Making a Bokashi composter dirt cheap and harvesting liquid gold for growing vegetables at home

Growing one’s own vegetable crops in the suburbs can be a very rewarding endeavor, especially from the organic perspective.
You control how the plants are fed and watered, and of course the freshness is the best benefit…from garden to kitchen in minutes. However having a small area dose mean your soil does not get rest unless you are knowledgeable about crop rotation, which is beyond the ambit of most home gardeners.

I want to introduce you to some liquid gold, which will ensure bumper produce from your plantings, and the beauty is it is very cheap and easy to produce.

Composting kitchen waste using Bokashi as an accelerator is a quick odourless means to produce quality compost, but for me far more important is the ‘Bokashi Tea’ one gets from the composting process.

Bokashi is a Japanese word that means “fermented organic matter.”

If you want to read more about Bokashi then here is a good source. This is more about the composter.

A composter will cost in the region of $50 …. I made one for about $7 …

At our local plastics shop I purchased a sizable bucket with a lid, a plastic tap and a smaller lid which when dropped into the bucket got stuck two thirds down. This cost me the ZAR equivalent of $7.

Drill hole near base of bucket and fit tap

Take small drill bit and drill a dozen or so holes in the small lid

Drop it into bucket

Hey presto you are ready. When preparing food take the scraps and toss them into the bucket. Sprinkle some bokashi powder over the scraps, place bucket lid firmly on the bucket and place outside in a fairly cool place and let nature take its course.

After two weeks or so, during which you continue putting your vegetable scraps into the bucket and sprinkling bokashi powder, there will be a pale to dark yellow liquid available to tap out into a glass bottle for use as a liquid fertiliser…. Much like worm tea!!

Very important: The ‘bokashi tea’ MUST be well diluted at around 1 tsp to a litre or else it burns the plants. Water frequently and see the results