Unconventional Farmer

Lactobacillus Serum
This is the workhorse of the beneficial bacteria we’ll be discussing here. We use it for everything! Foul odors, clogged drains, cheaper pig/chicken/etc farming, aquaculture, the applications are amazingly diverse. Learn how to make and use this and you will have a powerful tool in your farming arsenal.

How to Make:

1. Get container, fill halfway with rice-wash. Rice wash is the water leftover when you rinse fresh rice. For example, go buy rice, whatever kind, bring it home, put it in a pot with warm water, swirl it a bit and then drain the [now milky colored] water. The water is now a rich source of carbohydrates. In this step, you can substitute rice with another carbohydrate source if you don’t have rice, as long as it is complex (don’t use simple carbohydrates like sugar, honey, syrup, molasses, etc). You can use wheat, barley, kinoa, other carbohydrates as the base to make your carbohydrate wash. This wash will attract microbes from the air, among them lacto bacilli.
2. Cover loosely and let stand for a couple days to a week
◦ When is it done? When you see a light film on top (molds) and it smells a little sour and forms 3 layers. This is indicating the rice wash is infected with various microbes. This happens more quickly in warm temperatures because microbes are more active. Thus it is all relative since we don’t do this in controlled laboratory conditions.
3. The layers are distinct
◦ Top layer: floating carbohydrates leftover from fermentation and possibly molds
◦ Middle layer: Lactic Acid and other bacteria (cheese buffs will recognize this as a makeshift “rennet”). We will use this layer.
◦ Bottom layer: Starch, byproduct of fermentation
4. Extract the middle layer using a siphon. This layer contains the highest concentration of lactic acid bacteria and lowest concentration of the unneeded byproducts
5. Get a new container, larger than the first. Take the extracted serum from the last step and mix it with 10 parts milk. By saturating with milk (lactose), we dissuade other microbes from proliferating, leaving L. bacilli. E.G. if you have 1cup of the serum, mix it with 10cups milk.
◦ TIP: The best milk to use in unpasteurized natural milk. However, any milk will do, even powdered milk. In our experience, the best is unpasteurized natural but just use what is available. We just want to saturate with lactose to promote L. bacilli bacteria.
6. You want to keep this stage anaerobic as much as possible. You can use something like rice bran, barley bran, wheat bran, etc sprinkled on top of the milk. I use a sealed container with a one-way valve.
◦ Note: Beware of bubbling during this phase. It can lead to overflows if you filled to near the top. It can go through the one-way valves so keep an eye on it and don’t do this step around nice things.
7. After about 1 week (temp dependent), you’ll see curds (made of carbohydrate, protein, and fat) on top of the milk. The water below will be yellow colored – this is whey, enriched with lactic acid bacteria from the fermentation of the milk.
◦ NOTE: Microbes like L. bacilli are more active in warmer temperatures. The curds you see are a byproduct of the fermentation process. Fermentation is generally associated with microbial processes under anaerobic(no oxygen) conditions. Now, L. bacilli is a facultative anaerobe, that is it can live and work with or without oxygen, but less competition in anaerobic conditions.
8. The water below(whey+lacto) is the good stuff. You want to extract this. You can either skim the curds off the top, pour through a strainer, or whatever other methods to accomplish that
9. NOTE: Remember the curds, or byproduct of milk fermentation by L. bacilli, are great food. They are full of beneficial microbes like L. bacilli. Feed the curds to the soil, compost pile, plants, animals, humans – whoever wants them! They are full of good nutrients/microbes. No waste in natural farming.
10. To preserve at room temperature, add an equal part sugar/molasses to the serum. So, if you have 1L of serum, add 1kilo sugar or 1L molasses. Otherwise store in fridge to keep.

Example Recipe:

• 1 L rice wash
• add 10L Milk
• After rice wash and milk remove curds – around 1L
• Left with 10L pure LAB (lactic acid bacteria)
• add 10kg sugar or 10L molasses
• = 20 L stabilized lactic acid bacteria serum

What to Use it for and How

Before using, first mix 1:20 with water. 1 part serum to 20 parts water. Then follow instructions below:

Odor Reducer:

Add mixture to animal’s water at 2tbsp/L. You can mix it more or less, there are no rules here, just how we typically do it.
• Apply to places where there is odor buildup. The harmless bacteria “eat” the odor causing germs and the smell is gone!
◦ Indoors: reduces foul odors, including animals like cats, dogs, mice, other pets. Stinky shoes? Wet clothes from being outside? Gym clothes that haven’t made it to the wash yet? Smoker in the house? Kill these nasty smells!
◦ Outside: use to control odor in pens – pigs, cows, chickens. In barns, around the yard, etc

Household use:

• Clear clogged drains: dump mixture into drain to clear clogs. Exact amount depends on the clog, haha. A few tbsp to 1L works well. For semi-clogged drains (like kitchen sink draining progressively slower), use at night and allow at least the night for microbes to work.
• Keep septic clear. Tired of having your septic system drained? Add lacto! Depending on size of your system, pour a few tbsp. to a few L into the toilet every few months.
• Houseplants: Mix 2-3tbsp per 1L water and use that to water them.

Animal Bedding:

Mix 2tbsp to 1L water. Mix with animal bedding to reduce smell and increase longevity. In natural pig farming we use at least 1 yard deep of bedding so there is plenty of space for microbes to work. Bedding consists of organic substrate like rice hulls, wood chips, sawdust, wood shavings, shredded corn cob, any other high cellulose, high lignin material. Natural pig farming is a future topic on this site. Spray until bedding is slightly damp but not wet. How much you spray really depends on your climate. If you are in a very dry climate you can spray a little more and mix in evenly. Wetter (more humid) climates use a bit less. Mix into the bedding evenly where necessary (in many cases, like with pigs and chickens, they’ll mix it themselves). How much you use is all relative. These guidelines are for pigs and chickens. More extreme smells, just use more! Want to spray less often, use more! As we notice a smell we spray. Thus, as pigs grow bigger, make more poop, we spray more often! Dosage/frequency is relative and will depend on your situation.

Animals – Digestive/Growth Aid:

Mix 2tbsp to 1L water, then add that mixture to animal’s water at 2tbsp/L(so the animal’s water contains little less than a quarter tsp/L of lacto serum). But this is very flexible. The Lacto serum is not harmful, so its just about adding enough to be effective, without wasting it.

• Improve digestive efficiency in humans and animals alike:
◦ Improves how you feel after meals, particularly meals rich in meats. It’s awesome. After eating, mix 1-2tbsp lacto with a cup of water and drink that. Makes you feel so much better after! Lessens that afternoon lull, gives you more energy!
◦ Aids digestion in animals. This is critical. You can raise animals on less food, and see the same and greater growth rates. Amazing results in pigs . The principal is that the microorganisms help digest the food coming in – better digestibility means better nutrient absorption. Save on feeds, better feed to growth conversion ratio!
◦ TIP: If you really want to boost growth, mix 2tbsp to 1L water and soak the food in this solution for a few hours to a few days. Food is pre-digested when animals eat it, AWESOME!
◦ Great results in livestock and poultry.

Plants – Growth Aid:

When added to water for plants, nutrient uptake efficiency is increased, which increases growth!

• Improves growth of plants when applied as foliar spray and soil drench. Improves their efficiency in uptaking nutrients so naturally, growth is enhanced. With the use of these microorganisms, the nutrients you spray or drench to feed your plants become more bio-available and easily absorbable by the plants. Technically, you can say that plants do not use organic nutrients directly. Microorganisms convert organic nutrients to their inorganic constituents which the plants utilize. Utilizing microbes, you will notice better plant growth and health.

Disease Resistance:
• This is a consequence of the increased efficiency of nutrients. More nutrients available at smaller metabolic cost.
• Lacto suppresses harmful bacteria in food/water that animals consume, enhances their gut flora so that line of defense is working optimally, etc.

Aid Compost:
• Mix 2tbsp/L and spray on compost pile to improve decomposition. This is a huge topic that will be expanded upon in another post.

Aid Organic Fertilizer:
Add 1-2tbsp per gallon water-nutrient solution. Lacto consumes organic nutrients making them bio-available to plant roots.
• Plants don’t use organic fertilizer! Microbes break it down to inorganic constituents, and plants take those up. This product makes that process more efficient.

Aquaculture:
Lacto works in aquaculture just fine if you don’t have BIM available. Add lacto at roughly 1L per 700m3 of fish-containing water. Example: you have a pond that averages 20m wide by 30m long by 2m deep. So, 20 x 30 x 2 = 1200m3. In this case you would add roughly 1L of BIM or Lacto
• Microbes digest fish wastes, cleaning up water and improving water quality.
• Allows fish to grow larger due to digestive efficiency
• Allows higher population of fish in the same amount of water! Literally, increases the carrying capacity of your body of water! This is awesome for aquaculture setups

Beneficial Indigenous Microorganisms
Beneficial Indigenous Microorganisms(BIM) is a fermented microbial solution that can be used for many applications around the farm. It is loaded with microbes, and is a cornerstone of Gil’s Natural Farming method. It’s an incredible tool with a myriad of applications, some of which are discussed below.

How to Make:

The idea here is to collect microbes from natural healthy ecosystems. Different areas have different types of microbes in the soil – for example an old growth forest will have microbes that grasslands don’t and vice versa. To get the greatest diversity of microbes, you want to collect them from as many different habitats as you can. For starters, at least get from forest, grassland, and the boundary area between them.
Tip: Plant-specific microbes! If you are growing vegetables, find areas where natural veggies are thriving. If planting ornamentals, look for areas where wild ornamental type plants are. Also, target nitrogen-fixer plants since they have rhizobium bacterial strains present – legumes, as well as some other plant genuses such as Alder or Bayberry fall into this category.

