Indigenous Micro-organisms/IMO

I spend a hell of a lot of time googling things to do with my garden, I have have lost many hours at home and work looking at stuff, projects, plants, DIY....... ETC. I am always looking for new idea's and ways of doing things and improving what I do now. I certainly enjoy the process of looking and trying things out. It was through one of my googling sessions I came across Indigenous Micro-organisms or IMO's for short, these are present within our soil and are a good gage on its fertility. I have been over the last two years using the Bokashi composting system which employs IMO's to breakdown waste anaerobically. This process which I have wrote about previously (Bokashi Composting) creates both a quick way to make compost as well as a liquid feed rich in nutrients as well as IMO's. Its very much a winner for me, However the one and only downside to it is the cost of the Bokashi Bran itself, which isn't cheap in my opinion. But as it turns out the Koreans have been farming with IMO's for centuries and you don't need a laboratory to create it. All you need to begin with is some rice and some sugar!! If your at all interested in making your own bokashi its well worth watching Bryan McGrath's Vlog linked below.







I found that taking notes from these videos helps as they are quiet long and indepth, yet the actual process on paper seems simple. I have already begun the process of collecting my own IMO's with my bowl of rice, fingers crossed that in a few days when I look it will be full of nice white mold.

The aim eventually is to make my own Bokashi, using the IMO's i have collected and grown and then inoculating wood shavings that I already buy in for the chicken coop. I may even see if I can use shavings that I have taken out of the coop and separate out most of the manure. Its all a bit of an experiment but after reading a few studies on the effectiveness of IMO's on soil quality I think its certainly worth trying.

Bokashi Composting

I have not met many people yet who use the Bokashi composting system (thats a bad way of putting it as I do not exactly go round asking people if they use it) and this surprises me as its an amazing way to compost. If you have no idea what I am talking about I will give a brief idea of what Bokashi is!

Bokashi is a method that uses a mix of microorganisms to cover food waste to decrease smell. It derives from the practice of Japanese farmers centuries ago of covering food waste with rich, local soil that contained the microorganisms that would ferment the waste. After a few weeks, they would bury the waste that weeks later, would become soil.

Basically you buy or make your own Bokashi bran, this is just bran that has been inoculated with certain 'good' bacteria that help the decomposition of food waste. You place your food waste, which unlike any other composting methods can include meat and dairy, into a bucket. The bucket must have a lid that makes it air tight when fastened on as the process of decomposition with bokashi needs an anaerobic environment to work. When your waste is in, you sprinkle on some bran and close the lid. Repeating the process until the bucket is full. When this happens you leave your bucket and let all those micro-organisms get to work for a few weeks, the waste is basically fermenting or pickling. If when you open your bucket you smell a sweet pickled smell the process is working.

What is a little strange about this process is the fact that the waste you have put in looks no different at the end. Don't expect to find a pile of lovely compost just yet. If you buy a bokaski bin they are basically buckets with a tap, similar I guess to a wormery or a homebrew barrel. The tap will give you your first product! A very strong liquid fertiliser rich in good micro-organism. I dilute mine 1-100 and it works fine, other sites suggest this might be overkill so next year I will experiment with that a little. One you have captured you fertiliser and the food waste has fermented for several weeks you can do a couple of things with it. I myself put it in the compost bin. by digger a hole in the centre and then put my bokashi waste in. Making sure to cover it all over with a bit of soil or what's in the compost. Leave this for a month or too and it will degrade in the compost. I left mine in over winter and cleaned out in the spring and it was brilliantly black moist compost. Your other option is to dig it in to a trench in your flower or veg beds and cover over with soil. A few months down the line if you dig were you buried it you will find a very rich black soil.

Bokashi has many uses and it really worth taking a look at, if you are really into being green it something I think you should try. As I said above ALL food waste can be composted safely with bokashi! Here is a video that probably explains it all a little better than me.