Making and Using Bokashi Bio-Fertilizer in Just 12 Days

Healthy soil makes a healthy crop. And a healthy crop makes healthy people. And healthy people makes a healthy nation. Today we are going to show you how to make your soils healthy. And we are going to make a bio-fertilizer called Bokashi. Bokashi is a Japanese word which means a way of fermenting. There are so many kinds of Bokashi. But the one we are going to make today is a carefully controlled way of fermenting. Which only takes 12 to 15 days for it to be ready to be used as a fertilizer. And today we are going to make 21 bags of Bokashi. And behind me are the ingredients you need for you to have 21 bags of Bokashi. So, you need dry matter. This can be dry leaves or sawdust. Like the one I have here. Today I have sawdust. And you also need 5 bags of soil. It can be black soil or any soil. But it has to be soil with high clay content. Or soil from the anthill. Soil from the forest which has been there undisturbed. Or any soil with high clay content. You also need 7 bags of animal manure. This can be manure from either poultry, which is chicken, ducks or goats, cow, pig or rabbit. Any animal manure. If you have one, there is no problem. You can use one. But for better results and perfect Bokashi, a mixture is the best. As for me today, I have 3 different types of manure. I have chicken manure here, as you can see. I also have goat manure. 3 bags of chicken manure. 2 bags of goat manure. And I have 2 bags of cow dung here to put into my Bokashi. You also need some source of minerals. So these minerals, you can either get them from rock dust or ash. So you also need biocharcoal. For me, I have an advantage today because it is already mixed, as you can see. I have a mixture of ash and biocharcoal already mixed together. You also need water, which I have here. I have 210 liters of water to use when mixing the ingredients together. But this water should not be chlorinated. But if you have chlorinated water, there is no problem. You can just leave it on the sun the whole day. Then chlorine will evaporate from this water and the water will be safe. You also need one bag of bran. This can be maize bran, rice bran, or wheat bran. Any bran. Also, if you have a mixture, it is best. But here we have maize bran. You also need yeast. 500 grams of yeast. This acts as a catalyst, which speeds up the fermentation process. And we also have to add 5 liters of molasses, which acts as a food source for the microbes. And also an energy source for the microbes as they multiply. So behind me, these are the ingredients for you to make 21 bags of Bokashi. Now, I'm going to show you the tools which are needed. A 20 liter bucket. This is used when mixing the ingredients like molasses, yeast, and water. In case you want to reduce the size of the heap, you need a scale to measure the quantities of the ingredients. You also need a stick. This is only used for stirring the oil. This is used for digging soil, or if you want to put your manure together. A spade, or a shovel, or both if you have them. These are used when mixing the ingredients together. We'll be turning, that's what we use this for. You also need a wheelbarrow. This is used for transporting different materials. Now that we have all the ingredients and the tools needed together, we can now start making our heap. So, this is the perfect place for me to make my Bokashi foam. As you can see, I'm under a shade to protect my heap from direct sunlight. Now that I have my press, I have my ingredients, I have my tools. The first step is to mix water, yeast, and molasses. And I'll use this mixture to sprinkle on every layer as I'll be adding my ingredients together. You have to start with water and yeast. When yeast has dissolved in water, that's when you can add your molasses and mix it thoroughly. Because if you start with yeast and molasses, it won't dissolve well. So, I'll start with water. I'll put water halfway on the bucket. So, I'm now putting my yeast in the water. As we said, we need 500 grams of yeast. I'm not going to weigh because this is already 500 grams as you can see. So, I'll add my yeast into the water. And I'll use my stick to mix this together. Now that my yeast has dissolved very well, thoroughly mixed with water, I'll add my molasses to the mixture. The mixture is now ready. I've made a mixture of molasses, water, and yeast. And now, I want to start putting the layers of other ingredients together. And I'm going to start with the sawdust as the first layer of my ingredients. I'm going to remove these bigger particles which are not wanted. The plastic or paper, anything which won't decompose easily. And now, I will sprinkle my mixture of molasses, water, and yeast on this layer. I've sprinkled molasses on top. And you can see there's only a small layer, about 10 to 15 centimeters of each layer. So, the second layer now, we're going to add manure to this heap. So, we have added the second layer, a layer of manure. Mixed manure, chicken, goat, and cow. Now, I'm going to sprinkle again with the mixture of molasses, water, and yeast. Now, I'll add a layer of soil to my heap. So, I've added the next layer of soil. And I've sprinkled, as you can see on top. Now, I'm going to add another layer which includes ash and biocharcoal on top. I'm now adding the last layer of maize bran on top. And sprinkle the rest of the mixture of molasses, yeast, and water. Whatever remains, I'll sprinkle on top after adding a layer of maize bran. All our ingredients are together now in one heap. And what remains, the next step now, is mixing them. For you to make a quick turn, for you not to turn it several times, when turning, you have to make sure you don't take from the top or the middle, but you bring your spade or shovel under there. You do it like this. As you be turning, you see the top layers are falling here. As a result, it will be easier for you to mix them here, because when you pick from the bottom, then all the layers will be falling here. Then you mix them a bit, you take them this side. Using this system, you can only turn it twice, then it will be over. You can even see all the layers are now seen. The layer of dry material, which is sawdust. You can see a layer of manure here. As a mix, you can see chicken, goat, and cow here. You can even see the layers. You can see a layer of soil here. You can also see a layer, although it's not nice looking, you can see a layer