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.
on August 28th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Would you be willing to share specifics of your collection method? I ask because, to me, “basic Sourdough technique” is course-ground wholegrain flour (wheat or rye) + pure water + warmth, _protected from contamination_ and with more ingredients added at intervals. As I understand it, that’s supposed to optimize yeast and lactobacillus populations–not the other desired EMs.
Thanks, and best of luck with all your composting methods,
DSF
on August 28th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
HI DSF, thanks for your comment. I describe the complete process I used at http://www.biocharfertilization.com/experiments/bokashi-gone-bad (or just click the ‘Experiments’ button at the top of the page, and choose the Bokashi one…) Perhaps it was the water from mature compost that added the acetic acid bacteria — I was hoping for purple non-sulfur bacteria, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I haven’t figured a good way to isolate those. Some sources I’ve seen suggest forest soil or mature compost would have beneficial bacteria, so I thought I’d give it try …
on August 29th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
(Thanks for the link; I’ll be commenting there on that. New to your site, can you tell?) Re: purple non-sulfur bacteria–those are the ones in swamp mud, yes, anaerobic soil conditions with exposure to light? I seem to recall having read something about the water in pitcher plants and other bromeliads being exceptionally high in them. If you can’t culture them from swamp mud, I mean.
DSF
on August 29th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I live in Mexico, and we don’t have any swamps around here, but we have a lake. The mud, which I’ve used in pottery-making, has a slight sewage smell, even when gathered far from town. I didn’t think bacteria from that would be good to add to Bokashi. Most of the references to purple non-sulfur bacteria I see mention mud though, so I’m surprised that it even survives in the relatively dry Bokashi environment, but that’s what the sources say is in EM: yeast, lactobacillus and purple non-sulfur bacteria. Maybe it’s just yeast and lactobacillus that do all the work, and the other was just mentioned to keep people from making their own? $15 a quart for self-reproducing bacteria sounds like a great business to me… My next experiment will be to simply use bakers yeast and cheese lactobacillus.
on September 7th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
There’s a reason purples are mentioned so often in relation to waste management: they’re odor-reducing agents. Which is reason enough to want them, in an indoor setting, though they do help the process in other ways, producing hydrogen and nutrients the other microbes use and “denitrifying” waste.
Not sure they’re absolutely necessary myself, though I’m not planning to leave them out and see. -G- There are people who seem to have had success with just yeasts and lactobacilli—I found an article written by a man who used kombucha fed on molasses, for example—and lots of people who simply add a handful of soil and let whatever microbes are in there duke it out. Which I guess is simpler than trying to culture whichever rhodobacters from standing rainwater or stream-surface or dew collected from large flat leaves…
Interested to see how your next batch fares!
DSF