Jess, yes, cardboard is a good option. Get the brown basic cardboard without glossy printing or red inks. Depending on where you are, try getting some leaves for next year. It is good to have a mixture of different brown materials. Leaves decompose into trace minerals which are great for your plants. Paper is good, but I prefer cardboard. I just do not know what people are putting in their inks and paper products these days. Cardboard tends to be pretty basic cellulose and glue.
@@GardensofNewEngland this is great! Thanks so much. I'm I'm a very built up area in London, UK so a bit more difficult to get leaves etc (even in nearby parks there's drug use etc so not too comfortable just picking them up) but cardboard is a good call! Thanks for the tips. I really liked these videos, thought they were very clear 😊
@@jesspp6587 Thank you!! yeah, definitively not a good idea to get leaves from a park with needles around. I am not sure how it is in the UK, but here in the US, people bag their leaves at the end of autumn and leave them outside for the city to collect them. I just pick up a few bags when I see them. I do not collect them directly from the ground.
Would it be the fastest way to pre compost food scraps with bokashi then blend it and feed to the worms? It's just a theory as Im not have any worms atm. Idea is to speed process BUT mimic the nature in the best way! What you think?
Denis, yeah, bokashi is pre-composting! It is pretty cooked after it come out so I do not think you need to blend. What you do need to do is manage the acidity because bokashi is very acidic and acidity can harm your worms if not managed well. Let me know if you have any questions.
@@GardensofNewEngland Thanks for getting back to me. What would you suggest to adjust pre-compost PH ? Also, I'm thinking of feeding worms with thermal compost once temps go down. Mix it with food scraps or green waste and feed worms.
@@denislukasov4813 I use biochar, eggshells and recently exploring with bone meal to neutralize ph. Eggshells are pretty strong neutralizer so I would not exclusively use Bichar. You want some source of calcium carbonate to knock down the acidity right away. Biochar has amazing benefits so I use in my bin. I made a video about it. Worms and Biochar. here is a discussion on biochar, eggshells and bonemeal as grit : ruclips.net/video/et7n0LXRkJg/видео.html
@@denislukasov4813 between 5-9 is a pretty good range. I would want to keep it right at around 7. Thermo compost breaks down to neutral ph so that would be good! However, as you add fresh food that will alter acidity and the thermo compost wont likely do much to neutralize it. It will help not have a huge concentration of highly acidic food scraps, but it is not like adding eggshells. However, an amazing thing to do for your worms!! Why not just thermo everything?
Hi, thanks for doing your videos! I'm still a newbie, or at least feel like this is so. My question is: I'm putting my kitchen scraps in a container which I keep for up to a week soaking it with a lab solution (from rice and milk). Are the other ingredients in bokashi mix more for non vegetable materials? I'm just burying the new food enough for fruit flies and adding egg cartons at the bottom to control moisture at the bottom (single unperferated bin is pretty wet but only has trace amounts of water at the very bottom. It's working but I'd like to have more confidence before scaling up to a large flow through box or eventual proper worm farm. Any ideas would be appreciated Thanks. Your other videos are well done too!
Floyd, What do you mean by lab solution? Is it bokhashi culture? I use the dry brand product and it works pretty well. The link should be in the description of the newer videos. I do not feed my worms meat so I am not sure what is there available to process dairy and animal protein. But, think about what worm eat in nature, it is all vegetable matter. So, be extra careful with animal fats. In all honesty, I would not add them to my bins at all. Here is the deal about vermicomposting; you want to get the carbon to nitrogen ratio to be close to 70% carbon 30% Nitrogen. That takes care of mostly everything else! Your description of the bin sounds a bit too wet. I am not sure if you have seen how I set up my systems with a bottom bin filled with wood chips. That should take care of the excess fluids. Excess fluids in your top bin, even if it is a little, is no good because oxygen cannot get into that area and that creates all kinds of problems with acidity, smells... . So, focus on the carbon to nitrogen ratio and put a drainage bottom bin with some holes on the base of the top bin to allow excess fluids to travel. I hope that helps!
@@GardensofNewEngland LAB is an abbreviation for lactobacillus bacteria--a fermented mix of rice washing water and milk. To make homemade bokashi bran this is the base ingredient (step one). I'm trying to learn from podcasts like yours but i still don't know the other ingredients in bokashi (yeasts and fungi and various other home concocted ingredients / recipes). There's quite a range of moisture levels in podcasts--some seem quite dry with only occasional misting to Geoff Lawton's method of having them swimming in a leaking bathtub with uncomposted manure, worms and culture and a lot of water. Each of these has healthy worms. From what I understand water doesn't bother worms but since they need oxygen, complete anaerobic conditions kill them quickly. Your method of draining the excess into wood chips sounds like a nice combination with Johnson-Su composting which should yield an excellent high fungi content worm casting product. Your videos are among the ones I've learned the most from, thank you for making them! I don't add non-vegetable ingredients to my bins however gardening videos sometimes show bokashi using any and all kitchen waste, processed and absorbed rather quickly into soils. I'm more of an observer rather than a theorist at this point. I'm thinking that at some point the anomalies will begin to make sense. Thank you for your input and reply.
