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There is an easy and fast way to provide nutrients for your plants that repairs the globe as well! The secret lies in fermentation. Just like fermented foods are healthy for your gut microbiome, the Bokashi method’s microorganisms will make your garden and house plants thrive!
The Bokashi method of composting was developed in the 1980s by Japanese professor Dr. Teuro Higa, according to Clean Eating. It has been practiced for many years in Korea, but when Higa was able to pinpoint the microorganism that accelerates the composting, he then offered this to farmers and gardeners around the world.
Rich compost in ten days
Higa isolated EM, an effective microorganism, and turned it into an inoculant for kitchen scraps. When EM is added to kitchen waste, it accelerates the process, offering rich compost in ten days!
Bokashi is composed of wheat bran, saw dust, molasses, plus EM. Bokashi bran can be made at home, according to the blog that backyard, or bought premade. When you compost with this method, you can add all of your leftovers, including meat and cheese, plus the traditional scraps of fruit, veggies, and coffee grounds.
You can then add it to your traditional compost bin, or dig it into potting soil and feed it to your plants. Plants love Bokashi food so much, they tend to grow faster, are healthier, are more resistant to pathogens, and have lower carbon emissions, according to Clean Living.
Trying Bokashi at home
You will need a microbial inoculant to sprinkle on your scraps, a counter top bucket with a sealed lid and spigot, plus a larger bucket to collect the fermented compost. When you use a sealed bin with a spigot to remove juices, the method is nearly odor-free, Mother Earth News reported.
Add inoculant to scraps in layers. In about two weeks, the inoculant will have grown into the scraps, and although they are not decomposed, they are ready to be added to your regular compost or dug into the soil around your plants.
Add to plants outdoors by digging it into a trench and then covering it in dirt. Indoors, add scraps to topsoil, then dig the inoculated soil to potted plants and cover with earth. During the winter, cover and store the inoculated soil on a balcony until spring, then dig it into warm soil.
This method was tested on California citrus fruits in a study published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. The researchers added beer mash and waste from grocery stores to the irrigation system of citrus plants, and within 24 hours they observed that the beneficial bacteria was two to three times higher than that in plants without fermented food.
Naturally-produced nitrogen
Another huge benefit of bokashi over traditional aerobic composting is that the nitrogen and carbon do not escape into the atmosphere, reported Mother Earth News. As a result, the soil has more nutritional and microbial properties, eradicating the use of adding manufactured nitrogen, a huge advantage for farmers these days.
This fermented method makes it less expensive to grow food, according to the study. Because it also uses food waste, in turn, this decreases landfill. Be it in potted plants, a small garden or large field, try Bokashi today. Those microorganisms may be tiny, but they make a huge difference in the vast amounts we can recycle and in the food you eat.
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