How to Compost with the Bokashi Method

Like I mentioned in my 5 R’s of Green Living blog, composting (or “Rot”) is a great way to care for the environment by creating less waste and turning organic materials into healthy, nutritious soil for gardening or house plants. I also mentioned that I love using the Bokashi fermentation method for composting because it’s faster than many other methods and allows me to compost meat, bones, and cheese unlike other methods that are more limited.

The Bokashi method is very manageable in my small apartment with a good sized balcony. The whole set-up takes up about 40”x20” of space on my balcony and includes two compost bins - vertical containers with a spigot at the bottom for draining out the compost tea - and a 15” cube plastic container for combining the composted food with soil.

To help you get started with your own composting journey, here’s the process step-by-step:

Step 1: Collect Food Scraps

I like to collect all of my food scraps in a cup on my kitchen counter until it gets full, then I empty that out into a reusable plastic bag which I store in the back of my refrigerator to keep it fresh longer. Food scraps keep well in the fridge for a week or even two if you don’t have time to add the scraps to the bins. Make sure to cut them down to 1” pieces so they will compost faster. Don’t add anything with blue-green mold - this could contaminate the batch. 

Step 2: Add Scraps to Bokashi Container

Every weekend, I add the bag of food scraps in my fridge to the compost. Mix the food scraps with the Bokashi bran, which are what activate fermenting.

The Bokashi method is anaerobic, which means that you don’t want a lot of air and oxygen in your compost. This is why I like only opening it up and adding the food scraps once a week, so the rest of the time it has a nice air-tight seal. To help aid the compost process even more, I like to use a plastic bag layered on top of the food scraps that I press down on and tuck around the edges of the container to really seal in the organic material and limit air flow.

Adding scraps is a great time to check and make sure everything is composting properly. You’ll know you’re doing it right if you see white mold and it has a natural, earthy smell. If you see green mold or it has a strong, bad smell, something’s gone wrong! If your compost is attracting flies, try adding more Bokashi bran - it makes the mix more acidic and therefore not hospitable for flies.

Finish out your compost mixing session by collecting any compost tea from the spigot.

Step 3: When Full, Let Sit and Ferment

Once your compost bin is full, let it sit and ferment without opening for about two weeks. It usually takes us about two months to fill up one Bokashi container, but letting it sit and ferment once full is why I got the two bin starter kit so I can continue composting while one is fermenting!

Step 4: Mix Fermented Scraps with Soil

Option A: Add Fermented Scraps Directly to Ground Soil

If you have a garden or larger area of soil, you can add the fermented food scraps directly to the soil. Be sure to bury the scraps at least two feet away from any plants because they’re very acidic so close proximity can kill your plants. Planting your compost about two feet away will allow the nutrients to soak into the ground and spread out into the rest of the soil, benefitting the plants without hurting them through the acidity. I can’t do this step since I’m living in an apartment and don’t have a full garden, but I give some to my partner’s father who does this with his garden at home. For my own use, I opt for Option B:

Option B: Mix Fermented Scraps with Soil and Decompose

Combine the fermented food scraps with soil in a container and let decompose for at least two more weeks. Layer 5” soil + 2-3” food scraps and repeat until all food scraps are in. Top it off with 5” of soil and cover. After about two weeks you will still have some recognizable food scraps (I tend to have a lot of avocado pits!), but a lot of the softer material will have integrated fully with the soil. Once everything is integrated, you can start adding the compost soil to your plants!

Pros + Cons of the Bokashi Method

Once I got used to the initial integration into my routine, composting every weekend didn’t add much time at all to my schedule. It only takes me about 10-15 minutes to add food scraps to my Bokashi bin, and less than an hour on the occasional week when I need to mix fermented food scraps with soil.

I’ve had very few issues with this method and it works so well for me! The one problem I’ve had is that the nozzles on the Bokashi containers can begin to leak. This usually happens if you aren’t careful about overtightening the spigot knob. If you overtighten it, then the spigot knob will start to just turn endlessly and never feel tight, and the compost tea will slowly leak out.

An easy fix if this happens to you is Plumber’s tape, which you can get at any hardware store. Just disassemble the spigot and add some of this tape around the thread to tighten the spigot connection.

Benefits of Compost Soil

Compost soil has been great for my plants and it’s so nice to see them thrive and grow so much! It’s great for freshening up your potting soil when repotting your plants to give them a nutrition boost. Compost Soil has so many amazing benefits:

• Provides slow release of nutrition

• Encourages production of healthy, beneficial bacteria

• Retains moisture better than regular, store-bought soils

• Reduces need for chemical fertilizers

• Suppresses plant pests and diseases

• Lowers carbon footprint by keeping organic materials out of landfills, reducing methane emissions

Benefits of Compost Tea

Compost tea (what you collect from the Bokashi container spigot) is also really beneficial for your plants! I add a serving of my Sky High Plant Food to my watering can every time I water because it:

• Gives them a highly concentrated dose of nutrients

• Increases root growth

• Adds beneficial microbes to foliage

I’ve seen some amazing, real results from using my Sky High Plant Food on many different plants! So many of my plants really started growing like crazy once I started feeding them my compost tea. One cactus has sprouted three new arms, another plant has outgrown its pot in just a few months, and it even helped to heal one of my plants from a damaging fungus! I also gave my friend some for her Fiddle-leaf Fig tree, and it completely healed the tree from some pretty bad root rot!

The Perfect Solution to Save Your Plant Babies

One of the most amazing things about plants is how resilient they are. They can be completely wilted and dying from disease, but if you just put them in the right environment with the right nutrients they can completely revive and thrive again!

If you’re a new plant parent or are looking to give your plants some extra TLC, creating compost soil is definitely the way to go! If you’re not ready to take on a full composting set-up yourself, I’m sharing my own compost soil and Sky High Plant Food with you in my shop here. I hope it helps your plant babies thrive like never before!