@@GardensofNewEngland Love this video and am glad that I found it. So do you not add meat to your Bokashi? I clean out my fridge weekly and I select what I’ll feed directly to the worms (fruit and veggies) and then everything else (meat, cheese, cooked foods, etc) goes to my Bokashi bin. I’d love to start feeding my Bokashi to my worms, but do I need a vegetarian Bokashi just to feed the worms? Also, do you not moisten leaves at all when you add them to your system? I worry that it’s too dry and I live in a dry climate.
@@amywaggoner822 so glad you found the video helpful!! I do not buy a lot of meats so there is mo much to add to my bokashi bin as far as meats. My main concern with feeding meat to worms would be the production of smells and acidity spikes even after being in a bokashi bin--specially if it is a lot of it. Meat is harder to breakdown than vegetable scraps. I would rather bury meat bokashi directly into a garden bed where I am not concerned about smells. The soil biology will devour it. Worms primarily feed in microorganism feeding on vegetable matter--this is what they eat in nature. You usually do not find worms eating off animal carcasses; that is more in the realm of maggots which is why people use black soldier flies to decompose meat scraps. Everything in moderation, if you add plenty of bedding and some bokashi meat, that is probably ok. But, if it's too much, it might cause problems with smells and high acidity. As far as the leaves go, I do dry them and add them to the bin without moisture to soak in excess moisture. If your bin dries on its own, then you might want to spray them. My bin produces enough moisture so I do not spray the leaves. I also keep a piece of cardboard on top to make sure the surface does not dry. I hope that helps! Send any other questions you might have !
Your crops and their nutrient content will be directly linked to the type of fertilizer you use in your garden. If you have an outdoor composting system, you don't really need to ferment food scraps. Think about your composting system, worms or no worms, as the stomach that digests the food you will feed your plants--and through them, yourself.
Amazing ! Really great insight !!! I have been searching for this for a while. Good work
Thank you Moryl!!
Great video thank you for sharing.
Thank you!!
Great video! Thanks. If you don't have access to leaves, would you suggest cardboard/paper as an alternative? Thanks
Jess, yes, cardboard is a good option. Get the brown basic cardboard without glossy printing or red inks. Depending on where you are, try getting some leaves for next year. It is good to have a mixture of different brown materials. Leaves decompose into trace minerals which are great for your plants. Paper is good, but I prefer cardboard. I just do not know what people are putting in their inks and paper products these days. Cardboard tends to be pretty basic cellulose and glue.
@@GardensofNewEngland this is great! Thanks so much. I'm I'm a very built up area in London, UK so a bit more difficult to get leaves etc (even in nearby parks there's drug use etc so not too comfortable just picking them up) but cardboard is a good call! Thanks for the tips. I really liked these videos, thought they were very clear 😊
@@jesspp6587 Thank you!! yeah, definitively not a good idea to get leaves from a park with needles around. I am not sure how it is in the UK, but here in the US, people bag their leaves at the end of autumn and leave them outside for the city to collect them. I just pick up a few bags when I see them. I do not collect them directly from the ground.
Would it be the fastest way to pre compost food scraps with bokashi then blend it and feed to the worms? It's just a theory as Im not have any worms atm. Idea is to speed process BUT mimic the nature in the best way! What you think?
Denis, yeah, bokashi is pre-composting! It is pretty cooked after it come out so I do not think you need to blend. What you do need to do is manage the acidity because bokashi is very acidic and acidity can harm your worms if not managed well. Let me know if you have any questions.
@@GardensofNewEngland Thanks for getting back to me. What would you suggest to adjust pre-compost PH ? Also, I'm thinking of feeding worms with thermal compost once temps go down. Mix it with food scraps or green waste and feed worms.
@@GardensofNewEngland What about adding biochar to adjust ph?
@@denislukasov4813 I use biochar, eggshells and recently exploring with bone meal to neutralize ph. Eggshells are pretty strong neutralizer so I would not exclusively use Bichar. You want some source of calcium carbonate to knock down the acidity right away. Biochar has amazing benefits so I use in my bin. I made a video about it. Worms and Biochar.
here is a discussion on biochar, eggshells and bonemeal as grit : ruclips.net/video/et7n0LXRkJg/видео.html
@@denislukasov4813 between 5-9 is a pretty good range. I would want to keep it right at around 7. Thermo compost breaks down to neutral ph so that would be good! However, as you add fresh food that will alter acidity and the thermo compost wont likely do much to neutralize it. It will help not have a huge concentration of highly acidic food scraps, but it is not like adding eggshells. However, an amazing thing to do for your worms!! Why not just thermo everything?
