Mold in your bokashi bucket? Here’s what to do.
White mold or fuzz? Nothing to worry about.
But what if there’s green, blue, red, or black mold?
Keep reading.
I’ll be honest.
I had a smaller bucket that I’ve been experimenting with that I completely forgot about. To be fair, we have 2-4 buckets going at any time. Some are for the day to day food scrap collection, others are for Garden of Oz official test buckets.
But this one, I just honestly forgot about (oops).
I was wrapping up dishes and reached for it to add food scraps to and just get a fair assessment of how it was doing.
About half full, the first thing I noticed was a little blue mold running through my cardboard tamper. Okay, I thought, Bread mold. No big deal. Cardboard can be hospitable to blue mold.
I lifted up the card board and noticed a mix of a sorta musty smell paired with the familiar bokashi vinegar smell (note: I’m not taking deep breaths, just noticing ambient smell).
All in all, the bucket looked pretty okay. Nothing scary waiting for me here.
Then I saw the spot of green/blue mold.
See it there on the right side?
There’s all that great actinomycete white fuzz, some fluffy mycelium, and then the blue mold.
What do you do if you sprout a non-bokashi bacteria in your bucket?
To start, blue-green, red, and black mold should be taken seriously.
People with compromised immune systems or mold allergies shouldn’t inhale mold spores and should exercise caution in general. Breathing mold spores can be dangerous, so for goodness sake don’t shove your nose in your bucket and breath deeply.
Clean up thoroughly after you’re finished, and wash your hands (that’s just generally good advice).
In the context of bokashi, there’s a few assessments you need to make.
First: Is the blue mold in the minority? That is, is there a larger quantity of the good stuff around it?
—> If the blue mold is surrounded by the white fungus or actinomycetes, you’re probably fine to just add more bokashi bran (we recommend our Upcycled Bokashi) and keep going.
Second: Is the bokashi system otherwise showing positive signs?
—> Any rotten, putrid, or OTHER colored mold (especially black) is a sign the bucket has potentially failed.
—> Non-air tight lids or not using quality bokashi (or enough bokashi) can cause our beneficial bacteria to have competition.
—> If you have red or black mold, it’s time to call it. Add a heavy hand of bokashi and seal it up. You can add it to your outdoor compost bin, but I don’t recommend making a soil factory with contents that have red or black mold in large quantities. (Scroll down for more about molds.)
What I did with My Bokashi Buddy’s Blue Mold
Step 1: I covered the blue mold with a tablespoon or two of Upcycled Bokashi. It was surrounded by the beneficial fungi in my bucket plus the actinomycete, so I’m not concerned about this little bit.
Blue mold covered by Upcycled Bokashi.
Step 2: I left the cardboard in the Bokashi Buddy (you could choose to remove it and immediately compost it). For me, I left it in place and covered it in another tablespoon of Upcycled Bokashi.
I like using cardboard in my Bokashi Buddy as a tamper and a moisture meter. Once my cardboard begins to soften with humidity, I know I need to mitigate for moisture.
Step 3: Added fresh food scraps from my breakfast into the system, added Upcycled Bokashi as normal, and then sealed up.
Fresh scraps + more Upcycled Bokashi, and we’re on our way again!
Step 4: I will get this bucket completely full and process it, making sure I let it completely ferment so the new food scraps can catch up to the older scraps.
Optional: I could have chosen to process/harvest the bokashi bucket as-is, but would rather wait until it is full. Read more about what to do with a finished bucket here.
All in all, if there’s mold in your bokashi bucket, plan to:
Use caution and assess the situation.
Use extra Upcycled Bokashi or bokashi bran to surround the mold and cover it up.
Make sure that the mold is in the minority in your bucket.
Don’t panic. Molds are just fungi doing the work of decomposition.
I spy black mold!
A rare example of food waste that we did not add into our bokashi bucket system.
It was so overrun with the black mold that it didn’t seem wise to introduce it to the bokashi buddy.
I’m sorry, peach pastry! I’ll be better next time!
More About Molds
Mold in your compost bin can be like uninvited guests at a party – some are just messy, while others can cause trouble. Here's a quick guide to the colored mold crew:
Blue mold is likely to be the most common mold you come across during composting and food scrap collecting.
In this case, I did add this moldy cheese to my bokashi bucket. Just used a bit extra bokashi.
Blue Mold: This friendly fungus is often a type called Penicillium, like the one that makes penicillin medicine. It can break down some organic materials in your compost, helping things decompose faster. It usually looks fuzzy and blue-green.
It’s fairly common. I’ve found that if I am slow to add food scraps that have been sitting out (especially coffee grounds), I might see spots of blue-green mold. Simply cover with bokashi and keep going.
Red Mold: This visitor isn't as common, but it's usually not a villain either. Red mold, like Neurospora, mostly munches on decaying stuff and isn't harmful in a compost bin. It might show up as a reddish patch or fuzz. (We’ve never seen this in our bokashi bins, so very unlikely you will, too.)
Black Mold: This is the one to keep an eye on. While not all black molds are dangerous, some can release toxins you don't want. Black mold can look like fuzzy black patches or spots. If you see a large area of black mold, it's best to immediately cover it in bokashi. Unfortunately, if your bokashi system is over run with black mold, we would encourage you to dispose of its contents and thoroughly clean the bucket before reuse. : (
(Again, we’ve never seen black mold in our bokashi bins, so if you spot it, cover it with bokashi ASAP.)
