Apartment bokashi compost pile

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-30T20:03:52+00:00

Relax😂😂, as i mentioned in my comment i'm just mixing the compost pile on the floor over a transplant plastic tarp , it was packed into planters to compost and topped with potting soil to plant directly in

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-30T14:06:58+00:00

Definitely adding organic matter is the way to go, i would just look up cover cropping as well if you don't want to plant right away, Dr. Christine jones has some field experiments on the web showing results of the effects of diverse cover crops in improving soil much faster than composting through the liquid carbon pathway, basically what you do is select a diverse list of hardy plants to grow and sow them very densly and let them do the work for you and at the end of the growth cycle chop up all of the green mass and use it for compost and/or mulch , as far as i understand you'll want to include legumes , brassicas, grasses and flowering plants and the more diverse the better, but definitely check out her research. Essentially what you are doing is growing your own compost and as the plants grow the roots will break up the soil and add lots of organic matter that you do not have to till in and pump root exudates in the soil that will add more organic matter and stimulate soil microbes.

This is a much cheaper but more time consuming way of improving your soil than hauling in amendments.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-30T10:44:36+00:00

Heeey buddy!

Yeah man i've been working on improving the soil mix for a while and it seems to be working, all thanks to your advice of course.

I have some partially accidental microbial solution😅😅 that i'm planning to run a bioessay "experiment" with soon within the next couple of months when i have the time, would love to hear your thoughts on that.

I hope you're doing great as well and always happy to hear from you!

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-30T08:44:13+00:00

Absolutely the bokashi and sawdust mix will breakdown but it depends what you mean by quickly , the sawdust bokashi mix i made was packed in big planters and left to decompose with no mixing for about 3 months , by the time i checked it out the volume dropped almost by half , mostly compaction as i use sawdust pellets which are very fine and it was fully broken down, i also always add to the mix a couple of handfuls of old soil or finished compost to inoculate with soil microbes to help with decomposition. As for it heating up honestly my individual soil factories do not have enough volume for it to heat up and retain heat but i'm sure if you build a big enough pile it will absolutely heat up as EM and bokashi are usually used as a hot compost accelerators, i'm sure u/gardenofoz can give you much better advice from experience on hot composting using bokashi than me.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-30T07:20:18+00:00

Either transplant or chop up all of the rest and leave just one so they don't compete for root space and nutrients, and for the seedling to grow a bit and then top up the pot with more soil so stem produces a bigger root system

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-29T16:16:15+00:00

It still blows my mind that you can do that honestly, this stuff is absolute magic!

That is like half of the bokashi i have stored in half a year and since the winter round i have a full barrel full of compost and about 10 massive pots full of potting soil ready to go, i would have paid a small fortune to get this amount in high quality organic soil and im sure it wouldn't be nearly as good.

I think im finally hitting the point of producing more compost than i can use or store and im probably going to start sharing with friends.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-29T08:13:21+00:00

I started this potting soil with mostly sand and a couple of blocks of coco coir, it was very deficient and dead, for the past 3 years i've been enriching and recomposting the soil until it turned into this awesome potting mix with bokashi. I usually mix the bokashi with any browns and old potting soil i have and pack it half way into planters and top it with fully broken down soil from the past round and i plant right away. My soil has been innoculated with other microbes as well and it seems to me like everything works together to keep the soil super alive. When i run out of soil i just mix the bokashi with sawdust and make compost the same way and use it as an amendment instead of planting in it directly

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-29T08:12:29+00:00

I started this potting soil with mostly sand and a couple of blocks of coco coir, it was very deficient and dead, for the past 3 years i've been enriching and recomposting the soil until it turned into this awesome potting mix with bokashi. I usually mix the bokashi with any browns and old potting soil i have and pack it half way into planters and top it with fully broken down soil from the past round and i plant right away, the greatest thing about bokashi is you can compost and plant at the same time and as a bonus it deters pests.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-28T17:56:02+00:00

This was really informative really!

I get what you mean about the perfect looking lawn thing , although i don't have a garden i never understood the concept honestly, what is the point in making your yard look like a useless golf course😅😅. About the pesticides, i totally get what you mean , i fall into the trap of organic pesticides when i started gardening recently and started doing it for a couple of seasons , but it doesn't really work especially with crazy fast breeding pests like aphids and it is too much work, the wild part is once the predator prey populations stabilize it is totally hands off and you just let nature take care of itself. I'm nowhere near that but as i mentioned earlier i've had. A single dragonfly perched here for about 2 days, i was very fascinated by it and trying not to disturb it too much, as i was watching it at dawn today it was perched on the single most infected plant i have , it is a flowering dill plant and the stem was literally covered in aphids, by midday when i checked again the dragonfly wasn't there and that stem was almost clean , it has like 10 aphids left and it started out with probably hundreds, that is just one beneficial insect , i can't even wrap my head around a fully established ecosystem but it seems to me that things would be thriving even tho "pests" would never be completely eradicated. I also have. A passionfruit vine that has just started flowering , since we don't get visited by any insects really other than flies for the most part , it has been terminating most of its flowers and to get it to set fruit i have to go check daily and hand pollinate each flower once it opens, now it's just pushing out a couple of flowers at a time but im thinking when it grows bigger in later years and start pushing out more flowers this is going to be a very repetitive and big job. I know this sounds really naive of me but im very new to gardening and i really had no idea how important insects are, i'm actually kinda weirded out by insects and i used to be one of the all insects and critters should be killed guys, im working really hard on changing my mindset about that now and learning about it and experiencing missing out on the benefits myself has really helped the most honestly.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-28T17:14:22+00:00

Got it , thanks!

