Making Bokashi
Today we will make a very simple bokashi that can be used as both an agricultural fertilizer as well as for composting. The most important part of bokashi is the microbe laden bran that inoculates and “pickles” your food waste, allowing it to break down into compost quickly once burried in the soil. If you’re brand new to bokashi composting, I suggest buying your bran from our website so you can get a feel for what things should look and smell like in the process. However, if you are experienced and up for a challenge. lets hop on into how to make your own bokashi!
Gather The Ingredients
- EM-1 or lactobacillus serum (LAB)
EM-1, or Effective Microorganisms, is a brand of microbial inoculant with lactic acid bacteria, purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB), and yeasts. Some people make their own solution of EM-1 by fermenting milk and extracting the lactic acid bacteria (just like making LAB). This method is great and will get the job done, but you will not have the PNSB and yeasts found in the commercial formulations. If you are looking to make your own PNSB, a guide will be coming soon. Until you are experienced with the process of bokashi composting, I suggest buying EM-1 from the store to ensure you are starting with a solid mixture of microorganisms. - Molasses
You will only need a very small amount of molasses. We recommend using unsulfured blackstrap molasses. This will be the food source for your microbes. - Water – Chlorine free
This water has to be pure water. If you have a well then you will be just fine using your tap water, however, if you live in a place that uses chlorinated water, then you need to leave it sit out for at least 24 hours so the chlorine can evaporate, making it safe for your microbes. This is very important. Chlorine will kill your microbes. - Wheat bran, sawdust, rice bran
We will be using red wheat bran for this tutorial, but any carbon source will do. This will be a food source and a “home” for the microbes. It all depends on what you have on hand, where you are using your compost, and how long before you plan to plant into it. - Mixing tub
For small batches, we recommend a clear plastic storage tote. Medium batches – a kiddie pool. And for larger batches a tarp can be easier to manipulate. - Airtight container
We use the super high-tech method of a black contractor bag and a 5gal food safe pail with locking lid. You can also use a large plastic tote with the bokashi in a black contractor bag inside, or a large 55 gal barrel. - Additional soil amendments: Worm Castings, Sea Salt, Fish meal, Fish Bone meal, Glacial Rock Dust – I like to add these in to give the bokashi an extra boost when composted or top dressed on the plants.
- Time – about 2-3 weeks
Recipe For 50lbs of Bokashi Bran Agricultural Fertilizer
Start by gathering the following supplies:
- 50 lbs red wheat bran
- 5 gal water
- 1 cup EM-1
- 1 cup molasses
- 1 1/4 cup fish meal
- 1 1/4 cup fish bone meal
- 1 1/4 cup glacial rock dust
- 3/4 cup sea salt
- 1 1/4 cup worm castings
Step 1: Mixing The Dry Ingredients
First get all your dry ingredients together. If you are using multiple types of bran, than this is where you will want to measure and mix all of them. For this recipe, mix 50lbs of red wheat bran, 1 1/4 cup fishbone meal, 1 1/4 cup fish meal, 1 1/4 cup glacial rock dust, and 3/4 cup sea salt together. Save the worm castings for after you have finished fermenting everything. To make it easy, we used a kiddie pool as a mixing container.
*Note: the fishbone meal, glacial rock dust, worm castings, and sea salt are optional. If you are only making bokashi for your composting toilet or to reduce the smells in an animal pen then you can omit these ingredients. If you are planning to use this as a top-dress for your soil or if you are going to use this as compost for your plants than you can choose to add these in.
Step 2: Mixing The Wet Ingredients
Next pour 4 gal of warm water into a 5 gal bucket. Then add 1 cup of molasses and get to stirring. We want the molasses to be completely dissolved into the water since it will be distributed throughout all of the dry ingredients. This will take some time. When the molasses is completely mixed into the water, add 1 cup of EM-1 solution and then keep mixing this for a few more minutes to make sure that everything is well dissolved.
Step 3: Coming Together
Next push all of your dry ingredients into a volcano and then make a well in the middle for your water-molasses-em-1 mix. Pour in your mix and start mixing so that everything is uniformly wet. Once all 4 gal of wet ingredients have been added and mixed in, start adding in your additional 1 gal of water (as needed) until you get the consistency correct.
You want the moisture level to be about 60%, or when you can form it into a ball and it will stay, and when you squeeze no water comes out. If your bran is too wet then add more bran; if it is too dry, then add more water. Unfortunately, the amount of water to be added is not an exact science. It can vary based on the water holding capacity of the bran you are using, the relative humidity is at the time you are making the bokashi, and what mixture of bran you are using.
Step 4: Fermentation
After that, let your inoculated bran sit in a warm and dark place for at least 2 weeks. The bokashi can sit for longer, but if it does, then the microbes will go dormant until the next step. When you take your bran out of it’s airtight container after two weeks, you might notice some white mold. This is okay. If you see black, blue, or green mold, this means that they bran was too wet when you put it to ferment and you will need to start over, adding less water.
Put your damp bran into an air tight container. For our larger batches, a black contractor bag wrapped tightly and squished so that all the air is out will work fine. For smaller batches we use a black contractor back inside either a 5 gal bucket or a large plastic tote. The most important thing is that it is airtight. We want to keep any outside microbes from getting in and surviving in our bran.
Step 5: Drying and Storage
After this you can either use the bokashi right away or you can dry it and store it for long term use. When dried and stored, 10lbs of Bokashi can last the average family of four 6 – 10 months. To dry your bokashi, lay it out on a tarp and let it sit in the sun, stirring the bran throughout the day. Do this until the bran is completely dried out and there is no more clumps or moisture left. At this point, you can store it in an airtight container until you are ready to use it.