How to use Bokashi Compost in your garden

Sustainable Soil Enrichment Through Bokashi

Whether you’re rocking a Garden of Oz Bokashi Buddy or another bokashi system, there comes a point where it’s time to do something with that fermented food waste.

Once your food scraps have completed the 2-week fermentation, it’s time to use that living nutrient biopulp.

A Brief Overview of Bokashi Composting

Step 1) Fill your Bokashi Buddy.
Step 2) Once full, let your Bokashi Buddy fully ferment for at least two weeks. After the two weeks is complete, you are left with Bokashi biopulp, ready for processing.
Step 3) Add your biopulp to the method of your choice. See below for more details.

What to do With Your Bokashi Biopulp

Now that your bucket has sat and fermented two weeks, it’s time to process your biopulp for the final decomposition period. Your biopulp will process for about 4 weeks (depending on your use) and develop into rich, beautiful living soil ready for the garden.

1) Make a Soil Factory

A soil factory is a great way to process food waste into large volumes of living compost.

Soil factories mix your biopulp (fermented food waste) with dead/used up soil from your garden of pots and create a nutrient-rich powerhouse compost, teeming with living microbes.

Soil factories are great for folks with limited space since you can use small containers, but can also be easily scaled up for large gardens.

How to Make a Soil Factory

Combine biopulp and used soil/dirt
Combine dirt or soil from around your home in a large container (any spare plastic tub or even garden planters will work). You can even use last season’s dried up soil or pots.
Then, add in and combine your biopulp with the soil or dirt. Aim for the ideal ratio of 3 parts soil to 1 part bokashi biopulp.
Let your Soil Factory Sit At Least 2 Weeks (and up to 6 weeks)
We recommend keeping your Soil Factory out of prolonged direct sun and protecting from excess moisture (like deluges of rain). Microbes are living beings, and like us, they don’t like to be too hot, too cold, or drown.
Let your Soil Factory sit and process, further decomposing food scraps, for a minimum of 2 weeks (or longer depending on temperatures and outdoor conditions).
You can check your Soil Factory at two weeks to determine if decomposition of your food scraps is sufficient for your use as compost. If you still see pieces of food, you can let your Soil Factory sit another 1-4 weeks. It’s a good idea to check your Soil Factory once a week until you’re ready to use it.
Use Your Living Soil / Bokashi Compost
Use your bokashi compost around your garden like traditional compost, and anywhere you want beneficial microbes and nutrient rich compost. If you don’t have a garden or balcony, consider donating to your favorite local garden nonprofit!

2. Bury It in the Ground. (Trench method)

Putting your nutrient rich biopulp to good use is as simple as digging a hole or trench and burying it to allow the beneficial microbes to migrate into your soil.

Make sure you dig at least 6+ inches into the ground, mix with soil or dirt in the hole, and cover well.

Heads up: If you have dogs with good noses, then they will likely be interested in your bokashi biopulp when it is freshly fermented. Consider burying when your dog can’t watch and cover it very well or exclude your dog from the area.

Your bokashi biopulp will be acidic; about a 3 on the pH scale. If you want to add bokashi precompost or biopulp to your garden beds, make sure you do this before planting young seedlings or sowing seeds directly. We like to use the trench method to enrich soil in late water and late fall. Only apply bokashi biopulp directly in beds with healthy, mature plants (again, it is very acidic).

3. Add Bokashi Biopulp to your Other Compost Piles

This combo method allows all the beneficial microbes in your bokashi to meet up and keep the party going in your hot or cold compost pile.

If you already have a backyard compost pile, adding your bokashi biopulp can be convenient and fast. Like any backyard compost pile, make sure food scraps are buried and combined in the center and then covered with other browns.

Thanks to our customer Ryan James for sharing his beautiful finished bokashi compost that was added to an outdoor compost bin to finish. Ryan used a standard wooden corrale.

You’ll be amazed at how fast food scraps turn into finished compost in any method.

And if you have some food scraps that need more time to breakdown, that’s okay. Just toss them back in your soil factory or traditional compost pile, and let them do their thing.

Full decomposition can take longer on bones due to their collagen and calcium make up, but both of those are soil additions. We have personal watched bones fully decompose over time, and early in the bokashi process they tend to bend and break more easily. So be patient if needed — good things take time. The vast majority of your food scraps will fully decompose in just weeks.

4. Donate your bokashi biopulp

You may not need to go very far for your freshly fermented food waste to have a loving home with a neighbor, community garden, or local farmer.

Local in Fort Collins?
- Contact us! We’d love to help you find a drop site for you to donate your biopulp.
- Or, if you’d prefer, we can process your bokashi bucket for a low fee at our nonprofit partner or school garden partner.
- Send us a message at grow@gardenofozco.com (or click here to contact us).

Not in Fort Collins?

Check out ShareWaste.com or MakeSoil.org
Look up any community gardens and contact them about donating your amazing bokashi biopulp.
Contact a local farm and see if they accept bokashi food waste.