When Bokashi Goes Bad
I’ve added a new page under the ‘Experiments’ section. Those page links used to be in the right column, but since I’ve changed the layout of this blog a bit they are now in the top row, beneath the title. Just click on the ‘Experiments’ tag and you will see the Bokashi experiment listed. It was, sad to say, a failure.
Here in Mexico we have been unable to find the EM (Effective Microorganisms) upon which the Bokashi method rests, so we decided to try to make our own. Apparently, the wild yeast I caught (using basic Sourdough techniques) must have been accompanied by acetic acid bacteria, since our bacteria impregnated wheat bran smelled like vinegar. We tried using it anyhow.
After ten days of adding table scraps sprinkled with the Bokashi mix, our bucket was 3/4 full and smelled pretty bad. I don’t think it was as bad as it would have been had we not added any bacteria, but still it was not right. Every time Isabel opened the bucket to add new material the whole kitchen would smell. Not good.
So we have declared that experiment a failure, and will continue to look for EM to make its appearance here in Mexico. We did find one place on-line that claimed to sell it here, but our emails went unanswered. We will be moving to Colima in another month, and have lots of composting projects planned (I want to compare composting with and without biochar), but for now Bokashi will not be one of them. Someone down there does sell worms for vermiculture, so we will also be trying vermicomposting.
The Secret of El Dorado clip on YouTube
In this three minute excerpt from the BBC film ‘The Secret of El Dorado’ we see a series of experimental plots with various combinations of biochar and/or chemical fertilizer, with commentary by University of Bayreuth student Christoph Steiner. In this experiment, he reports they found the biochar plus fertilizer produced 880% more crop than chemical fertilizer alone. Judging by Steiner’s page at U. Bayreuth, which has photos of the experiment, it was undertaken in Manaus, Brazil. The plant you see in the video is sorghum. There is a link to the study report, but from here I get an ‘unauthorized’ error if I click that. I found link from the Cornell University site, that gives further details — I will give a detailed review of this very interesting study in a future post.