- Thread starter Taylor
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bokashi
I've been composting for years and never heard of this stuff. It's warm, it's humid and bacteria is abundant. Just try to stop something from composting. Worry about moisture and pH and everything should be fine. Moisture is the biggest problem since that leads to anaerobic fermentation. I used to compost food for a summer camp with a 100 kids. We used a wood-chipper to speed things up. Lime for outhouses will raise the pH if you want it not to stink.
meat is the problem
Thanks peter,
The problem I'm running into is the meat. We collect food waste from a couple different sources, and despite our best efforts, we always end up with some meat in the scraps which bring in maggots.
From what I understand by adding Bokashi should solve that problem
Thanks peter,
The problem I'm running into is the meat. We collect food waste from a couple different sources, and despite our best efforts, we always end up with some meat in the scraps which bring in maggots.
From what I understand by adding Bokashi should solve that problem
I checked it out and it seems to have its points. In the meantime, you may want to cook your meat scraps to reduce insects or dehydrate them before composting them by using a vented "cold frame," which in the tropics will be over 130' in the sun. Also mincing or pureeing the proteins will help them break down since surface area is one of the most important aspects of aerobic fermentation.
In one of the systems I used, I made open-ended rectangular boxes made from PT 2x4's and 2x6's. The boxes were 30" long on the 2x4 sides and 24" on the 2x6 side. The bottoms of the 5 box-frames were covered with 1/2" constrution cloth(glavanized wire with square grid). The bottom frame was empty for ventilation and the stack locked by alternating the direction of the boxes. The leachate would drain off and fresh compost kept the stack moist. You will get fruit flies, but I never had many normal flies in a stack. After the food had set open for a week or so, I transfered the partially dehydrated food to a normal compost pile. Removing the excess moisture did a lot to keep it from going sour, and the large amount of surface area got the digestion started.
In one of the systems I used, I made open-ended rectangular boxes made from PT 2x4's and 2x6's. The boxes were 30" long on the 2x4 sides and 24" on the 2x6 side. The bottoms of the 5 box-frames were covered with 1/2" constrution cloth(glavanized wire with square grid). The bottom frame was empty for ventilation and the stack locked by alternating the direction of the boxes. The leachate would drain off and fresh compost kept the stack moist. You will get fruit flies, but I never had many normal flies in a stack. After the food had set open for a week or so, I transfered the partially dehydrated food to a normal compost pile. Removing the excess moisture did a lot to keep it from going sour, and the large amount of surface area got the digestion started.
dont' like importing
Separating the meat works if you have control over the staff that are doing the clean up, but we don't, and we are happy just to get the scraps from the restaurants - which is why we are thinking bokashi will solve the problem.
The other composting we do is with worms, but again we can't use meat.
Importing bokashi works, but we are trying to stick to local products only. it's a tough challenge.
Maybe if there was a local product we could substitute for the wheat bran?
Separating the meat works if you have control over the staff that are doing the clean up, but we don't, and we are happy just to get the scraps from the restaurants - which is why we are thinking bokashi will solve the problem.
The other composting we do is with worms, but again we can't use meat.
Importing bokashi works, but we are trying to stick to local products only. it's a tough challenge.
Maybe if there was a local product we could substitute for the wheat bran?