Yes. We have an integrated waste management plan that separates wet and dry waste. Restaurants that generate less than five tonnes of food waste per month can use the bucket system. This separates the food waste at source and treats it with Bokashi Bran. We then collect the food waste and take it to a commercial composting facility. For commercial facilities that generate more than five tonnes per month, we have technology that can reduce the volume by up to 80%, resulting in savings on logistics costs. We train your staff to handle the entire process. Call us on 082 456 9225 and get in touch.
If something has gone wrong in your bokashi bucket, it will smell bad and/or grow black fungi. White fungi are good and indicate that your fermented food waste is ready to be buried. Reasons why your bokashi bucket can go bad can be:
- The lid is not tightly closed
- Not using an airtight container
- Not draining the bokashi liquid often enough
- Adding spoiled/rotten food to it
- Exposure to the sun or extreme temperatures
- Not using enough Bokashi Bran
- Using poor quality bokashi
It depends on how big your household is and how much fresh food you prepare. If you cut the food waste into small pieces, you will have more space for other scraps in your bokashi bin and you can also speed up decomposition in the garden. Press the food waste down with a potato masher to compact the contents, which will also help the liquid drain to the bottom of the bucket. For a family of 4, the bokashi bucket is usually full in 3 to 4 weeks. The Bokashi Bran buckets have a capacity of 25 litres.
You can smell if your bucket is going bad. If it smells rancid, add two cups of Bokashi Bran to try to reverse the contamination. Your bucket should have a cidery type smell. If the bucket continues to smell bad, you will need to get rid of it by digging a hole and pouring the contents of the bucket into it. Pour a kettle of boiling water over the contaminated waste and then add another 2 cups of Bokashi Bran. Cover with soil.
When you collect your daily food waste in your counter container, it is very important that the lid is put on properly to prevent flies from laying their eggs on the food waste, especially in hot weather. If a fly has accidentally gotten in and laid some eggs unnoticed, these eggs can lead to maggots in your bokashi bucket. If you notice maggots, add an extra scoop of Bokashi Bran to your bucket and keep it sealed for 4 days. The lack of oxygen will kill the maggots and they will simply decompose as part of the composting cycle.
Nothing at all! Bokashi Bran is made with probiotics brewed with a food-grade mother culture EM. Humans probably will not like the taste, but animals will. The microbes in Bokashi Bran are common in nature and do not cause disease. The probiotics are found in cheese, yoghurt, bread and wine. If anything, it will improve the intestinal flora.
Get a “standing” compost bin. Make sure you put it on the ground and not on concrete so the decomposers can get into your compost.Start with a few spades of soil or potting compost in the bottom of the bin.Add the contents of your fermented bokashi waste.Cover the bokashi waste with a few more shovels of soil, leaves and grass clippings.Keep the lid closed.After 4 to 6 weeks you’ll find that most of the waste has turned into very concentrated, rich compost.Scoop it out and mix it with the soil in your garden.
I’ve also tried all natural home remedies, from garlic to sunlight liquid to pepper and curry powder. No success. Then I took a bag of Bokashi Bran and sprinkled it in the ant holes. They really don’t like the Bokashi Bran and left my vegetable garden. Whatever was eating my spinach also disappeared. Bokashi Bran also works well if you sprinkle it around new seedlings to keep away pests.
Yes. Take 1 cup of Bokashi tea and mix it with 2 litres of water. Take the tree cuttings and put them in the bokashi tea solution. After 5 days you’ll notice roots forming and after 10 days the tree is ready for planting.
1. Place your Bokashi Bucket near where your food waste is generated. It must be easily accessible.2. Sprinkle a small amount (a handful) of Bokashi Bran onto the straining tray at the bottom of the bucket.3. Place a vegetable bowl on the counter when preparing your meals. Scrape the leftovers from the meal into the bowl. You want to open your bokashi bucket as little as possible. Put your food waste in the bucket within 4 hours of putting it in the vegetable bowl. Any longer and the food waste will start to rot.4. Anything you produce in the kitchen can go in – bread, citrus fruit, vegetable scraps, egg shells, small amounts of paper, even meat.5. Compress the waste in the bucket with a mashing utensil, to remove any air pockets and compact the material.6. Add a scoop of Bokashi Bran over the food waste so that the entire surface is covered.7. Close the airtight lid again.8. Drain the liquid from the bucket once or twice a week. You can dilute this with water in a ratio of 1:300 and pour it onto your lawn or garden beds. Alternatively, you can pour the undiluted liquid directly down the drain where it will eliminate unpleasant odours.9. Repeat the process until the bucket is full. For an average family, this will take about 3 to 4 weeks.10. When the bucket is full, empty the contents into a trench in your garden or add it to a compost heap. The waste is fermented but not broken down at this stage – it needs to go into the soil where it physically turns into humus (soil).11. Rinse the bucket with water and an environmentally friendly detergent, pour it off and repeat the whole process.12. In 2 to 3 weeks, the waste you buried will have mostly decomposed into soil and will be rich in nutrients, microbes and enzymes, all produced naturally.
The amount of tea at the bottom of the bucket depends on the water content of the food waste you are throwing away. Tomatoes, for example, have a much higher water content than bread. When the food waste ferments, the liquid seeps to the bottom of the bucket and takes the microorganisms from the Bokashi Bran with it. This is concentrated organic plant food that is diluted and added to the garden.
Still not found an answer?
Welcome to our Bokashi Bran’s Q&A form! If you’re interested in learning more about this innovative composting method and have questions that you’d like answered, you’ve come to the right place. Bokashi is a unique way to transform food waste and other organic materials into nutrient-rich soil, and we’re here to help you better understand the process and how it can benefit you and the environment. Please feel free to submit your questions, and we’ll do our best to provide you with informative and helpful answers.