User:Manofcarbon/sandbox

Update to Compost to align with new main page. Most of the old content is covered in the new and is relatively unimportant; some is just plain wrong; the single citation and the trademark "effective microorganisms" are commercials.

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Bokashi is a method that uses a mix of microorganisms to cover food scraps or wilted plants to decrease smell, reduce the risk of attracting pests and increase the speed of decomposition. Bokashi (ぼかし) is Japanese for "shading off" or "gradation." It derives from the practice of Japanese farmers centuries ago of covering food scraps with rich, local soil that contained the microorganisms that would ferment the material.[citation needed]

The technique relies on effective microorganisms. These essential microbes are typically added to the food scraps using an inoculated bokashi bran.[34]

Newspaper fermented in a lactobacillus culture can be substituted for bokashi bran for a successful bokashi bucket.[citation needed]

The first stage of bokashi preserves the ingredients in a lactic acid fermentation. The acid is a natural disinfectant, used as such in household cleaning products, so that what enters the second (digestion) stage is essentially free of microbial pathogens.

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For detail and most citations see main article.

Bokashi is not composting as defined earlier, rather an alternative technology. It ferments (rather than decomposes) the input organic matter and feeds the result to the soil food web (rather than producing a soil conditioner). The process involves adding Lactobacilli to the input in an airtight container kept at normal room temperature. The bacteria ferment carbohydrates to lactic acid, which preserves the input. After this is complete the preserve is mixed into soil, converting the lactic acid to pyruvate, which enables soil life to consume the result.

Bokashi is typically applied to food waste from households, workplaces and catering establishments, because such waste normally holds a good proportion of carbohydrates; it is also applied to other waste by supplementing carbohydrates. Household containers ("bokashi bins") typically give a batch size of 5-10 kilograms, accumulated over a few weeks. In horticultural settings batches can be orders of magnitude greater.

Bokashi offers several advantages:


 * Fermentation retains all the original carbon and energy. (In comparison, composting loses at least 50% of these and 75% or more in amateur use; composting also loses nitrogen, a macronutrient of plants, by emitting ammonia and the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.)
 * Virtually the full range of food waste is accepted, without the exclusions of composting. The exception is large bones.
 * Being airtight, the container inherently traps smells, and when opened the smell of fermentation is far less offensive than decomposition. Hence bokashi bins usually operate indoors, in or near kitchens.
 * Similarly the container neither attracts insect pests nor allows them ingress.
 * The process is inherently hygienic because lactic acid is a natural bactericide and anti-pathogen; even its own fermentation is self-limiting.
 * Both preservation and consumption complete within a few weeks rather than months.
 * The preserve can be stored until needed, for example if ground is frozen or waterlogged.
 * The increased actitivity of the soil food web improves the soil texture, especially by worm action - in effect this is in-soil vermicomposting.

The importance of the first advantage should not be underestimated. Plants can only take up nutrients from soil water. Soil water can only contain nutrients made available by the soil ecosystem (or from chemical fertiliser, which is at odds with the purpose of all composting). The mass of any ecosystem depends on the energy it captures. The richer the soil life, the richer the plants.