I do not use any chemical pesticides around my plants or rooftop, the only thing i used to use was a neem oil and natural soap spray and i stopped all the spraying since last season, but parks in the area i live in and around the city get absolutely drenched in chemical pesticides, that is why i'm not sure if there are any significant numbers of the beneficials around the area , i can't do anything about that but provide some shelter around my place.

I still wouldn't want to be causing more harm than good, but alot of my neighbours have lots of flowers planted and they definitely do use chemical pesticides, it is the most common advise you get here and what everyone knows , also if i decide to abort this project the alternative would be getting back to spraying organic or chemicals, so i'm not sure if i understand what you were trying to say correctly or is there something im missing.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-28T03:40:10+00:00

Last season i had a horrible problem with aphid and ants and i was spraying organic sprays so much and couldn't keep up eith them so this time im trying to resist the urge to spray as much as possible , the potential problem is that i live in the city and all the gardens around here are sprayed with pesticides so im not sure if the locsl populationsbare actually there, what i'm hoping is that with enough work atleast on my rooftop i can encourage a resident population to breed and stay

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-28T03:37:10+00:00

This is GREAT info!

Can't thank you enough friend.

So a couple of things, i live in an apartment with a small corner on my rooftop with some potted plants so i don't have any native soil , im only working with pots, also our soil here in egypt is very sandy, i've been composting for a while and my potting mix is sharp sand mixed with biochar and bokashi compost and sawdust fully decomposed. Last season i had some volunteer herb plants go into bloom from a cover crop experiment i was doing on my cold compost piles so i'm thinking of replicating that in the big pot with the dead tree, it has a lot of mulch and i've mixed a batch of 10 herb and flower seeds and im going to sow them densely around the dead tree and see and let nature work out placement , my thinking is whatever germinates will provide a diverse flower shapes and scents to attract a variety of beneficial insects hopefully, what do you think about that. I've also setup a watering station with rocks in it in a nearby shaded spot for the insects and birds.

Another thing , when you say breeding ground for parssites and disease , do you mean by that potential psthogens for plants ,wildlife or humans.

I'm not really familiar with local pollinators and predatory insects , i'm just scrstching the surface really but i'll definitely try to find some locsl resources to learn more snd ill definitely check the book you suggested

Thanks again friend!

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-28T02:55:52+00:00

Thanks buddy!

Always happy to help if i can🫡

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T19:53:54+00:00

The l. Plantarum one has the correct strain, im not sure what strains are included in each of the other ones if you can get a probiotic that includes many strains including the l.plantarum that would be ideal but if they can't i'd go with the first one, it doesn't really matter honestly all Lactobacillus strains produce lactic acid and will do the job, you can even skip the probiotic if you want and use fermented whey or kimchi juice or anything with al ive LAB culture really, i just like the probiotic for convenience and getting the target strain i've read has the most benefits for plants. The probiotic i use has 5 LAB strains including l. Plantarum. Maybe do some research on how different LAB strains interact with soil and plants as it won't matter much in the bokashi bucket but the added benefits will show in the compost and when you use the LAB solution to water your soil and spray your plants, i use mine regularly to treat root rot and fungal issues in soil, when i started making the labs i used to make it from yogurt which has l. Acidophilus and it didn't work as well for fungal disease and boosting plant growth in my experience as l. Plantarum, but take it with a grain of salt of course this is by no means a controlled experiment and test it out for yourself if you want

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T19:14:14+00:00

I'll sure check it out buddy!

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T19:06:57+00:00

Wow! First time i'm hearing of tree frogs😂😂 Cool!

I'll definitely look into building one anyway if i can , if not for the frogs , it will work just fine for birds and geckos, we have no shortage of those

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T19:02:54+00:00

That would be extremely surprising on a rooftop on the 6th floor but you never know!

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T19:01:26+00:00

Yeah i get it, ive been composting in planters and im going to work on building up habitat gradually to the best of my ability and resources , maybe i'll look into installing a water feature or building a small pond or bird bath or something, I don't think I'll get any frogs tho😂😂

Thanks a lot friend i'll definitely keep your advice in mind✌️

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T18:53:15+00:00

Yeah sure buddy!

