My bokashi bin smelled like pickles for a month, then something clicked

Honestly, I started layering bokashi bran in a 5-gallon bucket back in March, thinking I'd get that earthy soil smell folks rave about. Nope, it smelled like a deli counter that went wrong, sour and vinegary for a solid 30 days. I almost tossed it, but my neighbor who gardens said that's the lactobacillus doing its thing, not rot. After 6 weeks of sealing it tight and draining the liquid every few days, the pickles faded and turned into this rich, tangy mash that buried into my potted herbs fast. I learned that stink in bokashi is actually a sign it's working, not failing, so now I trust the process even when it feels off. Has anyone else gotten that weird fermented smell and thought their whole setup was broken at first?

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luna_kim4014d ago

That's the lactobacillus doing its thing" is the part people always repeat but I'm not sold on the whole stink means success idea. A sour pickle smell after 30 days could also just mean your bucket wasn't sealed right and oxygen got in, or it was too wet, or too warm. Real bokashi should smell kinda sweet and yeasty, not like a failed batch of pickles sitting out. If you had to drain it every few days that tells me there was way too much moisture in there, which usually comes from not adding enough bran or not pressing things down. So maybe your setup was actually off and it worked out anyway, not because the smell was normal.

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