of ash mixed with biocharcoal here. And the last layer of maize bran you can see. The layers are nicely arranged, which makes it good and easier for us to turn. We are now done. The first mixing. As you can see, I can see some charcoal here. I can see some maize bran here. I can see manure here. You can see that almost everything you can see is sawdust here. Everything is well mixed. And I need to add some water now. After adding water, we will now mix it for the last time now. We are now done with the mixing. What remains now is for me to check if I have the right amount of water in my heap. For me to check that, I will take a fistful of my heap. I will squeeze it. If you were to make a ball, like I have molded a ball in my hands, it is not breaking. You can see. If it's not breaking like this, then I have a light amount of water. But if I squeeze it, when I release, then the ingredients are falling apart, then I have to add some more water. As you can see, the heap is just too high. It has to be at least one meter or less. So, I've just heaped it so high for me to have a quick mixture. But I'm going to reduce the height to at least up to somewhere here. After that, then, I'll leave it just like that. In case there are rains, then I have to cover it. Because from today, I will not add any amount of water. That's all. It has to be like this until the 15th day, when it will be ready to be used as a petri dish. It is ready. So, what I'm going to do now, I will reduce the height and leave it until tomorrow morning. I'll come and check if the process of fermentation has started. After making our Bokashi heap yesterday, this is the next morning. Making Bokashi is like baking a cake. You have to follow all the necessary steps and all the ingredients. So, for you to manage this heap, you have to maintain the temperature. It has to be between 50 and 55 degrees Celsius. It doesn't have to exceed or to be less. Because when it is less, the microbes will die. When it is above 55, the microbes will also die. It has to be in between. See, my temperature is increasing rapidly. It's at 55, increasing there. You can see it. It's at 60 now. If you don't have a thermometer, don't worry. You can still use your hands to check the temperature. If you can't count up to 10 and you feel bent, then you have to turn it. I'll dip a bit first. I can count. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Wow! So, if you feel the same, even without a thermometer, you have to turn it. Now, I'm going to show you how to turn it. The main purpose of turning is to reduce the hotness. That's the main reason why we are turning. So, there is a system you have to use to make sure that you are reducing the heat. So, you can pick it from the bottom. Then, do like you do this. From the bottom. Then, you pull like this on top. Take from the bottom, on top. Not just putting like this. Then, you are still taking the same bunch of hotness. You are putting it on another heat. But when you take the shovel, you are pulling on top like that. The shovel, you are pulling on top like that. As you are doing that, then there is enough air circulation inside because there are live organisms inside. So, for the first four days, if I check it's very hot, you can turn it twice per day. The first four days. Morning and evening. And from day five up to day twelve, you can turn it once depending on the temperature you find. But don't worry. From day six, the temperature will be reducing gradually. Up to day twelve to fifteen. By day fifteen, the temperature will reduce and it will be exactly as the environment. Then our Bokashi is ready. We have done the turning. As you can see, it's a very high heat. So, you don't have to leave it with that height because it will get extremely hot inside. In the next thirty minutes, it will be extremely hot. So, you have to reduce the height up to at least within a meter. Also, to allow the nice air circulation from outside. So, if you see that there are flies, then that's a sign to show that it is extremely hot and the microbes are dead. But there are not supposed to be a lot of flies during the whole four days. So, I'm going to reduce the height up to somewhere here. Now, I'm going to show you how to use Bokashi. In a hectare, you need about eight to ten tons in general, all crops, when we apply every after two weeks. But the crops are categorized as follows. In vegetables, there are also three types of vegetables. In leaf vegetables, this includes rape, Chinese cabbage, and these others. You need one handful per plant. Then, you have crops that form heads, like cabbage and cauliflower. You need two handfuls per crop or per station. And there are ongoing crops, crops which give fruits continuous, like tomato and eggplant. You need three handfuls per station. You can apply this after three weeks, depending on the state of your soil. And in fruit trees, if you want to use it for a new plant station, where you want to plant your trees now, there are different recommendations. So, for example, your plant station is 50 by 50. You dig half top soil, put it on the other side, the other bottom soil, 25 centimeters on the other side. Then you mix 4 kg of bokashi with top soil. Then you put it back into the hole where you want to plant your tree. You water it and plant after two weeks. Then, if you already have existing fruit trees, you need 5 to 10 kg of bokashi, depending with the age of your trees. Then you have to dig a small trench around your trees, about 10 centimeters. Then you put your bokashi around your tree and bury it, water it. You can use this maybe once in a year. Then, in your field crops, that include maize, sunflower, and these others, all field crops, you use one handful per plant station. That is before you plant. So, if you have two maize per station, then you have to use two handful. Then, if you want to use it on your nursery, it is advisable that you use bokashi, which has stayed for at least more than two months. Then, you have to mix one party of bokashi to four parts of soil. You mix, then you plant your nurseries, either vegetables or fruit tree nursery, all that. Then, it is advisable that you use your bokashi within one month because the microbes are still active. They have not yet gone to dormant. But, that doesn't mean that after one month, your bokashi loses strength. No. After a month or so, the microbes are gone into dormance. Thank you for watching.