Here’s how to collect microbes and make BIM:

1. Cook a carbohydrate source to use as the attractant. Rice, barley, wheat, oats, etc should work no problem, most often rice is used here in Asia.
2. Get a wooden box or perforated plastic box and fill bottom with rice. The rice should not be too deep, around 1 inch usually, otherwise it will take too long for all the rice to become infected. Don’t pack the rice, leave it loose to allow airflow. The whole idea is to create more space for the microbes to infect – the surface area of the rice.
3. Mark side of box with date and intended location.
4. Cover box with something that’s breathable – nylons stretched over, or newspaper, just something to keep big critters out – secure with string around top of box.
5. Dig a little depression in the desired location, a place with undisturbed soil where a healthy population of native microbes is likely to flourish.
6. TIP: In forest, look for areas where leaves build up and mold. In grassland, look for areas where grass is most thriving.
7. Place the box in the depression and loosely cover with the dirt and leaves around it.
8. After 5-10 days (depending on temperature), the first colony of microbes you will notice are white molds. Then different colors like yellow, green, black, etc if you leave it much longer. Generally we harvest when it is in the white mold stage. Disregard rice if black molds have formed on it, this is generally a sign of non-beneficial microbes. In nature when there is plenty of food the beneficial microbes dominate. When there is less food, the opportunistic, non-beneficial microbes tend to dominate.
9. At this time, remove container from habitat and transfer rice to a plastic container/jar, and mix with sugar
◦ Mix 1:1 with sugar. E.g. 1kg cooked rice with 1kg sugar/molasses(molasses is great and cheap)
10. Mash up the mixture with gloved fingers until it’s mashed but don’t overmix or you’ll destroy all the mycelia
11. Cover this mixture for 3-7 days.
12. When it is quite liquid, add 3 parts water.
13. TIP: 1kg=1L, so if you start with 1kg cooked rice, you’ll add 1kg sugar and then 6L water to that
14. Leave this diluted mixture for 7 days. Cover the top with something air permeable just so animals don’t get to it – cheese cloth, nylons, newspaper, etc
15. You should end up with a mud-like juice. Strain the liquid out of the mixture into a glass jar but don’t seal the top – let it breathe until bubbles in the bottom stop forming.
16. After you stop seeing bubbles forming in the jar, seal it up
17. Now you have your microbial inoculant for that ecosystem
18. Repeat the above steps for each area you are collecting microbes from. The more ecosystems you collect from, the better!

To make the final BIM product, combine all your microbial extracts. To increase efficacy, combine this concoction 1:1 with lacto serum. Lacto is the workhorse and is good to have in combination with other microbes. Now you have created your BIM inoculant!

How to Use:
This is a powerful tool in the natural farming arsenal, with a myriad of applications! It’s a microbial inoculant, so it can be used wherever you are trying to increase/establish populations of microbes – the most basic level of a healthy ecosystem!
Add 1-2tsp per gallon of water.

Plants

Apply as a foliar spray or soil drench. Greatly enhances growth and health of plants by establishing a healthy population of microbes in the soil and on leaf surfaces. Check out the benefits:
• Transports food to roots
• Builds a healthy ecosystem from the ground up. This is an invaluable job and the greatest benefit of this serum.
• Aids disease resistance – fights pathogens, occupies spaces that could otherwise go to harmful bacteria/molds.
• Aid composting – massively enhances compost – there will be a whole separate post on this concept
• Aid organic fertilizer. Add to your nutrient solution, microbes break down organic nutrients into bio-available forms that plants can utilize directly. Another key feature

Animals

This can be used the same way as lacto, but it is a more diversified solution.
• Boost growth by enhancing digestion
• Inoculate farmyard (spray ground) where animals occupy to maintain healthy microbial system.
• Aids disease resistance. Fight the bad bacteria!

In aquaculture

Add 1L BIM per 700m3 of water containing fish(pond, lake, aquaculture tank, etc). Lacto works in this application also, though not quite as well as BIM(less diversity).
Example: You have a pond that averages 20m wide by 30m long by 2m deep. So, 20 x 30 x 2 = 1200m3. In this case you would add roughly 2L of BIM or Lacto (you can dilute the 2L in a larger amount of non-chlorine water if you want more even application). No need for exact measurements, more or less won’t affect it (to a point obv)

Benefits are built by the microbes:

• Microbes digest fish wastes, cleaning up water and improving water quality.
• Allows fish to grow larger due to digestive efficiency
• Allows higher population of fish in the same amount of water! Literally, increases the carrying capacity of your body of water! This is awesome for aquaculture setups

SST - photos coming soon

This week in the Flog:

• Make Sprouted Seed Tea (SST)
• Supercharge and store your SST through Fermentation!

This is a great recipe I think you guys are really going to like. Have you heard of SST (Sprouted Seed Tea)? If not you can read about it here.
SST or Sprouted Seed Tea is where you take a bunch of seeds, generally of a fast growing plant like alfalfa, and you soak them in water overnight or so, then drain and keep them moist. In a few days they will sprout.

So now you have a whole bunch of seeds that are just starting to sprout. Once you see the roots start popping out, the seeds are really sprouting and sending out their earliest roots. At this time, they are packed with growth hormones as they struggle to get started growing. You are going to harvest those growth hormones and use them to give your plants a big boost. The growth hormones will trigger your plants to put energy into root development and plant growth which helps growth rate – add fertilizer at the same time to maximize growth rate in your plants. This is good stuff.
To make a traditional SST, you would get the seeds right as they have sprouted roots, about 1/4-1/2 in long. Collect all the seeds at this point and put them in a blender. Blend them up very well. Then just add this concoction to your water supply and water your plants.

Now say you want to store this mixture and use it a bit at a time on your plants. At the same time, you can enhance its effectiveness, so a little bit goes a long way. We’re going to ferment it!

Take your freshly sprouted seeds, but before throwing them in the blender, estimate their weight (or weigh them). Take 1/3-1/2 that weight in sugar (or volume molasses where 1ml=1gm). Add the sugar source to your sprouted seeds in the blender. Now blend them all up. Once that’s done, just add a little lacto and then seal the whole mixture up in an airtight container. Now ferment the whole thing for 3-6 weeks.

Now you have a great plant growth stimulant, saved for whenever you need it. Add it to the water when watering growing plants. You can add it at

1-2tbsp per gallon of feed water.

Here is the recipe in short form with pictures:

1. Gather a bunch of seeds, preferably of a fast growing plant like alfalfa. I’m just using bird seed cause it’s cheap but if I had access I would use alfalfa seeds.

Seeds ready to be sprouted
2. Soak seeds overnight in clean unchlorinated water.
3. The next day, drain seeds of water, but keep them moist. You can use a moist paper towel for this, cover the seeds with it and keep it moist

After soaking the seeds we keep them moist
4. After a few days, you should see white shoots start popping out of the seeds
5. When the young roots are around 1/4in long, they are ready for harvest. I’m quite late here but that’s ok.

You can see the shoots coming out a lot now
From the top you can also see some molds taking over too. That’s actually OK too, they look like a nice white non-pathogenic variety and will have just started the breakdown of the seeds into their baser nutrients.

After a few days the seeds sprout
6. Weigh out or estimate the weight of the bunch of sprouts
7. Get 1/3-1/2 that weight in sugar and add it to the sprouted seeds

Get 1/3-1/2 part sugar to blend with the seeds
8. Add this whole thing to a blender and blend it well. You can add a bit of water to facilitate blending. The water also helps dissolve the sugar. You can dissolve the sugar in the water before you start blending.

Now we add the seeds to blender with water and sugar
9. Add a bit of lacto, like 1-2tbsp per liter of mixture
10. Seal up this whole thing in an airtight container. Use an airlock or something as gas will be created during fermentation that needs to be let out, without letting air in.
11. Leave in a dark place for 3-6 weeks to let fermentation run its course. After fermenting it looks quite a bit more broken down.

Now we have our Fermented Sprouted Seed Tea (FSST)
Using the Growth Promoter
Add this growth promoter to your plant’s feed water at 1-2tbsp per gallon. Play around with more or less and report back your findings!

Homemade Fish Fertilizer
*For an illustrated example of this recipe, check out the farm log BrokenLink. The flog has all kinds of good stuff, sign up to get the updates via email!*

Fish fertilizer is an awesome product for promoting plant growth. It’s high in Nitrogen for growing plants, can be naturally produced, and is an awesome food for microbes! Fungi love this stuff. Fish fertilizer can be expensive in the store, but it is easily produced at home. This is a great recipe for making your own fish hydrolysate fertilizer. First lets look at the two main types of fish fertilizer:

Fish Emulsion

Fish emulsion fertilizer is made several different ways depending on who is making it. The important thing to know is that fish emulsion goes through two stages of processing. The first stage breaks down the fish parts using enzymes, proteases, or chemicals. Then, and this is the important part, heat is used to break it down further and allow oils and other things like amino acids to be more easily removed. It’s this second stage of processing that makes fish emulsion less advantageous than fish hydrolysate. Fish emulsion fertilizer lacks many oils and proteins that fish hydrolysate fertilizer has in abundance. So let’s look at that!

Fish Hydrolysate

Fish hydrolysate fertilizer generally starts out the same way as fish emulsion. It gets broken down using enzymes, proteases, or chemicals. However, fish hydryolysate doesn’t undergo the heating and skimming process that you get with the fish emulsion. The higher quality fish hydrolysates only undergo “cold-processing” which just means they are never heated enough to break down significant amino acid chains. Good fish hydrolysate also retains the fats and oils that microbes love!

