What to do with my soil

[Jay-ell]

Actually Malcom Bokashi still needs to be composted down either in a compost bin, the soil or in a soil factory decomposition still needs to take place on the fermented material.

Bokashi doesn't magically turn into soil or plant food, any issues with "regular" composting will still apply to the composting of bokashi. Gas emissions will still happen because the same bacteria breaking down non-bokashi material are the ones breaking down the bokashi.

What exactly do you think happens to the bokashi when you bury it other than decomposition?
How do you think it transforms from a pickled mess to fine organic rich soil?

Can you explain the process you think is happening in a soil factory that turns the bokashi into soil if it does not include either aerobic or anaerobic composition?

[GYOMalcolm]

Thanks for being interested, Jay-ell

My point is not that decomposition doesn't happen to bokashi in the soil, but that it doesn't happen before bokashi reaches the soil. There are effectively no energy and nutrient losses, whereas with composting these losses are typically massive.

Hopefully you can see intuitively why this matters. If not, you first need to read up a bit on ecosystems. The energy input to an ecosystem directly impacts its population equilibrium, and the nutrient balance directly impacts its carrying capacity. Hence, by virtually all reports, a bokashi soil is teeming with life. Our plants depend on the soil ecosystem, unless organic growing is a total fraud.

Now for what is happening in the soil. First, an analogy; the biochemistry is not the same but the stages may help understanding.

1. A bokashi bin is like a stomach: an acid environment breaks down complex molecules into simpler ones, such as glucose, which are easier to digest. In bokashi, the acid is lactic acid, or lactate for short, produced by the fermenting bacteria. In your body, stomach acid is hydrochloric acid.
   
   However, your body does also produce lactate. It is the waste product of muscles when they do work, and what makes them ache or burn when they do too much work. The body later recycles it in two ways.
   
   
2. Firstly, in well-oxygenated organs it is recycled to pyruvate (pyruvic acid) by simple oxidation. Pyruvate is a key fuel for life processes. The same thing must happen in bokashi when the lactate in ferment is exposed to air on being dumped into soil, or tapped off as bokashi tea. We are recommended to use this tea as soon as possible. Interesting. It suggests that lactate is more useful than pyruvate, which seems weird. More likely, the pyruvate will in turn break down if not absorbed soon, or (less likely given how clever evolution is) no soil animals can absorb it directly. I don’t know.
   
   
3. Secondly, excess lactate is also recycled to glucose by your liver. Again I don’t know, but again I think it unlikely that evolution hasn’t produced soil organisms that pull the same trick.
   
   
4. Last but not least, there’s the ferment itself, now broken down into much more digestible chemicals with high food value. This is why bokashi disappears so fast. Many reports speak of a feeding frenzy in the soil. Interestingly, we know that worms shun bokashi for a few days – while the lactate breaks down as above - and then really go for it.

So, bokashi composting in soil is not at all comparable to traditional composting. It isn't decomposition. It is more effective, more efficient and easier.

You raise a good point about the soil factory. What’s going on in it is what I’ve just described. The only thing missing is the plants. Spurred by you, I’m starting to wonder whether a soil factory might actually be better than in situ trenching. It would be a contained ecosystem with regular additions of energy.

You might find another issue intriguing. What’s the best thing to do with non-food waste? Well, food waste has a low C:N ratio, about half of what’s considered ideal. So I think sheet or mingled composting of green waste in a soil factory is pretty good for starters. As for woody waste, that must be biochar, added to the soil factory to produce a superb soil structure which is both home for soil micro-organisms and a sponge to minimise nutrient loss.

[veggiechicken]

Your post was "moderated" by the system. It often happens to long posts from new members as part of the spam controls. We get all sorts on here!
I've approved it now.