Hi, thanks for doing your videos!
I'm still a newbie, or at least feel like this is so.
My question is: I'm putting my kitchen scraps in a container which I keep for up to a week soaking it with a lab solution (from rice and milk). Are the other ingredients in bokashi mix more for non vegetable materials? I'm just burying the new food enough for fruit flies and adding egg cartons at the bottom to control moisture at the bottom (single unperferated bin is pretty wet but only has trace amounts of water at the very bottom. It's working but I'd like to have more confidence before scaling up to a large flow through box or eventual proper worm farm. Any ideas would be appreciated
Thanks. Your other videos are well done too!
Floyd, What do you mean by lab solution? Is it bokhashi culture? I use the dry brand product and it works pretty well. The link should be in the description of the newer videos. I do not feed my worms meat so I am not sure what is there available to process dairy and animal protein. But, think about what worm eat in nature, it is all vegetable matter. So, be extra careful with animal fats. In all honesty, I would not add them to my bins at all.
Here is the deal about vermicomposting; you want to get the carbon to nitrogen ratio to be close to 70% carbon 30% Nitrogen. That takes care of mostly everything else! Your description of the bin sounds a bit too wet. I am not sure if you have seen how I set up my systems with a bottom bin filled with wood chips. That should take care of the excess fluids. Excess fluids in your top bin, even if it is a little, is no good because oxygen cannot get into that area and that creates all kinds of problems with acidity, smells... . So, focus on the carbon to nitrogen ratio and put a drainage bottom bin with some holes on the base of the top bin to allow excess fluids to travel. I hope that helps!
@@GardensofNewEngland LAB is an abbreviation for lactobacillus bacteria--a fermented mix of rice washing water and milk. To make homemade bokashi bran this is the base ingredient (step one). I'm trying to learn from podcasts like yours but i still don't know the other ingredients in bokashi (yeasts and fungi and various other home concocted ingredients / recipes).
There's quite a range of moisture levels in podcasts--some seem quite dry with only occasional misting to Geoff Lawton's method of having them swimming in a leaking bathtub with uncomposted manure, worms and culture and a lot of water. Each of these has healthy worms. From what I understand water doesn't bother worms but since they need oxygen, complete anaerobic conditions kill them quickly. Your method of draining the excess into wood chips sounds like a nice combination with Johnson-Su composting which should yield an excellent high fungi content worm casting product. Your videos are among the ones I've learned the most from, thank you for making them!
I don't add non-vegetable ingredients to my bins however gardening videos sometimes show bokashi using any and all kitchen waste, processed and absorbed rather quickly into soils. I'm more of an observer rather than a theorist at this point. I'm thinking that at some point the anomalies will begin to make sense. Thank you for your input and reply.
@@GardensofNewEngland Love this video and am glad that I found it. So do you not add meat to your Bokashi? I clean out my fridge weekly and I select what I’ll feed directly to the worms (fruit and veggies) and then everything else (meat, cheese, cooked foods, etc) goes to my Bokashi bin. I’d love to start feeding my Bokashi to my worms, but do I need a vegetarian Bokashi just to feed the worms?
Also, do you not moisten leaves at all when you add them to your system? I worry that it’s too dry and I live in a dry climate.
@@amywaggoner822 so glad you found the video helpful!! I do not buy a lot of meats so there is mo much to add to my bokashi bin as far as meats. My main concern with feeding meat to worms would be the production of smells and acidity spikes even after being in a bokashi bin--specially if it is a lot of it. Meat is harder to breakdown than vegetable scraps. I would rather bury meat bokashi directly into a garden bed where I am not concerned about smells. The soil biology will devour it. Worms primarily feed in microorganism feeding on vegetable matter--this is what they eat in nature. You usually do not find worms eating off animal carcasses; that is more in the realm of maggots which is why people use black soldier flies to decompose meat scraps. Everything in moderation, if you add plenty of bedding and some bokashi meat, that is probably ok. But, if it's too much, it might cause problems with smells and high acidity.
As far as the leaves go, I do dry them and add them to the bin without moisture to soak in excess moisture. If your bin dries on its own, then you might want to spray them. My bin produces enough moisture so I do not spray the leaves. I also keep a piece of cardboard on top to make sure the surface does not dry. I hope that helps! Send any other questions you might have !
Im just worried that the worm's food becomes a better product than that which I am planting with the vermi compost.
Your crops and their nutrient content will be directly linked to the type of fertilizer you use in your garden. If you have an outdoor composting system, you don't really need to ferment food scraps. Think about your composting system, worms or no worms, as the stomach that digests the food you will feed your plants--and through them, yourself.