FFW Questions
“I now have several buckets of FFW [fermented food waste] and lots of questions.
1. Do any of you know of a compost place that would welcome some FFW to feed their worms? and maybe even on the other side give me back some FFW-fed worm compost?
2. If I find some barren soil and bury my FFW there, do I mix the FFW into the soil when I reclaim the FFW-treated soil?
3. Can you send me to a good website so I can learn more?
– Grateful & eager, Maureen
[Q/A 3. Good Websites]
The following two websites (done by the NYC Compost Project) may be of help:.Community-Based Compost Sites in Brooklyn.Neighborhood-Based Food Waste Community Drop-Off Sites Products and Services
[Q/A 1. Places to take FFW?]
I was recently in a meeting that included master composters from different parts of the city, and one such person that manages or helps with a compost site in Astoria, Queens, said that he didn’t know about bokashi, but have heard of it: a woman would bring by and say it’s her “bokashi bucket” and would tell him that “this was a stinky batch” and proceeded to just add it to the regular compost pile. He didn’t seem to mind; with the stinky-ness, I guess it just looks and smells like food waste (though quite pungent odors than untreated food waste, I presume). He didn’t seem to mind that people put ‘bokashi-treated food waste’ into his compost pile. At sites near you, I guess you can ask if they would take the bokashi food waste; or you could open the bucket and ask if they would take “this”. I don’t see why they wouldn’t (unless you had visibly lots of stuff that may not be accepted at that site, such as, meat, fish scraps, bones, dairy, etc.).As more and more people, gardens and compost sites are doing bokashi, it might be good to eventually have a list of locations (map) of bokashi sites (where they would definitely take every kind of food waste).
[Fermenting prepares the food waste for the soil:]
The process of fermenting the food waste is to prepare the food waste for the next step. The next step being, converting back into the soil by an number of methods (burying, trenching, worm bin/feeding earthworms, compost pile, sandwiched/mixed in soil in pots/planters, layering with soil and garden clippings/leaves in an outdoor box, or mixing with garden clippings/leaves in some in-vessel composter (e.g., Urban Tumbler, Sunmar, or even an aerated barrel).So, in the first step, the fermenting step, the food waste is being prepared for the soil in the following manner (all done by the microbes and by what they secrete):a. nutrients in the food waste are not only being released and made available, but also made useful for the plants and other organisms in the soil (bioavailable, soluble, absorbable).b. enzymes, a very wide variety of enzymes are being produced because of the combination of different species of microbes (the EM, Effective Microorganisms); almost any kind of organic matter, especially the hard stuff (lignin, fiber, cellulose, chitin, etc.), can then be unlinked (as opposed to broken down since the fermented food waste still looks like food waste, not some unrecognizable slop which is what happens in the rotting/decomposing process); among the enzymes include coenzymes and bacteriocins (which are anti-pathogens) which also break down materials, including chemicals, toxins and pollutants (by the way, fermentation, in general, means the breaking down of complex molecules into simpler molecules by microorganisms); as a side note, this ‘overwhelm’ of enzymes has an interesting effect: insect larvae, maggots, are not killed, but never morph into the insect they’re supposed to become—the enzymes in the bokashi bucket interferes with their cycle, so they live the rest of their lives in the larvae stage — maggots are known to have 3 benefits when used in treating a necrotic wound: they eat only the dead tissue, their secretions kill pathogens, and their secretions also promote the growth of healthy tissue; so, I can imagine that the maggots in our bokashi buckets (in our garden during the summer) are mainly eating any rotted food parts while their secretions are helping to keep the pathogens at bay.c. organic acids (amino acids, lactic acids, acetic acid[vinegar], etc.) also help to reduce and minimize pathogens mainly by the lower acidity of the fermented food waste (usually a pH of around 3.9 — pathogens don’t survive for long when the pH goes down to 4.2 and below.d. antioxidants help in naturally preserving the food waste (‘pickling’ the food waste), preventing decay/rotting.It’s the combination of all of the above (there may be some other factors, as well) that prepares the food waste in such a way that when it’s buried in soil, it can break down relatively quickly: in 2 to 4 weeks for 97%-99% of the material to become part of the soil; what remains may take a little bit longer (avocado pit and mango pit, 2-4 months; eggs shells, about 2 or more months; bones, 9 months or so; sea shells, several months); (with egg shells, sea shells, bones, and such, after treatment by fermentation, they will slowly release their contents (minerals) into the soil).“Two weeks to ferment. Two weeks in the soil. And plant.”
[FFW Attracts Organisms]
Also other soil organisms are attracted by the FFW (which includes large population of microbes, an infusion of bioavailable nutrients, and organic matter content) when in the soil, including, other microbes (soil bacteria and fungi), worms, and insects (pill bugs, earwigs/pincher bugs, etc.), bringing in a broad range of decomposers helping to break down the FFW on multiple levels.It is because of b, c and d above that makes it possible to do meats, dairy, bones, etc..Now, getting back to your question. In the winter, the FFW may linger a little bit longer since the cold slows down the activities of the microbes, worms and insects in the soil. By the spring, the FFW should be gone, and in summer, the FFW are known to disappear into the soil (become part of the soil, contributing to the soil structure) within as quickly as 2 weeks.The FFW could also disappear during the winter in the soil if there are enough not-so-cold days (above 30°F); if multiple trenching have been done there before which means there should be an incredible population and diversity of microbes and other soil organisms; the soil is overall full of life (in our garden, you don’t have to dig deep to find earthworms, even in the middle of winter—and the soil is soft)..To help maximize the breakdown of FFW in soil:- mash the FFW with a shovel for a few minutes (the fermentation should have made it soft and easier to turn it into a paste).- after mashing, mix into the soil and mix in also leaves and garden clippings if available.- after mixing, cover with soil at least 6 inches (this is also a suggestion; some have done less, others more); I’ve seen a school yard/garden where they went 4 feet deep so that they could do layered trenching (it’s a lot of work, but if you don’t have much space, going down deeper to do more food waste because of limited space is not a bad idea).- the suggested amount of FFW is about 2 lbs per sq ft; however, this is just a suggestion and this amount should definitely break down faster than what we usually do (at the Children’s Garden and El Sol Brillante), about 10 – 13 lbs per sq ft (because we have so much FFW to deal with); it works for us because we’re not growing anything in our bokashi trenching area; we’re just creating amended soil to then spread over some landscape next door to the garden (Sauer Park, a paved children’s playground with a landscape of trees around the perimeter)..That’s all for now..Later,Shig
Maureen’s Follow-up questions: answered by DD
1. This says FFW does not get all mushy–” since the fermented food waste still looks like food waste, not some unrecognizable slop which is what happens in the rotting/decomposing process)”. My FFW gets fairly sloppy, so I wonder if I’m doing something wrong…
No, maybe not. Maybe so, If it sits out and air starts to rot it. It does get a little mushy over a month or months in the closed bucket. I stockpile FFW in buckets over the winter… just lazy.
2. I understand that EM are in the bokashi-bran-starters, and then they feed on the FW. Do the EM multiply in the FFW? Are pure EMs created in the FFW process?
Effective microbes are many types of microbes in a solution. “Pure EM’s”? I don’t remember if they reproduce, I assume they do …. I’m a little confused by your wording too though. The term Shig uses is “more microbes are attracted”, “Other microbes come” or “Microbes are activated” or “change their function” from bad to good. Possibly the reproduce. Shig may eventually respond to this.
3. Why are there spigots on some bokashi buckets? What would someone do with that juice? Is the EM-bokashi-EM a continuous loop?
Yes for fertilizer. Super potent. So water it down a lot!