Our Fish Fertilizer Recipe

This method of making fish fertilizer is awesome because it is a cold process, chemical-free, completely organic way to make fish fertilizer right at home. While fish emulsion lacks beneficial ingredients vital to the final product, this fish hydrolysate recipe preserves all those active ingredients. You don’t want to miss out on those oils that microbes love. Try this recipe in the yard or in a raised bed garden (If you are a novice gardener you can view videos online to learn how to plant a raised bed garden)

How to make your own fish fertilizer:

1. Buy a fish.
2. TIP: Any kind of fish will work. In fact, you might as well use trash fish, or fish discards like fish heads, guts, etc. I like to use whole fishes though as I think that makes for a better product.
3. Now, ideally you would throw the fish into a blender to mash it up into little pieces. I cut my fish into 8ths or so and then chuck it into my kitchen blender but I’m a bit of a caveman. If you’re squeamish, buy a separate blender for this, just make sure it is powerful enough, mine is 500W and works fine for small-medium size fishes. Remember, the finer the fish bits, the more effective the fermentation.
4. Add water. You can use a simple guide of 3:1 – 3 parts water to 1 part ferment material. 1 roughly 8in tilapia comes to about 500mL when ground up, so I add about 1500mL water.
5. TIP: ALWAYS USE NON-CHLORINATED WATER. Chlorine kills microbes. Simply let your chlorinated tap water sit for several hours, allowing the chlorine to dissipate. I let it sit overnight generally.
6. If you are using a blender, blend up the mixture. The water helps keep it loose so it blends much better after you add the water.
7. Add lacto bacilli to blended fish mixture. I use 2tbsp per L. You can use more or less if you want. 2tbsp/L is plenty though. See our lactobacillus recipe for proper preparation and dilution of your lacto serum.
8. Add 1/3 parts sugar. This should be 1/3 the amount of fish you’ve added. Sugar will be either molasses or normal cane sugar.
9. TIP: Try not to use cane sugar since it is chemically bleached. Raw(unrefined) sugar like muscovado is best. In the Philippines we use molasses because it is cheap, but any glucose source works – syrup, honey, etc. Just use whatever is cheap. Glucose gives microbes energy. Whatever you have access to cheaply, go for it.
10. If using sugar, the equivalency is about 1KG sugar = 1L solution. So if you have 500mL like my tilapia, you want 1/3 of that in sugar. You’d use about 167g sugar, or roughly ¾ cup.
11. I blend the whole mixture up a bit. It’s good to have it as fine as possible.
12. Up to you how much you blend it, I blend until I don’t hear so many bones crunching in the blades of the blender.
13. Now you have liquefied fish, sugar, and lacto. Pour this mixture into a container. Loosely cover the container. No need to seal, because the container will explode as CO2 is released by fermentation. You just want to make sure other things don’t get into it. I use a container with a lid and loosely screw the cap on top (just make sure you don’t seal it because it WILL explode).
14. The process takes anywhere from 3 weeks to over a month. How do you know its finished? By the smell.
15. You know when it’s done when there is no smell anymore. During fermentation there is a nasty smell, but once completed, there will be almost no odor. You can open it, and put your nose right up to it. Take a whiff. Nothing but a faint vinegar smell. Now you know its done. Congratulations! You’ve made your own Fish Hydrolysate!
16. Now, usually I transfer it to a smaller container, usually just a smaller water bottle, just for convenience. At this time, I use a strainer and a funnel to strain the bones and scales out of the hydrolysate. But don’t expect a lot. From a whole 8-10in tilapia, you will only get a little tiny pile of bones/scales. They will feel kind of rubbery, not brittle. Throw these in the compost pile or garden, they are excellent fertilizer and microbe food, already inoculated with microbes!
17. Leave the cap on the strained concoction loose until you see no more little bubbles forming. Then cap it and store it for use as your own natural fertilizer.

How to use this fish fertilizer:

Mix 2tbsp/gal for applications.

Plants

• Use as a soil drench as opposed to foliar spray.
• Inoculate compost to boost fungal population. This is huge – major growth booster of fungus.
• Use in compost teas to boost fungal growth, add Nitrogen. Use at ¼ strength for this application(1/2 tbsp per gal).
• Mix in water when watering plants, as a natural fish fertilizer and to enhance populations of micro-organisms in the soil

Animals

• Mix with water for an effective protein/lacto boost for your animals. Some will really love the added flavor. Others will hate it.
Click here to view an illustrated example of this recipe on our blog. Sign up for the blog to get all kinds of great updates and insider info.

Ginger Garlic Extract
This is an awesome product for plants and animals. It boosts the immune system and helps fight insect and fungal pests. Ginger-Garlic is a common and very useful variation so I’m discussing it here, but you can use any combination of plants for whatever effect you are going for.

How to Make:

Ginger and Garlic are quite difficult to ferment, or extract active ingredients from. By adding fermented liquid already like beer or wine, the active ingredients in Ginger and Garlic are more easily fermented. Then we add sugar. Remember, sugar gives the microbes energy to continue fermentation. After letting this sit for a week or so, you arrest fermentation and enhance potency by adding a strong alcohol. Here’s how to make:

1. Get an equal amount of Ginger and Garlic, but keep them separate. As a rule of thumb, we try to ferment each material separately as you do not know if there is interaction when mixed. Once materials are fermented they are much more stable and compatible.
2. Put in container and fill with beer or wine until it is covered. Leave for 12-24hrs.
3. Add 1/3 sugar(crude sugar is best). E.g. if you have 1L worth of ginger-garlic soaking in beer/wine, you would add 1/3kg sugar.
4. Ferment this for 7-10 days. Longer the better.
5. After that time, add alcohol to arrest the fermentation process. Use at least 40%, or 80 proof.
6. Leave this mixture for 10 days. This allows the extraction process to take place, where the beneficial ingredients of the ginger/garlic are extracted with the alcohol.
7. After 10 days drain the fluid from this concoction.
8. You separated the ingredients in Step 1 and fermented them separately. Now that they are fermented you can mix them to make ginger-garlic extract!

TIP: Potency depends on the part of the plant you use.  Generally, seeds have the greatest potency, then fruit, leaf, roots, and stems in that order.

How to Use:

Add 1tbsp per gallon of water.

Plants

• Treat fungal problems of plants (Sulphur from Garlic is good fungicide)
• Use as insecticide (add chili to fermentation to make it hot)
• Ginger is good natural antibiotic/preventative medicine for plants

Animals

• Garlic is good natural antibiotic/preventative medicine for animals
• This has been used with livestock to keep them healthy, and to help them get over being sick. For example keeping chicks/chickens in a crowded pen healthy
• Used for rheumatism in humans (very good anti-inflammatory)
• Used as an antibiotic.  For daily usage we drink 1tbsp/day in a glass of water.  If we feel weakening, coughs, colds, flu, etc, we’ll take 1tbsp 3 times/day for 3 days.  This is not medical advice I’m just saying how we use this extract.
• If you’re interested google the applications of ginger-garlic.  There are many indications for ginger-garlic not described here.

This extract has a myriad of uses in both plants and humans. Feel free to modify the recipe, adding plants as you see fit – chili, neem fruit, curry fruit, marigold for potency, etc. We look at the fermented extracts as food, food supplement to plants, animals and humans. They are simple food, more concentrated nutrients. You can ferment anything except poisons. The formulations may vary widely, simply mix and match as you see fit.

Just experiment!
Cal Phos

This is an awesome product you can make from ingredients found in your kitchen. It is a nutrient solution for plants just entering the flowering cycle. There is an overlapping activity of Phosporous and Potassium during flowering. In natural farming, we apply calphos before the flower initiation to support the eventual fruit. In simplistic terms, we use Phosphorous to address the root system, which will enable the plant to access better water and nutrients from the soil to support the critical changeover as manifested by flower initiation.

We use Calcium to strengthen the plant in preparation for heavy flowers/fruits. Thus, natural farming emphasizes Phosphorus and Calcium during the changeover period from growing to flowering/fruiting, and this provides for that need.

*For an illustrated example of this recipe, check out the farm log here. The flog has all kinds of good stuff, sign up to get the updates via email!*

How to Make

1. Collect a bunch of eggshells and wash to remove inside filaments. Remember, you can also use bones and other good sources of calcium like seashells, clams and oysters, etc. Likewise, if you only want calcium, even limestone can be used, or simple lime.
2. Pan fry the eggshells. Fry until some are brown/black, some white. The burnt shells are your Calcium source while the white are the Phosphorus source.
3. After roasting the eggshells, grind them up. You can do it manually, with a mortar and pestle, throw them in a blender or electric coffee grinder, etc.
4. Add them to a jar and add 5 parts vinegar by volume. For example, if you have 1 cup ground shells, add 5 cups vinegar.
◦ The acid in the vinegar helps digest them. You will notice bubbling as this process converts the ingredients to liquid calcium phosphate.
5. Wait until tiny bubbles disappear
6. Seal the jar and ferment for 20 days.
7. Filter into another jar
8. Now you’ve made your own Calcium Phosphate

How to Use

Mix 1tbsp per gallon

Plants:

• spray on leaves during transition phase to flower, and when fruits are large and mature
◦ Transition Phase: Induces flowering, eases nutrient demands of transition phase, strengthens flowers
◦ Mature Fruit: Strengthens plant stems, leaves, fruits, helps fruit mature properly for optimum sweet flavor!

Animals:

• Feed to animals during breeding time and during pregnancy. Helps breeding efficacy and litter success rates. Woohoo!

Grow Fertilizer
This is the natural farming plant growth formula. This formula is effective not only for the Nitrogen it supplies, but more importantly for the growth promoting enzymes and hormones it contains. Chlorophyll in leaves is not broken down in oil or in water. They require weak alcohol in order to be broken down. Fermentation produces some alcohol as a byproduct, which breaks down leaves and releases those enzymes and hormones. This is an awesome product not only by itself, but when used in conjunction with other nutrients.

