Bokoshi Composting

[Arrowwind]

I wanted to bring to your attention this from of composting that I started working with last year. I can't tell you how impressed I am with it. It is so powerful that it will compost pretty quickly human waste if you should choose to go in that directions with it.

There are a number of high schools in the US that are working with it and it is common fair in Japan.

Here is the main link to teach you how to make Bokoshi.
This is the formula that I use because it uses newspapers as opposed to wheat or rice bran and you make your own serum as opposed to purchasing it. Its easy and not to terribly time consuming..

It is the micro-organisms that break down the food products and the soil to release trace minerals.

The following site use to give detailed instructions on how to make the serum but now I see it is no longer there. I have stored the detailed instructions on my computer back at home but won't be there again till mid may or so.. so I will update it then. For the life of me I dont know why they took it down.

In the winter when my garden is frozen solid I continue to make bokoshi. When my 5 gallon bucket is filled I take it to the yard to a black plastic barrel I had prepared the fall before. This barrel, a trash barrel, has the bottom cut out. Next to the barrel I place a pile of top soil, about a 1/4 cubic yard. I thow the contents of my kitchen scraps compost bucket in after it has sat with the bokoshi sermum impregnated news paper for two weeks into the barrel and cover it with several shovels full of top soil, put the lid on and add to it as my five gallon buckets fill repeatedly over the winter.

After the spring comes I want to give this bucket a good month to sit in warmer weather.
When it is ready I simply pull the barrel off and let the bokoshi fall onto the garden. You can till it under or further burry it if it is needed. Because I do lasagna gardening I simply cover it with staw, leaves, grass clippings and a couple inches of top soil and start my planting.

http://bokashicomposting.com/?m=200809

http://www.compostguy.com/bokashi-resource-page/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyDSndRQ6ys&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyDSndRQ6ys&feature=related)

here is a site that makes it with pre-purchased serum. I have the recipe for the serum at home and will post it in the spring. You could start that way until I can get the intructions to you to make your own serum. I make a lot of serum at one time and freeze it when I need to culture more newspapars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96fSXccQx9Q&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7Or5v7T9EQ&feature=related

I just came across this following video and it tells how to take a bottle of serum, purchased over the net and to replicate it 20 times over... this sounds great and very cost effective.. I haven't watched it all yet.. but if you take the serum and dilute it you can soak newspapers in it, let them dry out. store them in 2 gallon plastic bags. Then as you collect your compost in your 5 gallon buckets you layer it with a sheet of bokoshi impregnated news paper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BttGnPHRFT4&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BttGnPHRFT4&feature=related)

[9eagle9]

I am for sure interested in this, Arrowwind.

[Moemers]

Please continue...

[Dennis Leahy]

Very interested, Arrowwind!

Dennis

[Jonathon]

I have just recently been researching composting - so definitely interested. Thanks Arrowwind.

[Arrowwind]

I just spent some time going through the www.gardenerspantry.ca (http://www.gardenerspantry.ca) and thought I would add this video found on this site.
I have used most of the products he mentions in this film and though the reading on these topics they seem to really be the way to go.
I cant really say for sure what made my garden so incredible last summer... I did so many things.. obviously they were all right...but I do attribute much of it to lasagna technique. This spring when I layer my beds I will put bokoshi newpapers between the layers.

I would also mention that paramagnetic minerals in the form of rock dust is a very powerful additive to the garden. I purchased 10# from a mine near Yellowstone last year.. it is one of the most magnetic rock dust available and we did some tests with it and were just astounded and how it could regenerate very sick house plants in less than a week! This company is temporarly closed, they claim temporary anyway. I could not purchase more this summer when I tried.. I will let you know if they reopen as they are suppose to notify me when they do... anyway, paramagnets is pretty interesting to explore. I did end up purchasing another product with paramagnetics but the goss was only half of the Yellowstone area product. Studies show that paramagnetic soil when placed and sealed in a film cannister and placed in a pot will excellerate and strenghten plant growth... so for the roots just to be near it is all that is requried, not necessarily in it


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1wNGmNxoxQ&feature=player_embedded (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1wNGmNxoxQ&feature=player_embedded)

[Dennis Leahy]

Is this the place you got your paramagnetic rock dust : http://www.paramagneticrock.com/ ?

[Arrowwind]

Yep, thats the place... that link provides this nice pdf that shouldn't be missed.

http://www.paramountgrowth.com/images/rockdust_sdiver01.pdf

[Nenuphar]

I just discovered this older thread and am reading it with interest. Around this time last year, I happened upon some information online about Effective Microorganisms and their use in the garden. Like Arrowwind (Post #6), I ended up on the site https://www.gardenerspantry.ca/ and found lots of helpful articles there. After a few weeks of hemming and hawing, I purchased a bottle of Effective Microorganisms mother culture to try out in my garden. I hesitated before purchasing because, with shipping, it was a bit of a financial investment for me.

What can I say about our 2018 garden? We had no problems with root maggots this year. Everything was lush. Sunflowers that usually grew to ~5 feet tall grew several feet taller this year. Two varieties of bush beans (with runners) that usually grow ~3 feet tall were visibly taller this year. The cabbages looked great - in particular, I found that the early varieties, which tend to be fairly small, were much larger than any other year I have grown them. In one garden patch (which ended up so overgrown, we couldn't get into it. We called it, "The Jungle"), my four North Georgia Candy Roaster plants put out 15 squash. That is a record for me, in our growing zone (2).

Of course, I can't say this was all down to the EMs. Maybe the weather was different enough this year that that contributed to the overall improved effect in the garden. I am so eager to see how things do this summer with the use of EMs and to see if things grow as abundantly this year as they did last year.

A little of the EM mixture goes a long way, so I still have well over a half bottle of it left. In addition to it's applications in the garden and compost, it works very well in getting rid of pet smells (e.g., areas where wandering Tom cats spray) and cleaning around the house (toilets, shower drains, the musty "off" smell that washing machines sometimes get, etc).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-ZH0b1vJWY