About EM

Before I launch into the details of Bokashi Compost I want to briefly cover off EM Technology as many of you will not have come across it or even heard of it before.

EM stands for Effective Micro-organisms, which are found naturally in healthy soil. EM Technology uses five families of these naturally occurring micro-organisms, mixed into a cocktail, for a wide variety of useful applications including; increasing healthy and organic production of plants in agriculture, horticulture and at home commercial and domestic composting cleaning and reduction in household smells improving the health of animals

EM technology was developed by a Japanese professor, Teruo Higa, who made a discovery whilst working on experiments aimed at cultivating vegetables in the desserts in the Middle East. Whilst EM technology has been with us for some time and is used extensively in other countries the UK are in the early days of discovering its benefits. EM's can be purchased either as a dormant powder ready to be activated or an active liquid ready to use.

Using EM technology in the form of Bokashi Bran to dispose of household organic materials is a great solution for those who really do have very little or no green space available to use for making compost but still want to have a go. It will also enable those keen composters amongst us to compost all their waste raw and cooked meat, fish, and dairy waste including animal bones.

In this section we will;

• identify how to use Bokashi bran to ferment food waste
• look at making Bokashi compost
• identify what food waste can go into the Bokashi bins
• understand the beneficial effect EM's will have on your plants
• cover some of the frequently asked questions relating to Bokashi ?

About Bokashi

Bokashi translates from Japanese to English as "fermented organic matter". Bokashi bran is a powdered variation of EM technology which has been developed using EM's mixed with a bran carrier. Very small quantities of EM are required to ferment food waste so the carrier helps a little go a long way. Bokashi bins are plastic buckets, with a tap and mesh tray insert, used to hold the fermenting food waste and Bokashi bran mix untill the fermentation is complete. Bokashi compost is a mix of the fermented food and other compostable materials

If you have any questions about Bokashi please ask me.