*For an illustrated example of this recipe, check out the farm log here. The flog has all kinds of good stuff, sign up to get the updates via email!*

How to Make:

This is really a combination of fish hydrolysate and fermented plant extract. Fish hydrolysate is used because it’s high in Nitrogen, a principal element needed by growing plants. It’s also rich in many vitamins, minerals, oils, etc. The plant extracts provide the growth hormones along with essential macro- and micro-nutrients.

1. Our grow formula uses 1:1 fermented plant material and fish hydrolysate. Learn to make your own fish hydrolysate.
2. Instructions for fermented plant extract:
3. Find a fast-growing plant in your area. It must be a green-color plant, fresh juicy succulent leaves are best.
4. Collect a bunch of the growing tips of the plant. The green leaves give you Nitrogen, the growing tips give you the growth hormones. We try not to wash them for you may wash off those microbes too. We want the photosynthetic bacteria that naturally occur on the leaf surface of these fast-growing plants (phyllosphere microbes).
5. Weigh the amount of material you’ve collected and add roughly half that weight in sugar.
6. Put in a clay jar or plastic container.
7. If fermenting a large batch, put a large rock on top of the material to push it down into the bottom of the container. After at least 5 hours, remove the rock, and cover the container with a newspaper/cheese cloth/etc and secure with string/rubber-band.
8. If fermenting a smaller batch, you can add water. Add at least enough water to cover the material but if you want to add more no problem.
9. Keep container out of direct sunlight. Solution will be fermented in approximately 7-15 days (depending on temperature).
10. After that time, drain the liquid and put in plastic bottle, leaving 1/3 empty so organisms can breathe.
11. DON’T TIGHTEN lid for at least 2 weeks or so. Wait till tiny bubble disappear and then close the container tightly.
12. Note: if you observe un-dissolved sugar in the bottom it means fermentation did not go to completion. Add a little water to reactivate and leave lid off for a few days.

Notes on this fermented plant extract:

1. To use on it’s own, mix 1Tbsp/L or 4tbsp/gallon.
2. Apply as foliar spray in morning or evening when temp is lower . During the middle of the day when sunlight is highest, the plant stomata are closed (to preserve moisture), thus the intake of our foliar spray becomes difficult and less effective.
3. Plant material can be used as animal feed or compost.
4. Extract should have a sweet, sour, and even alcoholic smell and taste. Yes, you can taste it no problem but make sure to smell it first! Make sure it doesn’t smell foul – in that case you screwed something up and will have to start over. It should keep forever technically. Will be progressively more vinegary but no problem.
5. TIP: This recipe is for your generalized growth promotant. If you want something specific to your plant type, use your plant type in the recipe. If growing tomatoes, use the growing tips of a tomato plant!

How to use complete grow formula:
So now you’ve made your own fish hydrolysate that’s loaded with Nitrogen and trace elements, not to mention fats and oils that will feed teeming fungal/bacterial hordes that’ll protect and nourish your plant; along with your own natural plant extract, full of growth hormones and stimulating enzymes, that will get your plants growing full and green!

Now it’s really up to you what ratio you mix your plant extract and fish hydrolysate. I mix mine 1:1, that is 1 part homemade fish hydrolysate to 1 part fermented plant growth stimulant. But again, everything is relative. The more you know and understand the materials, their active ingredients, the more you will be able to determine their appropriate use. Hypothesize, experiment, report back! Have fun!

Mix 1 Tbsp/gal

• Apply once per week or as necessary
• Apply as foliar spray in morning/evening
• Apply as soil drench anytime
• Mix with BIM for enhanced effectiveness

Bloom Fertilizer

This is an awesome solution you can make at home and feed your plants during the bud, flower, and fruiting stages of their growth cycle. During the changeover period from growing to flowering, we use CalPhos to enhance roots and strengthen plants.

Now that we’re into flowering/fruiting, the natural farming method emphasizes Potassium to enhance qualities like taste and sweetness. To create the fruit extract, we’ll use the same principles we used for HerbaGrow.

How to Make:

1. Collect fruits. Any fruits can be used. In North America, you can use herbs, or weeds high in Potassium like Comfrey (also a good source of Phosphorus). For the beta-carotene, yellow/orange plants like Carrots, Squash, Pumpkin, etc. We really emphasize Potassium during this time so those plants high in that element are recommended. In Asia we use banana, squash, pumpkin, papaya, mango, jack fruit, pineapple. Citrus fruits should generally be avoided. Recommended “best” combination here in asia is a 1:1:1 mix of banana, squash, papaya. In the west it could be banana, squash, pumpkin.
2. TIP: if you are growing tomatoes, add tomatoes to the fruits to ferment! Get the plant-specific enzymes, nutrients, etc. Want nice big flowers? Use flowers! Want to help the budding stage? Use flower buds and after fermentation, use concoction during budding time! Ferment small growing fruits if you want to promote fruit growth to produce larger fruits.
3. Mix fruits 1:1 with sugar. E.g. if you gather 1kg of fruits, mash them up with 1 kg sugar (brown sugar being the best), or 1L of molasses.
4. Mash up this mixture – don’t use hands!
5. Add mixture to plastic jug and cover loosely.
6. It should ferment for 7-10 days.
7. TIP: 7-10 days is normal for fairly warm (25-30 Celsius) temperatures. In colder temperatures it might take longer. Don’t worry, if you leave it longer no problem.
8. If you start with 1kg fruits+1kg sugar, you’ll end up with 1.5L juice after fermentation.
9. Drain the juice after fermentation, into a glass/plastic jug for storage
10. Leave cap off! For first couple weeks to allow bubbling to finish, then cap it.

How to Use:

Add 1tbsp per gallon of water.

Plants

Apply as a foliar spray or soil drench. Apply during bloom phase and fruiting phase. Can make separate bloom formulas for each phase.

• Strengthens plants during flower/fruiting
• Enhances flavor and sweetness in fruits
• Performs the same function as commercial bloom formulas but is 100% organic, does not burn plants
• Mix with BIM(.5tbsp of each) and apply together to leaves/soil

Cover Crops
This is a great natural farming technique to help reduce the need for fertilizers, pesticides, excessive watering and more. This is a technique you can use for any number of applications. Let’s discuss what it is first.

Cover crops are simply densely planted species of weed, herb, flower, or vegetable that are used not for themselves but in the aid of another plant. For example, if you are growing vines in a vineyard, you might plant common vetch to keep the weeds between rows under control and conserve moisture in the ground. Another grower might use a cover crop with deep tough tap roots, like alfalfa, to break up clayish soil and introduce organic matter/nutrients subsurface. Yet another gardener might plant a cover crop of flowers to attract beneficial pollinators to their orchard.

The basic idea is simple: use plants (cover crop) to achieve whatever you need to make your garden flourish. What an interesting, simple way to achieve your garden goals. This is a quintessential “natural farming technique” and I just love it.

What to use cover crops for

There are a myriad ways to use cover crops to achieve your goals. When used correctly, they can be beneficial in almost any way you can imagine. Let’s look at some of them:
• Protect soil from erosion – like all plants, the roots will help bind soil and keep it from eroding
• Regulate plant growth – can add or take away nutrients depending on what you need
• Improve soil fertility – improve soils ability to hold nutrients
• Enhance biological diversity of the soil – both during growth and as they decompose, they attract microbes
• Draw large predators away – attract birds to cover crop rather than main crop
• Improves soil base – no more soft muddy ground during rain storms
• Improves soil structure – helps aggregate soils, both during growth and through decomposition
• Pollinate crops – attract pollinators to the area, will improve pollination of main crop also
• Provide habitat – for both beneficial insects and pest predators
• Rejuvenate depleted soil – plant between seasons to replenish soil nutrients
• Improve air/water quality – keeps dust out of air, locks nutrients so you don’t get nutrient runoff in water, etc

Those are just some of the ways cover crops can be used to enhance your garden ecosystem. Just some!

How to cover crop

Well this is very simple to explain (just plant the cover crop, that’s how you do it, duh) and very complex because it all depends what kind of results you want, what kind of setup you have, what can grow in your area, etc. Many factors vary depending on the cover crop you pick. These factors include when to plant, if and when to cut down, how to cut down, how to manage the cover crop and how soon after is ok to plant.

Here is a list of some benefits you might need and possible cover crops for that purpose:

Goal Plant Types to Use
Fertilize soil, add NitrogenLegumes: cowpeas, soybeans, sweet clover, vetch, sesbania, velvet beans, sunn hemp
Control weedsSudangrass, millet, sorghum, buckwheat, crimson clover, hairy vetch, oats, rye
Forage for animalsMangels, millet, rape seed, turnip, oats, rye
Attract pollinatorsBorage, alfalfa, buckwheat, many clovers, many vetch, fava bean, sunflower
Break up compacted soilAlfalfa, mammoth red clover, daikon radish, yellow sweet clover
Protect from soil erosionFast-growing and over-wintering crops like winter wheat, crimson clover, hairy vetch
Conserve soil moistureGrasstype crops: rye, wheat, sorghum-sudangrass hybrid, medic and indianhead lentils
Just like most things in gardening, variety is king. Mix and match cover crops to multiply their benefits. Choose a deep-rooted tall crop with a surface cover crop, or a heavy flowering crop with a grass, or some other combination.

Here are some great cover crop combinations:

Peas(cowpea or winter pea) and radishes (daikon radish): peas provide nitrogen so radishes grow deep roots and grow tall so peas can climb them. Break up hard soil and add lots of nitrogen.

Grass-legume combo (hairy vetch/red clover + winter rye, bell beans + oats, etc): Many benefits including better soil cover, better decomposition (carbon-nitrogen ratio), enhanced growth (more mulch later)

Rye, hairy vetch, crimson clover, winter peas: winter annual cover crops to be mowed after flower in spring
There is a great page here from the Rodale institute with information on common cover crop species. The charts there are awesome and you might check that out when considering species to plant.

