Anyone have any experience making their own EM and Bran?
I just started my first bucket ever, but if it's not that difficult it's much cheaper to make your own.
How does this guide/recipe look?
https://growabundant.com/how-to-make-bokashi-serum-for-free/
Thanks for the help!
Posted Jan 17, 2023, 12:53 AM UTC
This is the video I think best explains the process. I personally think making your own EM solution takes too long and is more of a hassle than just buying a premade EM-1 solution. She touches on that in this video as well.
Thanks, I'll check it out.
Recipes that use milk seem expensive and a huge hassle, though they work. I have made my own flakes but I find it much simpler to use my own straight lacto serum and mix with wood pellets as I go. I make my own vegan lactobacillus serum with just organic brown rice, salt and brown sugar to bokashi with, among other uses, instead of having to buy EM. I've been doing this successfully for many years now, it works really well. I use 5 gallon buckets with gamma seal lids and use with wood stove pellets (100% additive free) put in the bottom of the buckets to soak up the juices so I don't have to go through the process of draining my buckets and it eliminates the need to clean a false bottom. I made my own fancy stainless steel bokashi buckets with drains and false bottoms that I used for a number of years before switching to my better low maintenance method. I do things a bit differently now than what is shown in these videos, like using wood pellets instead of mini pine flakes and my heating pad set up is no longer held up by Styrofoam. I made a couple how to videos but I'm not a you tuber and it was a windy day so the audio is terrible and I stumble over my words a bit, sorry. https://youtu.be/vGUnS-SyNzA I'm really into koji right now and also have water kefir going so I've been wondering if I could bokashi with that instead. I'm thinking that sometime this spring I will do an experiment to test out my homemade lacto vs commercial bokashi flakes vs sour amazake and perhaps water kefir or maybe the water kefir would be in a combo.
IMHO bran is too much trouble. I just spray liquid EM on my scraps. SO much less fuss.
Have you noticed any disadvantages to spraying liquid EM vs bran? Seems like a much easier system
Not at all. I think it might work better because the spray more evenly distributes over the waste than the bran does.
Does it last long enough to finish a few buckets?
What's the average shelf life?
The bottle I bought is good for a year I think. It definitely lasts through multiple buckets. I've done at least 10 two gallon bucket cycles and have used maybe 1/3 of the bottle. You can easily activate the purchased EM to extend it even longer. I am going to do that when I remember to buy molasses.
any guides on this? sounds interesting
https://www.teraganix.com/blogs/teraganix/activated-em-1-recipe-page
Do you dilute it first? I made my own EM using the rice wash method and I have about 1L of solution sitting in the fridge but I dont have easy access to a bran type material and not really sure what to do with it all.
You don't have to. I do the process where I mix the store bought EM with molasses and water and let sit for a few days just because I get a lot more that way.
Here's a link that explains. I don't make a huge amount at a time, I do 1-2 cups worth.
https://www.teraganix.com/blogs/teraganix/activated-em-1-recipe-page
I think you could just spray your homemade EM as is.