Saturday, October 27, 2012

Bokashi revisited

Howdy,

Welcome to my blog about growing vegetables in containers in Dubai, the UAE and/or the Arabian Gulf region.

Some time back I posted something about a way of composting your garbage at home called Bokashi.  I had voiced some concerns about using it for containers.  Well it seems a regular visitor to the blog has tried it and came back to me about it.  More after the jump

I received her comment some time back but been busy for a while - sorry!  But anyway here is what "garudamon 11" posted:

I also have some news for you! Remember when I told you about my bokashi bucket? It works perfectly; My family's food leftovers were thoroughly pickled. I used the fermented food in my pots for the first time approx 6 weeks ago on a surprisingly "nice" morning (it was probably 36 C, not bad :p). Well, anyway, apart from the fact that I ignored my bokashi bucket for a little bit too long and didn't drain it frequently which caused it to get too wet, leading to a noisome odour, everything else went perfectly. So despite getting slightly spoiled because of my own mistake it still broke down very rapidly in my pots who still retained their old soil. no insects at all, no smell (after it was buried that is) and almost complete decomposition after 2 weeks, the only thing left was eggshells and orange peels (who were still in the process of breaking down, probably need some water to speed it up). So I'm very content with it and I'm definitely going to continue using it (this time I'll try to dry up my leftovers :D) the last test it has to pass is how beneficial it is to the plants. I still haven't planted anything yet, I'll probably do it in the weekend cause I'm really busy with school (I'm a 12th grader now, going to be a difficult year).
Last Friday I emptied all the bokashi left into my pots (some of them already received bokashi from the first time) and today I dug into one of the pots to see how's it going, I saw cloudy white mould so I guess that's a great indicator that its breaking down well.
So the bottom line is, it works for pots just perfectly, it doesn't even have to be deep.
 
So, a big hand and thanks goes out to "garudamon 11" for trying it and sharing the results with us. And good luck with the 12 grade - try to enjoy it as well as studying hard.
 
Does anyone else have any experience with Bokashi or some other type of composting they are doing here in Dubai, the UAE and in any of the other Gulf countries?
 
Thanks for stopping by!
 
dxbcharles

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting about the bokashi, as I have been considering buying one for awhile. I have a countertop compost bin that I bought at Crate & Barrel. We just toss everything in and there is no smell as it has a charcoal filter. When the bin is full, we bury the composted items directly in our raised beds. It breaks down quickly in this heat. We had good results following this system last year. The problem is what to do once our raised beds are planted. That's where the bokashi system would help.

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  2. Howdy Ms. Red Pen,

    Thanks for your comment. I think you make a very good point here. Maybe that is what bothering me about the Bokashi, indoor composting or composting of food stuff for CONTAINER/POTS GARDENING. Let me make an assumption here first. I am assuming that if you are using pots to plant in you have no earth garden or a small amount. And you also have a limited area to use for gardening. So, if you have a finite number of pots what do you do with the new compost once you have all your containers full of growing plants? You can not add it to the soil without distrubing the plant too much. Yes, with the Bokashi system you can still use the liquid extract it makes as a fertilser but where do you put the bulk stuff. Maybe wrap it up and give it to a friend with an outdoor garden. But, if you do not have some earth to deposit the compost into you might find yourself throwing away some of your compost until after the growing seasons ends. I have no problem with composting /recycling food stuff BUT maybe it is not suitable for everyone - it would of course depend on whether or not you could utilize it properly.

    Again thanks for your comment and hopefully others might like to add their thoughts & experience with their Bokashi
    or indoor composting system.

    dxbcharles

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