Now that you have selected your cover crop species, it’s time to plant. Planting is a big topic and really depends on the crop varieties you have selected and your goals. For example, you might have an apple tree orchard you’d like to attract bees to for pollination. You might choose a fast flowering plant like buckwheat and plant around a month before the apple trees bloom. The cover crop blooming the same time as the apple trees helps attract pollinators to the orchard. If planting a fertilizer cover crop, you might choose a hardy winter crop, plant in fall when the garden is finished, and mow down in the spring just after the cover crop flowers.

Harvesting your cover crop is another big topic that depends on the varieties you have chosen and your goals. Here are two main factors:

Timing: Some cover cropping strategies won’t need mowing at all. They will reseed themselves and come back each year. Others will be perennials you cut every two years at the height of their maturity. Some cover crops will be cut right before you plant the cash crop while others will be planted to grow or bloom at the same time. Think about your goals for the cover crop, and when/how you harvest will follow.

Method of cutting: Some cover crops are designed to be mown down. But if you’re using the cover crop for fertilizer/nutrients, you’ll want to “turn under” the cover crop – get the green manure covered so it composts without UV exposure so the soil gets maximum benefit. Another method is to “roll” the cover crop – basically just roll over the crop so all the stalks break and it forms a nice thick mulch as it dies and decomposes on the surface.

Now you’ve chosen your cover crop, planted it, and harvested it for the benefit of your garden. What a great way to use nature! I hope this introduction has inspired you to try this excellent natural farming technique in your own garden!

NEEM EXTRACT
It is easy to make your own natural Neem extract. Use the green leaves, seeds, fruit of the Neem tree and ferment just like you would to make the Ginger-Garlic or Immuboost extracts.

But many people don’t have Neem trees in their backyard. Luckily this is easily overcome. Go for a walk in your backyard or around your neighborhood. Look for areas where there are pests, but certain plants remain pest-free. Chances are good that if you ferment these plants’ leaves, you can make your own pest deterrent.

Also think about what you can buy from the store that will drive insects away (besides pesticide obviously). Cayenne and chili peppers are hot. Something bitter like Bitter Gourd discourages browsers also.

Herbs that are aromatic have the tendency to discourage pests also. Try a combination of all these, test, change the recipe, have fun with it!

This demonstrates a basic lesson of natural farming. Nature usually has solutions if you know how to look. Observe natural phenomena and learn from them.

Have fun, experiment, and enjoy the journey!

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Chemeketa 8.20.19

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Coco Compost
This week in the Flog:

• Article 2 of The Unconventional Composting Series
• This week: Coco Compost!

Phew, Week 2 of the Compost Series! In case you missed it, check out Week 1 here. It’s a beautiful composting method that is insanely effective. Thanks to you guys who wrote telling me you’re buying roaches! Good luck!

I just love composting. I already have some awesome cockroach compostaging in a bin. Now I want to make a larger batch of more traditional compost with some stuff I have around..

I’ve mentioned this before that coconut products are readily available here in the Philippines, for obvious reasons (you know, a country of
7,107 tropical islands…). This wonder nut produces all kinds of amazing products as it is processed. The husk is removed first – as that degrades it becomes the basis for coco coir, a wonderful soil amendment much like peat moss. I used it to make some amazing soillast year (side note: that soil has supported several generations of plants now with very little input besides water).

After the husk is removed the meat and inside of shell are carved out, grated up, and compressed under extreme pressure to remove the oil for the coconut oil industry. The leftover dried coconut meat, referred to as copra mealor copra cake, is an incredible animal feed as it still contains 10% coconut oil, one of the best sources of fat(energy) you can find.

Now, the same things that make copra an awesome animal feed also make it an awesome microbe and plant feed. High oil content for energy, high protein content for a Nitrogen source, structural fiber for a carbon source, it’s just awesome.
Now I have two excellent items for the garden. I’m going to compost them! They are perfect together. This is a big topic that will be reserved for its own post, but dry composting like this is about balancing moisture, carbon and nitrogen. When you get the amounts right, the pile heats up(to about 40-60 Celsius and even hotter in large piles!) and the ingredients degrade to plant available forms, through the action of microbes. These microbes inhabit the compost and lend their own benefit to your soil when you use the compost. This is perhaps the greatest advantage to composting – inoculating your soil with microbes!

There are a lot of details about dry composting but that’s fine for now. Now back to the ingredients! The copra meal is a very “hot” compost item, very much on the Nitrogen side of the equation. The coco coir is very “cold”, very far on the carbon side of the equation. This is where it gets tricky. The ideal carbon:nitrogen ratio I’d like is about 25:1. You can look up the C:N ratios of many common ingredients and build your pile off of those. For this simple composting exercise though I’m going to stick with the unconventional farmer’s basic composting ratio: 60% carbon source 40% nitrogen source.

So now I have my ingredient ratios, I’ll get my 3.5kg coco coir and 3kg copra meal (I know this isn’t quite 60/40 but it’s close enough). They are both about 5% moisture so a lot of water needs to be added. How much water? Simple test. Grab a handful of compost and squeeze it hard. It should clump in your hand (retain its shape) and feel pretty moist. But if more than a few drops drip out, it has too much water and will limit microbe activity. Technically this is about 60% moisture level.

For my compost pile I’ll spice the water up a bit though. I have 5 gallons to draw from however much I need. To that 5 gallons I’ll add:
• 1 tsp BIM
• 2 tsp Molasses
• 2 tsp Grow

Just a little nutrients and microbial inoculant to get the pile started. They may seem like tiny amounts but these are the correct ratios for my tiny pile – when the pile gets larger, we still want the same proportion of nutrients and feeds to pile. For example, this would be a typical compost composition:

1000 kg pile
• 600 kg carbon – rice straw
• 400 kg nitrogen – animal manure
• 0.5 L BIM
• 1 L Grow
• 1 L Molasses

This is the natural farming way of composting with added nutrients. You can add more if you want this is just the basic recipe. If you don’t have BIM then lacto is a great alternative. In the same way, fish fertilizer is a great substitute for Grow.
As I’m doing here, the easiest way to get these inputs into the pile is by mixing with water and spraying the pile to correct moisture level. Thus it helps to start with a dry pile. If your pile is wet already, try finding dry materials you can add, inoculate and add them.
When compost becomes too wet, it blocks air passage and the pile becomes anaerobic. It doesn’t decompose as efficiently and pathogenic anaerobes have the opportunity to multiply. However, the beauty of our nutrient/microbe inputs is that they will help ensure beneficial anaerobes proliferate in areas of the pile that become anaerobic. Since many of the bacterial strains are facultative anaerobes, they will do just fine in the presence of oxygen. Thus they will be in the pile working, regardless of conditions, ready to take over if oxygen becomes scarce. This is an awesome way to compost! It’s great to have the benefit of beneficial anaerobes to practice fermentation decomposition in places where the pile is short on oxygen.
So now I have my composting ingredients, dry, and my water source seeded with microbes and nutrients to kickstart the pile. What a great project! Here are my ingredients:

Coco coir (peat) and copra meal should be an excellent compost combo
I mixed them together and added enough water to bring the moisture up to the correct level:

The water source with added nutrients is used to bring pile up to correct moisture level
Just for kicks, I sunk a thermometer probe in the middle of the little pile. This will record the temperature outside the pile (top #) and inside the pile (bottom #). After several hours the pile has already heated up! That was fast for such a small pile!

I’m reading the temperature inside and outside the pile to see how it heats up
I covered the pile loosely with a tarp the first few days. White molds/actinomycetes have formed on the top and sides of the pile. This an excellent sign! White molds and actinomycetes are great for the soil. I’m really happy to see this:

These nice white molds are excellent for decomposition
And that’s it! Depending on your ingredients and ratios composting time will vary. In this case I turned the pile once before having to leave for a trip. That’s ok, I will keep using this pile to compost things from the garden – by the time I’m done with it, it’s going to be exactly the boost my garden needs!
Curious about the temperature recordings? Check out the chart!I recorded temps once or twice per day. The second hump is where it came back up after turning the pile. It was already cooling down by the time I left about 2 weeks after starting the pile, but would have come back up a bit if I could have turned it again. That’s ok as I said this will be a continuing effort. I’m surprised such a small pile got so warm. Fun!

The temperature of the pile over time – looks great
What a fun project. I love composting, it’s just awesome! It is pretty neat I’m able to compost on my little balcony in the middle of the city. It goes to show you can be a farmerof some kind (in this case a microbe farmer) no matter what your living situation. I hope I’ve inspired somebody to start composting! It’s awesome to watch those piles heat up and break down.

Worm Composting
Worms, like cockroaches, are awesome composters. Worms are a bit different since they really feed on microbes as much as the stuff you feed them. So this is more like a traditional “composting” technique – but works wonders on kitchen scraps, just like cockroach composting. I first got into worm composting after reading Bentley Christie’s excellent site on red worm composting. In fact he sells an excellent introduction to worm composting that is far more comprehensive than what I’ll get into here. However for a great intro to the topic, yet another method of turning your kitchen waste into amazing garden compost, read on.

What is Worm Composting

Worm composting is simple – it just involves keeping a whole bunch of worms in a bin and feeding them organic scraps that you want to turn into dirt. Just like cockroaches, worms have a tremendous capacity to turn almost any kind of food source into nice rich dirt ready for the garden.
Worms are a little different in how they process food. As much as the food itself, worms feed on the microbes inhabiting it. This is an important distinction since it will help you set up a really nice worm bin. If you simply put in fresh food, worms can’t do much with it. It is tough and chewy and just not appetizing to them. But, after a little while the food gets infected with microbes that start to break it down. It starts getting mushy and really microbe-rich. Now it is really attractive to worms and they come in for a nice feed.

