Your Bokashi bucket doesn’t look like traditional compost after two weeks because Bokashi is not actually composting your food scraps in the way you might expect—it’s fermenting them! Bokashi fermentation is an anaerobic process, meaning it works without oxygen, which is quite different from traditional aerobic composting methods.
Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening:
- Fermentation, Not Composting: The Bokashi process is essentially pickling your food scraps. When you add food waste to the bucket and mix it with Bokashi bran (which contains special microorganisms like lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, and phototrophic bacteria), the waste begins to ferment. This process doesn’t break down the waste in the same visible way that composting does (where oxygen-loving microbes digest organic matter). Instead, Bokashi fermentation preserves the scraps, much like how pickling preserves vegetables.
- No Breakdown Yet: After two weeks of fermentation, you might notice that your food waste still looks similar to when you first added it. This is normal! In fact, the only visible sign of change may be some white mould on the surface. The waste remains largely intact during this phase because Bokashi fermentation doesn’t involve the physical breakdown of materials that happens in traditional composting. However, the microbes are hard at work changing the waste’s chemical composition. You are brewing!!!
- A Change in State, Not in Appearance: While the food waste may look the same, its internal structure has been altered. During the fermentation process, the Bokashi bran microbes have been breaking down sugars and carbohydrates, lowering the pH of the material, and preparing it for the next phase of decomposition. The “earthy, cidery, pickly” smell you notice when you open the lid is a sign that the fermentation is working properly. It should not smell rotten or unpleasant, which would definitely be the result if the food was rotting (as you well know!)
- Post-Fermentation Breakdown: Once the two-week fermentation is complete, the waste is now primed for the next stage of decomposition. At this point, it’s still not “compost.” To fully break down, the fermented material should be buried in soil or added to a compost pile. Now that the food has been pre-digested by the fermentation process, it will break down much faster and become nutrient-rich soil in just a few weeks.
So, in short, after two weeks in your Bokashi bucket, the waste might not look like compost yet, but it’s ready for the next phase of decomposition. The fermentation process has preserved and prepared it, setting the stage for a quicker breakdown when you bury it or add it to compost. This unique method is part of what makes Bokashi so efficient and different from other composting techniques.
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