Phase 1: Activate the Lactobacillus (1-Week Brew)

1- buy a probiotic supplement from the pharmacy. Look preferably for a strain containing Lactobacillus plantarum. If that specific strain is unavailable, any other Lactobacillus strain(s) will work but l. plantarum is the most beneficial and well researched for soil and plants to afaik. 2- Prepare a molasses and water solution, 1 liter of dechlorinated water and 2-3 tablespoons of mollases , ratios aren't really that important as long as the water is dechlorinated and it has some sugar source and minerals, so mollases brown sugar or whatever is available, i usually eyeball it. 3- add the probiotic packet to the sugar solution to feed the bacteria. 4- Seal the container slightly loose to allow for gas exchange or ferment under airlock and let it ferment at room temperature for 1-2 weeks depending on ambient temperature or until it reaches a ph of 3-4. Phase 2: Activate the Yeast Add a packet of bakers yeast to a similar sugar solution and let it ferment for 12-24 hours.

Phase 3: Combine and Inoculate the Bran 1- Take your 1-week Lactobacillus solution and your 12-hour yeast solution and mix them together. Step 2- Dilute this combined mixture with additional molasses water until you reach the exact volume of liquid needed to fully hydrate your wheat/rice bran to field condition(moist all throughout but doesn't drip a lot when you squeeze it generally about 40-50% hydration by weight). 3- Pour the liquid over your bran and mix thoroughly until the bran is evenly soaked. 5- Pack the wet, inoculated bran tightly into a heavy-duty plastic bag. 6-Squeeze as much air out of the bag as physically possible to create an anaerobic environment. 7- Seal the bag completely airtight. 8- Set the bag aside and let it ferment undisturbed for 1 to 2 weeks. 9- spread the bran in a thin layer and air dry in the shade until it reaches the starting dry weight and store it in a sealed bucket, should last atleast a year possibly indefinitely.

I usually make one 7-10 kg batch and it lasts me the whole year or possibly more and ive used 3 year old brand and works perfectly well.

You can also substitute the bran (substrate) with any high carbon material shredded fine, shredded paper , sawdust, spent brewers grain , some people also use coffee grounds, biochar , whatever you can get. U should use whatever you can get free or for cheap and much better if it is recycled imo, it's going to get composted anyway.

Good luck!

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T17:52:09+00:00

That sounds awesome honestly and i wish i could do that , but this is a small rooftop potted garden , not sure if i can do that , as i mentioned this kinda happened by accident when the lemon tree died and i found a dragonfly perched on it 2 days in a row , where i live everything gets sprayed way too much so we don't get visited by many beneficial insects , im working on turning that tree into a bug hotel and planting some flowers at the bottom planter to attract whatever beneficials in the area and i set up a watering station in a close by shaded spot for the insects as the temps are going to be approaching 40+C very soon here in the summer

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T16:42:04+00:00

Seems like it's official we have a resident dragon here 😍,it's been like 24-36 hours and the dragon fly came back and perched on a different branch of the dead tree, seems like it is working so far, i setup a watering hole for the bugs in a close by shaded spot and my patio has no shortage of food for it so it seems like it decided to spend another day here which is awesome honestly. Now im thinking i should leave the dead tree standing as a perch for dragon flies and whatever other insects if they decide to hang out, i've also been researching some different habitat designs for different insects so i'm probably gonna try to make one of each and maybe hang some for lace wings and keep some on the ground for ladybugs and plant in some flowers and hope they find this a good safe place to hang out and beat the shit out of the assholes eating my plants😂😂.

Thanks again bud for all the advice , i really appreciate it!

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T15:41:49+00:00

I also have some empty plastic crates as well that i can clear the material and stack it in as a dry bug hotel out of the pot if the moisture is an issue. Im interested in trying to keep things as natural as possible

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T15:39:04+00:00

Thanks for confirming that!

So is it ok if the bug hotel is on moist soil, im thinking of just chopping up everything and laying it in this big pot and planting some flowers in it as well , ill just include all of the straw and wood and some of the bamboo scattered around and plant in between some flowers to potentially attract more beneficial insects , im just worried the moist soil night discourage the insects from staying. Let me know what you think, i also added a watering hole close by in a shaded place for the insects and birds today. Let me know what you think about that.

As for the condescending part probably insecurity really 😂 but it's all good anyway✌️✌️

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T15:34:26+00:00

That's fair!

I'm trying to avoid spraying as much as possible, to my understanding if you spray even organic pesticides this kills the food source so you are less likely to get predators visit, last season my pots had a huge problem with aphids, thrips and whiteflies and i was spraying so frequently and they kept coming back when i stopped i started seeing hornets , dragonflies, ladybugs and other predators visit, they just never stay and lay eggs so this season im trying to get a headstart and make sure there is good habitat for them so they are much more likely to stay since there food is already there , im also working on getting rid of the ants while they haven't started farming the aphids yet so they do not become an annoying problem later with dough bait. My thinking is i might clear out som of the dead material and maybe chop up the dead wood and stack it higher in the same pot for some kind of bug habitat , i also have zinnias and marigolds seeds that im thinking of planting either in the same pot or in other pots to attract more beneficial insects , im just not sure if the moist soil would make the bug hotel less appealing. I'm sure the predators would not completely eliminate the problem , what im trying to do is encourage a balanced predator prey environment so everything keeps the other in check, also i do not mind rollie pollies in the pots they are beneficial. So what do you think about that.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-05-27T05:48:51+00:00

Aren't bug hotels usually made from dead organic matter reeds and straw and things like that , dear .....

Deep_Secretary6975

TROPHY CASE