As worms eat this partially degraded food, their own microbes that inhabit their gut get involved. The food matter is further broken down by the action of these microbes and a nice, microbially super-active, dark brown soil-like substance is excreted. This is the precious worm casting that you are looking for.

Why Worm Composting?

Worms eat everything. They are awesome composters! Manure, coffee grounds, food scraps, meat, milk, etc all can go into the bin to be turned into worm casting compost (caveats noted in the feed section). This is important because it is one more outlet for your kitchen scraps that might not be ideal for the compost pile. For example just throwing half a pound of kitchen scraps on your compost pile every day will likely lead to a stinky, wet mess. But if you have a worm bin with a healthy population of worms, you will be able to add kitchen scraps each day, and the worms will turn them all into compost – no smell, no mess, just nice clean worm casting compost.

Worm composting provides much more benefit than just consuming your kitchen scraps however. Worm cast, or vermicompost, is called ‘black gold’ for a reason. It is a spectacular fertilizer for the garden. It has all the microbial benefits of traditional compost (high beneficial microbe counts), but also contains high levels of bio-available nutrients. The action of the worm gut microbes breaks down the nutrient rich substrate into incredibly nutritious vermicompost.

Basic Principles of Worm Composting

Worms are an awesome composter because they are so easy to keep and they eat everything. There are just a couple main points to keep in mind when raising worms:

• Bin setup
• Bedding material
• Moisture level
• Feeding

I’ll cover each of these points and then look at the worm bin in action. Worm composting is pretty easy and I’m sure most readers here are familiar, but for new folks this should be great.

The Worm Bin Setup

The ideal worm bin is a flow-through system that allows you to harvest pure worm castings without disrupting or removing the worms. If you want to purchase the ultimate worm bin, that is also very affordable, you can buy a continuous flow worm bin system – they are the best worm bin design I’ve seen. If you want to make your own system, you can make one cheaply and easily. While a less ideal system, this will work great for the beginning worm farmer.

I’ll just describe a stacking system since it’s so easy to make. Here’s how you would set it up:

1. Get bins that stack – ideally they would nest a bit. This is so you can get direct soil-bin contact so worms can move up. Those big plastic tote bins are perfect.
2. Start with the bottom bin. This has no holes in the bottom and is just there to catch the fluid that leaks out as food decomposes and you water the system.
3. Stack the next bin inside the first one, so it’s ‘nested’ in the first one. This second bin has many holes cut in the bottom to allow water to drain. This is your worm composting chamber. In this bin you will put the worms, their bedding and food.
4. As the second bin starts getting full, you will stack the third bin on top of it. Right on the top of the bedding. This bin has holes in the bottom as well. The fresh bedding and fresh food will lure the worms up into this bin.
5. Once all the worms are attracted to the top bin, you can remove the second, middle bin.
6. Now you have a bin full of awesome organic compost – worm castings!

That’s a basic worm bin system that is cheap and effective. It takes minutes to make and allows you to harvest castings without fussing about with the worms.

Now let’s look at the second main factor – the bedding.

Worm compost bedding

Worms are pretty tolerant creatures. I mean, they live in the dirt. Clearly they don’t require 5-star “digs”. But there are some things you can do with bedding to help keep your worms happy and healthy. Stick to these guidelines for bedding success.

• Use a TON. You can’t have too much bedding, but you can have too little. I recommend at least 6 inches deep worth of bedding in your worm bin.
• Try to use bulky bedding that doesn’t compact very easily. This will help keep the system light and aerated. Worms are aerobes they need oxygen. So keeping aerobic conditions is important. That’s why we don’t use soil – too dense and compact, it can get anaerobic easily and that’s bad for your worms.
• Don’t use anything that could be toxic. This is obviously a no-brainer, but just be wary of chemicals, salts from fertilizers, stuff like that. You want nice clean bedding for your worms.
• Any high carbon bedding will be great as it doesn’t break down too fast, doesn’t compact too badly, holds and drains water well, and breathes well.

Some examples of great bedding would be:

• Shredded newspaper, cardboard, egg cartons
• Shredded brown paper
• Straw: all kinds – in the Philippines we use rice straw, in the states straw hay (ideally composted a bit already)
• Coco peat/coco coir – make sure it is low sodium
• Peat moss
• Very aged manure – vegetarian only (horse, cow, sheep, etc)
• Leaves – shredded so they don’t stick together and clump (ideally composted already)

So now you have your bin setup and you have added a ton of really good bedding. The next step is moisture level.

Worm Bin Moisture level

Worms breathe through their skin, and require a moist environment to exchange oxygen across their membrane surface. However you don’t want to drown the system and produce anaerobic conditions. Think of it like a compost pile or garden soil – nice and moist without being dripping wet.
The moist environment is not only for the worms. You are cultivating their food – microbes. This is where the compost pile analogy really makes sense. You will be adding food to the system, burying it under the substrate where it will start to decompose. You want a nice healthy aerobic microbial population to work on it just like what happens in a compost pile. If the environment is too wet, the food you added will sit in anaerobic conditions and just like when a compost pile ‘goes bad’ from being too wet, your system will go bad and stink and not be productive.

So for worm composting moisture level is like the goldilocks phenomenon – not too much and not too little. Keep the system moist by misting it every day during dry conditions, but don’t dump water on the system to make it wet. Some things you can do to keep the moisture level correct:

• Ensure your worm bin has plenty of drain holes in the bottom to drain excess fluid
• Don’t overload the system with food scraps
• Mist only, don’t dump water on system
• Mist regularly to keep system moist
• Keep in mind the type of food you are adding – wet or dry – and add water accordingly

Feeding

Feeding is the most frequently questioned of the worm composting factors. How much to feed worms? How often to feed worms? WHAT to feed worms? These are all great questions when you are getting started, and fortunately the answers are pretty straightforward. One thing to note – experience helps here. As you become more experienced, you will become confident in your feeding practices. So dive in, feed those worms and learn from your mistakes. I’ll give you some tips now to get you started.

First, what to feed your worms. This is an easy one since we can just make a list:

• Anything plant matter – veggies, fruits, leaves, berries, even stems and roots(in moderation)
• Coffee grounds
• Egg shells (crushed up ideally)
• Bread/pasta
• Manure/feces (vegetarian) – aged/composted ideally
• Meat scraps*
• Dairy*
• Fats/oils*
• Manure/feces (meat eater)*

*in moderation: these items are generally seen as BAD and never to be used in worm composting. But I don’t like something that only does 90% of the job. I want to be able to add everything to the bin for composting. So I included those items with a big warning: add these items sparingly!! Not more than 1/10th the total food added at any given time, even less for the grease, oils, and meat-eater feces.

What to feed is the easy part – almost anything. How to feed is where it gets a little more complicated. Just to give a little background, worms are attracted to the food source as it becomes infested with microbes and starts decomposing. The earthworms feed on the decomposing food source and the microbes living in it. So keep that in mind for feeding – you want a nice healthy population of microbes more than anything. Just like other forms of composting!

How often to feed compost worms? Add food every few days. How much to feed your compost worms? To start with just a little food, like less than 1/4 the weight of worms you are keeping. So the amount of food depends on the number of compost worms you have – a pound of worms may eat around 1/2 lb food per day or up to 2 lbs per day depending on species and environmental conditions.

However, I don’t like thinking in strict numbers since feed rate is such a subjective thing. Things like temperature, moisture, humidity etc can all affect the feed rate of your worms. I prefer to just watch the bin. I call it the “watch the bump” technique. When you add food to the bedding you typically dig down a few inches, put the food in and then cover the food. This creates a little mound in the bedding where there was none before. As the food decomposes and the worms eat it, the bump goes down. When I see the bump fall down, it’s time for the next food. This way you can kinda gauge how much they eat and learn the best amount to feed your worms depending on conditions.

Watch out for bad smells coming from your bin. If you smell something rotten, chances are you fed too much or got it too wet where you added the food. It’s gone anaerobic and the wrong microbes are at work. No need to panic, just back off the food and water until the system recovers. It will naturally recover without you intervening as long as you didn’t add something really toxic.

There are some things to keep in mind when feeding:

• Moisture: things give off water as they break down. Especially veggies and fruits. So keep in mind when feeding that you are affecting the moisture level in the system. Avoid too much wet food at a time, so you don’t get anaerobic conditions.
• It’s easy to feed too much but hard to feed too little: so don’t feed much! Especially at the start. Feed a little food to start with, and slowly work up from there as you get to know your worms’ feed capabilities.
• Everything in moderation: don’t feed too much of any one thing, ideally. Mix it up and feed your worms a variety of items.
• Food types: What you feed needs to break down a bit before the worms can eat it. But everything breaks down at a different rate. Be aware of what you are adding, for example things like broccoli stalks, raw carrots and things like that will take much longer to be available to the worms than something like oatmeal or fresh leaves. If you add too much wet mushy stuff you will cause anaerobic conditions but if you add only stalks and woody stuff it will take a long time to be available to the worms. Mix your feed types to achieve a balance.

