into the water of the soil passing through their cells).
With the Bokashi juice (by-product of the fermentation), there are nutrients, enzymes, vitamins and micro-organisms from the fermentation. It is acidic, yes, so better is to dilute it before giving it to the plant soil, because it may burn the roots, which is not a desirable effect. But you can as well throw it into your kitchen drain or toilets (which is beneficial against odors and such), if you consider that your plants do not need watering at the time you collect the juice.
Re: “nutrients in various gasses associated with the decomposition process” – not true. the only nutrients lost to the air as gases is nitrogen and carbon. None of the minerals are turned into gases.
Organic matter in the soil decomposes just fine without any fermentation.
Gases evaporate a lot of nitrogen which is a crucial element to the plants for their development. Very little is known about what compounds are really absorbed by the plant roots. But one knows for a long time that roots not only absorb simple mineral elements but also a lot of compounds, many being carbonated, needed by the plant, but also phytotoxic ones, natural or artificial. For example, herbicides are uptaken by the roots. Little is known about all the interactions between those compounds in the soil and within the roots themselves. So letting organic wastes to rot on the soil may not be the best way to make a good compost for plants, in my opinion. It may be quick for the cultivator, but it is also dirty, and our cultivated plants deserve better than that, don’t they ?
Absorption of Herbicides by Roots (1960)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2439603
Re: “letting organic wastes to rot on the soil may not be the best way to make a good compost for plants,” – but that is precisely what nature has been doing for millions of years!
Very interesting article and comments. I have done a side by side rot test of fermented vs unfermented food waste (apples and pears from canning), buried in the garden in fall. Both disappeared completely by mid spring. Nature does not pre-ferment stuff, and apparently we don’t need to either.
Of course, by mid spring both may have disappeared, but by mid winter you would have seen the difference between the two…
Nature is a professional Bokashi composter. Year after year it creates “lasagnas” of organic wastes and thus the anaerobical conditions for the fermentation process to take place.
I would have suggested you, Madam, to do the test directly in your kitchen and you would have seen how pleasant the Bokashi method is comparing to letting rot your food waste.
Bokashi is clearly a method of precomposting that you can do in an apartment. It is inspired by nature and made more efficient by controlling the anaerobic conditions in a container.
re: “Year after year it creates “lasagnas” of organic wastes and thus the anaerobical conditions for the fermentation process to take place.” Nature does not create a lasagna. By the time the second year material falls the first is usually composted and it is not anaerobic. It it were, the fields and woods would smell most of the time.
Actually, nature does not create the compost piles that are necessary to generate the heat required by traditional composting. The layer of organic materials in nature is very thin (horizontal distribution), so water saturates easily and periodically creates anaerobical conditions allowing a fermentation process to take place in the soil. As Robert Pavlis once said (December 8, 2016), ” When normal compost is ‘finished’, and nice and black without any plant material showing, it is still years away from being completely composted.” , so the compost process taking place in nature is just in fact a gigantic lasagna with a semi-fermented garniture. 🙂
The man-made improvement of the fermentation of the garniture for agricultural or horticultural ends can be done with the Bokashi method, as demonstrated by:
Effect of Lactic Acid Fermentation Bacteria on Plant Growth and Soil Humus Formation
http://www.infrc.or.jp/english/KNF_Data_Base_Web/PDF%20KNF%20Conf%20Data/C1-5-018.pdf
Production of weak acid by anaerobic fermentation of soil and antifungal effect.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18051286
Actually, if you have ever been in an abandoned orchard, you will find that nature ferments quite readily. Or, more accurately, your nise will tell you.