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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?
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noah_chen175mo 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.
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umam955mo 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.
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