The Worm Composting System in Action

Here is the step-by-step setup and operation of the worm bin. It draws from the concepts above, showing them in action.
1. To start your worm farm, start with the bottom bin that will catch the drippings. It is solid and has no holes, because you want to keep the liquid that drops there and feed to your compost pile/garden.
2. Place the next bin, this one with holes in the bottom, inside the first bin. Prop it up a bit with blocks if it nests all the way down – you need space to catch the drippings (worm leachate). You can put a piece of newspaper over the holes to cover them initially so your bedding doesn’t fall through. The paper will rot away and the liquid will drip through eventually.
3. Fill the second bin with your bedding. Add a good amount, 3-6 inches at least.
4. Now add your worms to the bedding.
5. Wait for a week or two before first feeding. This is just to let them get acclimated to their new habitat.
◦ Note: You may have many worms trying to escape in the first month or two – that is fine, they are just getting used to their new home. Leave a light on above the bin if you want to discourage that.
6. Now add a bit of food to the bin. Dig a little hole a few inches deep in the bedding, add your food and then cover it and mist with water. This should cause a little bump in the bedding.
◦ Start with very little food initially – it is far easier to overload the system with food than to starve your worms. You can build up as you get comfortable with the setup.
7. Watch the bump you made over the next several days. When it has dropped back down, add more food to the bin, in a different location.
8. Mist your bin when you notice the surface get dry, but you don’t need to dump water in it. The idea is to keep it moist but not super wet.
9. When you notice the bottom bin getting full, you can use that worm leachate on your garden. Pour it straight into your compost pile, or dilute it to use in the garden, at least 1:1 but preferably more like 1:10 with water.
Worm Composting Summary

There you go. The worm composting system for getting rid of your table wastes. Now we have yet another cheap, simple, sustainable way to eliminate your kitchen scraps while producing amazing fertilizer for the garden. What a neat way to compost! You can do this anywhere, even in your house! If you are doing things correctly, there won’t be any unpleasant odors coming from the bin.

If you haven’t started worm composting before, I hope this article helps convince you of the ease and effectiveness of this natural farming technique.

Ready to get started? You can order worms online easily. Once again you can purchase from Red Worm Composting, a trusted supplier of composting worms. If you’re ready, buy compost worms from Bentley and get started worm composting today.
What is Bokashi Composting?
What is Bokashi composting? The rough translation is ‘the fermentation of organic materials’, which is pretty broad. With this broad definition of Bokashi we can liken it to a basic fermentation recipe. So in that way, you can think of this as a guide to fermentation. I like the Bokashi buzzword, it sounds cool, but don’t feel like you’re limited to fermenting kitchen scraps in your “Bokashi Bin” (aka fermentation bucket – sounds way less cool).

What is fermentation?

It’s important to note – Bokashi composting doesn’t break things down the way traditional aerobic composting does. You won’t get a pile of dirt from your kitchen scraps, fish, bones or whatever you’re composting this way. You will simply have the same material, looking a little more monochrome, more easily broken/separated/smushed when you squeeze it, and smelling sour. BUT, this material, in the next stage of decomposition, will break down much faster and more completely than it would otherwise.

Why Bokashi Composting??

So Bokashi composting, under the broad definition above, is far from just pre-composting kitchen scraps bound for the traditional compost heap. It is a valuable tool we can use to boost the decomposition rate or digestibility of a nutrient source. Just like in the anaerobic compost tea, we aren’t worried about overloading the system with nutrients. You don’t need it to heat up, so you don’t have to monitor the ingredients to get just the right balance of greens and browns. It won’t heat up like a traditional compost pile, so it won’t get too hot if you put in all green nutrients.

Just like comparing aerobic vs anaerobic compost teas, we can compare bokashi composting to traditional composting. Aerobic composting produces a wide variety of beneficial aerobic microbes which break down a limited amount of nutrients into plant available forms. In bokashi, a little more limited group of beneficial anaerobes break down an unlimited amount of nutrients into more plant available forms. The breakdown process doesn’t go as far as traditional composting, but it still makes a much more bioavailable nutrient source for whatever your need – plants, animals or people.

So, unlimited nutrients. In fact depending on the need we will use only nutrients in the system. In this way you can break down a ton of material safely and without smell. You can’t just put your kitchen scraps in the compost heap every day. You will likely end up with a wet, sloppy, stinky mess that will harm the garden rather than help. So instead, you’ll use bokashi to break down the material scentlessly and safely before adding it to the garden or compost bin. If you want to make your animal feed much more effective, increase the growth rate of your animals, you’ll use bokashi to pre-digest their feed. Or maybe a batch of animal feed got wet and will spoil or has already started to spoil. Bokashi! A ton of green waste and no brown waste to balance it out? Bokashi! After fermenting, you can add the waste to the garden where it will quickly break down and feed the soil. There are a myriad applications of this valuable technique.

Basic Principles of Bokashi

As mentioned above, you can ferment anything organic – food, paper, bones, sticks, coffee grounds, moss, leaves, animal waste, bird feathers, etc etc. It just involves adding an energy source (sugar most commonly), the right microbes, proper moisture level, and keeping the system anaerobic (no oxygen).

The simple energy source should be simple carbohydrates – sugar, syrup, molasses, honey, jaggery, etc. The generally accepted best source is molasses, because of all the vitamins and minerals it contains. In any case, the simple carbohydrate source is the basic feed of the anaerobic bacteria that you’ll use to ferment the solids in your system. You can use up to 1/3rd part sugar in terms of solids. For example, you might have 30kg of solids to ferment, you would add 10kg sugar max. You can use less sugar, and the fermentation will not proceed as far along since there is less food source. You can also diversify the feeds by adding other energy sources – fruits which contain sugar, etc. My personal guideline with sugar is – the more biologically active the ingredients, the more sugar to be used. The abundance of food helps beneficial fermentation bacteria dominate. For example I would add more sugar when fermenting bird feathers or fish than I would coffee grounds or fresh cut leaves. The other guideline I follow is stated above – the more sugar you add, the ‘farther’ your system will ferment and the ‘stronger’ it will be – the bacteria convert sugar to alcohols and acids. So for example when making animal feed Bokashi I add less sugar than when making compost Bokashi.

Just as in aerobic composting, in Bokashi microbes are the foundation and good quality Bokashi hinges on having the correct microbes. Lactobacillus bacteria are the main workers here, but also other anaerobes like Actinomyces, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus and more. To make sure these beneficial microbes dominate, we’ll inoculate our Bokashi with a microbial inoculant that is chalk full of them. That way they get a head start on other bacteria. These beneficial anaerobes produce enzymes and other byproducts like organic acids that hinder the growth of competing bacteria – that’s why fermentation is a food preservation technique – pathogens can’t grow! It’s still possible to Bokashi without the microbial inoculant, but there is a much greater risk of the batch going “bad” – the wrong bacteria thriving – we don’t recommend it. If you don’t have the microbial inoculant I’d advise adding more sugar to your Bokashi. You can monitor your Bokashi by smell – it should smell faintly alcoholic/vinegar/sour but not in a foul way.

Bacteria don’t thrive in dry conditions – often they don’t die either, they form cysts/endospores/etc and wait out the poor environmental conditions. We want active bacteria not sleeping bacteria – so we’ll make sure there is enough moisture to keep them alert and mobile. For me that is at least 30% moisture. You can have more no problem, but I wouldn’t recommend less than 30% moisture. I think they are just more efficient in a moist environment. Maybe someone can pitch in here on the lower limit of moisture level, this is the arbitrary limit I work with. My animal feed Bokashi is normally around 45% moisture level. Enough that you squeeze it and it clumps firmly together in a ball but doesn’t drip. Keep in mind this is an anaerobic technique, so there is no upper limit to the moisture level. The moisture level you use depends on your purposes, really. For fermenting animal feed for example, normally you start with a very dry feed and just wet it enough for the microbes to work – no need to make animal feed soup. For kitchen waste bokashi, you don’t really worry about the moisture level, but normally you add a drain for the simple fact you can drain off the nutrient rich bokashi leachate as it forms.

Lastly, oxygen level. This technique, Bokashi, is an anaerobic process so it has to be oxygen free. We’ll exclude oxygen by keeping the system sealed – in a bucket with lid, sealed plastic bag, etc. It is best to use a bucket with lid though so that you can pack the material down and it won’t change shape, and also won’t be disturbed during fermentation. That is a big factor – during fermentation keep the Bokashi system as static and undisturbed as possible – minimize the gas exchange in the system. This helps ensure you have a successful fermentation – introducing oxygen and thereby aerobic bacteria is one of the easiest ways to get a bad Bokashi – you will know when you finish the fermentation and it doesn’t smell right, smells foul. Remember a good Bokashi should smell, after about a month or so, faintly alcohol/vinegar/sour but not foul or putrid.

Now we’ve covered the basic principles of Bokashi composting. Keeping these principles in mind, you can ferment any organic solid to break it down into more easily digested/degraded/composted material ready for human/animal/plant/microbe consumption.

Bokashi examples

Traditional bokashi

There are all kinds of examples of bokashi out there. Commonly it is done at home in the kitchen below the sink – kitchen scraps going into a bokashi bin, which gets emptied into the compost pile when it fills up. My mom does this at home. Funny story – the first time she drained the bokashi leachate for use with the houseplants, she mixed about 1cup per gallon. Only a couple of the plants died but they all got burned. Haha, be careful with that stuff it’s strong!

How it’s done: normally this bokashi is made in layers. Start with a layer of ‘bokashi bran’ which is just bokashi itself – fermented wheat bran normally. Make the bokashi bran by mixing water, sugar, and a microbial inoculant like our lacto serum with the carbon rich growth medium. The growth medium is normally bran (wheat, rice, barley, rye, etc), but you can use any carbon rich source – sawdust, newspaper, groundnut cake, wood chips, etc. Ferment the bran at least 3 weeks prior to use. Once you have the bran ready, start with a layer of that. This establishes the microbes needed for proper bokashi making. After the first layer of bran, add the first layer of kitchen scraps (anything goes with the kitchen scraps – meat and dairy included – fermentation kills pathogenic bacteria). Alternate layers of bokashi bran and kitchen scraps from then on. When the bucket is full, empty it into the compost pile or bury a few inches deep directly in the garden.

