Found out my bokashi bin needs way less liquid than I thought (and why my balcony plants smelled like a pickle)

I watched a video from the Seattle Tilth compost workshop on YouTube last night. They said if your bokashi juice smells sour or like vinegar, you are adding too many wet scraps. I was dumping in all my melon rinds and citrus peels without draining the liquid every 2 days. No wonder my apartment smelled like a fermented salad. Has anyone else had to adjust their draining schedule after seeing that video?

3 comments

3 Comments

emery8795d ago

Man I had the exact same issue when I started. I was dumping coffee grounds and watermelon rinds in there every day and wondering why my kitchen smelled like a weird deli. It took me like three weeks to realize I was basically making pickled slop instead of compost. Now I drain every other day without fail and my bokashi juice actually smells more like sweet feed than vinegar. The melon rinds are the worst offenders too I swear they hold water like sponges.

spencer_chen65d ago

Wait, do you drain straight into a jug or let it sit in a tray under the bucket?

derek_ramirez23h ago

Is it really that deep though? I've been doing the lazy method for months now just letting it drain into a tray under the bucket and emptying it whenever I remember (which is maybe once a week). My kitchen doesn't smell like anything special, just kinda earthy. I think people overthink this composting stuff, like you're not running a science lab you're just rotting food in a bucket.