Hit 90 days of bokashi composting and got totally different results than I expected

I started this bokashi bin back in January thinking I'd just get less stinky food scraps. But after 90 days I had 40 pounds of material that looked like pickled garbage and smelled like sour beer. The surprise was burying it in a little raised bed I have on my balcony and watching stuff actually grow faster in that corner. Did anyone else's bin take way longer to break down than the instructions said?

2 comments

2 Comments

noah_chen1713d ago

Yeah my first batch took almost 4 months before I felt good about burying it. The timing in the instructions is a lie if you live somewhere cold or your bin gets below 70 degrees. I started putting a seedling heat mat under mine and it cut the time down by like 3 weeks easy. Another thing that helped was grinding up eggshells and coffee grounds finer before tossing them in, and adding a fresh sprinkle of bokashi bran every time I added a thick layer. That sour beer smell is normal though, it means the lactobacillus is doing its job. You just need more warmth or more bran, or both.

umam9513d ago

You ever had that same problem where your bin just sits there forever? I feel you @noah_chen17, I went through the same thing my first winter. I live in a basement that barely hits 65 degrees in January, so my first batch took almost five months before I felt okay using it. The heat mat idea is solid, I actually wrapped a couple of those reptile heating pads around my bucket and that did the trick. Also grinding the eggshells finer made a huge difference for me too, they just break down way faster that way.