Animal Feed Bokashi

You can use bokashi for much more than just the garden. An example of that is animal feed bokashi. I practice this at home. The dog and the roaches get the same food. It is a mixture of dog food and some other things I have around that are excellent nutrition sources. These ingredients are mixed and then fermented for 6 weeks. This bokashi is an awesome food – both dog and roaches love it! In the case of the roaches it is a filler when no kitchen scraps are available, it’s a nice treat for them haha.

How it’s done: Take your animal feed, whatever it may be – seeds and grains for rodents and chickens, pellets for your pigs, dog or cat food, etc. Add the water, sugar and microbes like lactobacillus and BIM until the feed is sufficiently moist (30%+). Then add the feed to a sealable container like a 5 gallon bucket or 50 gallon drum. Pack it as you go to remove as much air as possible. Leave for at least 4 weeks to ferment, then feed to animals. Keep it sealed when not using, to maintain anaerobic conditions, or dry it out away from sunlight to keep longer term. You can use this bokashi as the bokashi bran for your kitchen scraps – it is a great microbe source to keep your kitchen scraps bokashi fermenting properly.

Bokashi Summary

Bokashi is a valuable tool in the natural farmer’s toolkit. It goes far beyond simply composting kitchen scraps. It has applications all over the farm, when other forms of composting are unsuitable or when conditions don’t permit. It allows you to safely compost large quantities of wet, nutrient rich material that would otherwise spoil. Keep this technique in mind and have fun anaerobically composting around your farm and garden!

Animal Feed Bokashi Part 1
This week in the Flog:

• Turning Animal Food Into Superfood!
• Theory This Week, Practice Next Week

Another bokashi Flog! Why another bokashi flog? Because it’s like the composting version of our recipes. It’s all about fermentation, which is what the recipes are based on. And it’s composting! I love composting, as you might have noticed by the composting series earlier this year. And like the recipes, there are so many ways to go about it, and ways to use it. This article is one example of that.

I have roaches out the balcony to feed Opi, our bearded dragon, and to produce cockroach compostfrom kitchen scraps. The compost is amazing, the plants love it! And the roaches take care of the table scraps that might otherwise go in the trash.

But the roaches sometimes eat faster than we can provide kitchen scraps. I need to make a feed for them, and I’d rather it wasn’t just pure dog food. That’s expensive compared to some other things around, and I can make a more complete food for them if I mix it up a bit. So I’m going to make some bokashi from things I have around, that will be an excellent animal feed for them.

If you read our article on bokashi, you know that you can use the technique to enhance your animal feed before feeding to your pets or livestock. By fermenting animal food 1-3 days before feeding, you can make it more bio available, and increase the health, growth rate, and feeding efficiency of the animals fed. I’m going to do this with the roach food to help them stay healthy and grow quickly so I can feed them Opi!
Since I’m not going through a lot food for them, I can afford to ferment it for much longer than 3 days. Ideally you will ferment animal feed bokashi for at least 6 weeks. We just use the 3 day approach for high volume feeds like pig and chicken. Three days is enough to get fermentation going and get the breakdown process going, while 6 weeks is enough time to really build up the amino and fatty acids and other great byproducts of the fermentation process. It also yields a stable product, so this method is ideal for when you need to store the food after fermenting (low volume feeds).

Let’s see the ingredients. These are some things I either made or purchased cheaply. The dry ingredients are as follows:

◦ 4.5kg dog food
◦ 2kg copra cake (coconut meal, the dried meat after coco oil is pressed out)
◦ 2kg coffee grinds
◦ 1kg oats
◦ .5kg CRH
◦ 2kg brown sugar

You can see I added sugar. This is to help the microbes get started with fermentation. You could actually do this recipe without sugar, the microbes will take their energy from the other things we added, but the sugar is an ideal simple food source for them to get started with. It will help bolster the microbial populations early on, driving a successful ferment. Now, these ingredients are quite dry (<10% moisture) and need to be hydrated.

Microbes need a moist environment in which to thrive, and by soaking with a microbe rich liquid, we get them saturated throughout the substrate.

So let’s look at the wet ingredients that will go into this batch:

◦ .5L fish hydrolysate
◦ .5L Anaerobic Compost Tea (AnCT)
◦ 1L rice wash
◦ 6L water

I added the fish hydrolysate since it is an excellent source of both microbes and amino acids, fatty acids, and enzymes from the fish that was fermented. The anaerobic compost tea is awesome, it is like supercharged BIM, full of extra goodies that will be awesome for the animal feed. The rice wash is another carb source and another fairly simple nutrient source for the microbes to feed on.

I had a bit more liquid than I needed but that’s ok, I’ll use the rest on the garden (diluted of course). For the animal feed bokashi, I’m going to add enough to make the substrate moist, quite moist but not soggy wet.

Now I have all my ingredients together, it’s time to start the bokashi process! This is really interesting, and you’re going to love the results. Next week I’ll share the method and results of this animal feed bokashi. It’s going to be fun!

Animal Feed Bokashi Part 2

Photos to come later…

Last week I started the process of bokashi composting animal feed for my roaches. Yeah, roaches. They make awesome cockroach compostand are a great food for my Bearded Dragon, Opi. But I’m also going to use this animal feed bokashi for our dog, Floflo. She will be the real test, if she likes it, it was a success. Dogs aren’t that picky but let’s see, I hope she likes it! This week is all about the process, and the results, including lots of pictures. Let’s get started!

Here are all the ingredients that will go into this animal feed:
All these ingredients will go into this bokashi. It will be a nice healthy treat for the dog and the roaches.

The next step is mixing up the liquid portion of the bokashi. I’m mixing in the sugar with the water at this point so it will dissolve and be immediately available to the lacto, throughout the substrate. So the liquid portion of the bokashi will be made of the following:

◦ .5L fish hydrolysate
◦ .5L Anaerobic Compost Tea (AnCT)
◦ 1L rice wash
◦ 6L water
◦ 2kg brown sugar

This all goes into a plastic 5 gallon bucket where it gets thoroughly mixed until all the sugar is dissolved. The AnCT goes in last, after the mixing is complete and the sugar is dissolved. This is just to minimize it’s exposure to oxygen. Here go the wet ingredients into the bucket:

The liquid gets mixed around but not too much. Don’t want too much aeration before sealing it up.
And now for the mixing. All the dry ingredients go into a plastic bag. The dry ingredients are as follows:

◦ 4.5kg dog food
◦ 2kg copra cake (coconut meal, the dried meat after coco oil is pressed out)
◦ 2kg coffee grinds
◦ 1kg oats
◦ .5kg Carbonized Rice Hulls (CRH)

The liquid I just mixed up gets added and the whole thing gets mixed up. The dog food is a bit slow to absorb the liquid, but it does soak it up well eventually. Here is the batch of animal feed bokashi all mixed up. You can see the dog food isn’t very well broken up yet.

Now the liquid and the solids are all mixed up. The substrate has been thoroughly inoculated with microbes.
Once the bokashi is all mixed up, it goes into the fermentation bucket. This is another 5 gallon black plastic bucket. No need for drain holes here, there isn’t enough moisture for it to need drainage. The bokashi goes in a bit at a time, and get’s pounded down each time, to eliminate all the airspace. Remember when making coffee grounds bokashi bran, we did the same thing. This helps make sure fermentation starts immediately, and reduces the chance of bad microbes developing. Here is the bucket partially full of bokashi, pressed down.

The animal feed bokashi gets packed down as it’s added to the fermentation bucket. We want to get all the air out .
I’m using another 5 gallon bucket, full of water, to help compress it at this point. We really want to make it as solid (read: anaerobic) as possible.

I’m using a bucket of water to help compress the animal feed bokashi. We want to compact it as much as possible.
There is some airspace on top of the bokashi still, imagine with all those ingredients we didn’t even fill up a 5 gallon bucket! This is some nicely compacted stuff. Don’t worry the microbes have tons of space to move around in. But I don’t like the extra airspace on top. I’m putting a black plastic back on top of the bokashi, which fills up the majority of the extra space in the bucket.

There’s a little airspace so I’m covering with plastic to make sure the surface (at least most of the surface), stays anaerobic right from the start.
And now we wait. Ideally we will wait at least 6 weeks to even crack the lid. We want it anaerobic inside. The sealed bucket just sits out in the shade on the balcony for 6 weeks:

After adding and compacting, putting the plastic on, the bucket gets sealed up. It will stay sealed up for the length of fermentation – From 3 days to 6 weeks. In this case, i’m leaving it for 6 weeks.
After that time, time to open up the bucket and see how it is! It looks like there was some yeast/mold/bacterial growth on top where the bag wasn’t directly against the bokashi. It’s really interesting stuff, kind of spongy. Likely it is a matrix of yeast and bacteria. The nice white color is a great sign of healthy microbial growth. This is awesome to see.

Finally we get to open it up after 6 weeks. It looks great, with some healthy microbial growth on top.
Now for the real test. Does Floflo like it? Floflo is my wife’s little Shih Tzu. This will be her food too, not just the roach’s food. Though for floflo it will likely be a smaller part of her diet.
She’s eyeing it skeptically…..

I’ve taken a bit out to test with the dog. Let’s see if she likes it. She’s looking at it first…
And she likes it! This has been a success!

Success! The dog loves the bokashi’d animal feed. She will have some as a dietary amendment – the microbes are good for her diet and will help keep her stomach steady.
There you go, animal feed bokashi for your pets and livestock. You can do similar for pig, chicken, cat, etc food. You can do it short term as well if you are going through a lot of food and can’t wait that long. For example when feeding pigs, use 4 buckets, each day feed the last bucket and rotate it back to the front, fill with food, some water and lacto+sugar in small amount, then it ferments for 3 days before feeding to your pigs. Try this and let us know how it goes for you. It’s going to be good!

page revision: 0, last edited: 22 Mar 2020 16:06

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