Putting the Bokashi and Worm Compost Equipment Together

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As I mentioned in my last post, I am putting together composting equipment for this winter-- a set of bokashi pails for the kitchen and a worm composting (aka vermi-culture) bin for the side room off the kitchen.

Bokashi involves culturing kitchen scraps with a sort of probiotic that one sprinkles on the waste each time it is put in the pail. It is an anaerobic method of composting (meaning there is no air involved-- more like making traditional sauerkraut) and I intend to take the probiotic scraps and bury them in an 18" deep trench in my backyard and cover the probiotic with soil.  In 2-10 weeks (depending where you live), the bokashi will be unrecognizable as kitchen scraps.  It will even digest meat, bone, and avocado pits.  I have been reassured that there is no nasty odor involved in making bokashi.

The kit for making my bokashi includes 3 5-gallon pails and 2 tight fitting lids for the pails.  Today I drilled 3 small holes dead center in the bottom of 2 of the pails.  I will fit a pail with holes into the pail with no holes, and put on a lid.  When it is full, I will remove it and put it on the deck for a few days (with the lid still on) before digging it into the trench.  In the meanwhile, I will have the second pail with holes fitted into the pail without holes, and will be filling it up with my chopped stuff.  I will let you know more about this as I do it (my son is making the actual bokashi formula and I will talk more about that as well in another post).

5-gallon pail for bokashi process.  I drilled
3 small holes for drainage of the "compost
tea" that will collect in the bottom pail.

Just showing the airtight lid that will cover the pail.
The lids can be purchased separately from the pails
at a hardware store.

  

My other composting project is a Vermi-Culture or worm composter.  In my last post I talked about 'planting' a melon "cup" to collect the worms out in my regular backyard composter.  I'm going to check to see if that worked later this afternoon.  I also have to get together some vegetable-ink printed newspaper strips/shreds to make a bed for the worms, spritz with some water to dampen, add a little table scrap food, and then add the worms.  Still a way to go, but not an impossible task... no banging of hammers and hauling of heavy wood, etc.  I took a workshop a couple of Sundays ago at the Comox Valley Composting Project on Headquarters Road in Courtenay.  I bought a cordless drill (have been wanting one for a long time) and drilled three holes along the top of each long side of the bin (dime-sized) for aeration, and about 4 small holes in the middle of the bottom for drainage.  The worms don't like light, thus the lid.  I'll keep you posted on this project.

3 dime-size holes along the long side of a plastic
storage bin takes care of letting in air.

Drilled 4 small holes in the bottom of the bin, for
drainage.  I will put a small saucer under the holes and
pieces of wood under the bin to raise it up somewhat
to accommodate the saucer.