Silly Bokashi Question!

[broadway]

Hi Guru's,

Just started using these and have a question. When I read about these it states 2 weeks before digging in or putting the contents in your bin.

It took about a month to fill the first therefore will be about the same for the 2nd.

Right the question, can leave the first one for a month before emptying and thus it should be broken down more? I know it sounds obvious but wanted to ask anyway.

[armadillo]

It takes me a long time to fill mine, what I do is let it fill in it's own time, then leave it ouside with the tap open for as long as it takes for me to fill the other one, then I empty it out into the compost and swap it over, The contents reek but do seem to have broken down nicely and have the right colour mould on them- I'm sure it would be fine to dig into the ground too.

[broadway]

Cheers Armadillo,

Thanks for the reply, do you get much liquid from one box?

[lainey lou]

It takes about 6 weeks for me to fill one bucket, it's fine as armadillo says as long as any mould is the right colour. It won't look any different while it's in the bucket it just looks pickled but once it's in the compost heap or buried it breaks down mega fast. Liquid wise it really depends what you've put in as to how much liquid you get.

[broadway]

Thanks LL,

stupid q but what is the right colour for mold green?

[Alison]

I take a couple of months at least to fill each of mine and often don't get around to emptying the other one until I need it again and it's all been fine. You do need to keep opening the tap though otherwise liquid could build up. I find it's best to keep the tap shut though the rest of the time otherwise it all goes a bit smelly!

[oldie]

With a family of five I can fill one of these in 7-10 days. I've bought some more as I do find that it needs a good two weeks to be ready to go into compost bin. I haven't measured the exact amount of liquid but it must be over 1 litre.

[Alison]

The amount of liquid will depend on what you put in. Green waste is mainly water and therefore produces more liquid. I only put stuff in my bokashi bin that you can't put on the compost heap directly (why on earth would you buy bran for stuff that doesn't need it?) which means that it takes longer to fill up and probably means that mine produces far less liquid.

[broadway]

Thanks All,

Just started draining the liquid and tap fell off!!

I've emptied the contents into the 2nd tub, I assume this is ok?

[Alison]

I had that happen once. You need to make sure the taps are well screwed on!

[BarleySugar]

The taps do seem to be a problem, one of mine started leaking so I used ptfe tape to seal it. puddles of bokashi liquid on the kitchen floor

[ratglass]

Regarding the tap issue same happened to me, hubby took off one of the washers just leaving one on there -seem to work fine now and have no leaks. Hope this helps

[MaureenHall]

I've been using my bokashi bucket for about 2 weeks now, and there's no liquid to drain off. Is this normal? The bucket's about half full of leftovers, tea bags etc

[broadway]

Hi Maureen,

Not sure to be honest, mine has been on the go about 4 weeks now. I drained it for the first time in the week and got about 2/3's of a litre

[lainey lou]

Thanks LL,

stupid q but what is the right colour for mold green?

sorry, not been around for a few days.... any mould should be white, if it's green, you've done summut wrong!!