hugo_jones•1mo agoTop Commenter

I tried the Bokashi method and it went totally wrong at first

I live in a tiny studio in Chicago and thought Bokashi would be the answer to my composting dreams. After 2 weeks of faithfully layering scraps with bran, my bucket started smelling like a garbage truck in July. I opened it up and found a slimy mess with mold growing on top instead of the pickled look they promise. Turns out I was adding too much citrus peels and not pressing down hard enough to remove air pockets. Once I cut citrus to 10% of the mix and really packed it down daily, the smell vanished and the bucket actually fermented right. Has anyone else struggled with balancing the pH in Bokashi or found a trick I'm missing?

2 comments

2 Comments

joelp811mo agoMost Upvoted

Pressing down harder was the game changer for me too, but what temp are you keeping that bucket at? Mine started getting that sulfur egg smell when my apartment was hitting 80+ in summer, had to move it to a cooler spot near the window. Also curious if you're draining the liquid every few days or letting it pool at the bottom.

irisg571mo ago

That pressing down harder thing actually might be causing more problems than it solves. Over-compacting can trap moisture in weird pockets and create anaerobic conditions that smell worse than a little air gap would. Temperature wise, warmer spots actually help the good bacteria work faster, that sulfur smell usually means the bran is dead or you're using too much protein. And draining the liquid too often strips out the lactobacillus you need, better to let it build up a bit and only drain when it's actually pooling more than an inch deep.