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Making Plant Food From Kitchen Scraps
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Add food scraps to the container, sprinkle with Bokashi, and seal tightly. Allow at least two weeks for fermentation and expect some white yeast to appear but no foul smells or bugs !!.
Extract the liquid that collects at the bottom of the container.
Mix with water and apply as a concentrated plant food. The extracted liquid should be a golden brownish color and is sometimes called compost tea . The liquid fertilizer is very rich and can be diluted at about 1 teaspoon of fertilizer liquid per gallon of water. Apply near the plant roots and then water the plants as usual. For roses, the mixture can be richer (about 1 oz per gallon of water).
Drain the liquid fertilizer about once every two weeks until the fermented compost container is emptied.
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Use the fermented compost as a soil amendment by burying it in a planter bed or around the edge of a tree canopy (canopy is the overhead leafy coverage). The edge of the canopy is where the tree roots get most of their nutrition. Cover with at least six inches of soil.
The fermented compost can also be or added to an outdoor compost container and covered with leaves or soil to accelerate the breakdown of the other green waste compost materials.
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Kitchen Composting Tips
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Do not add spoiled foods or liquids !!
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Spoiled foods have already started the rotting
and decomposition process and fowl the fermentation of the
other materials. If you add spoiled foods, be sure to add extra Bokashi (to completely cover the spoiled food) to remediate the odors from the rotting food. The resulting fermented compost will have some malodor and gas issues and the liquid fertilizer may not be of as high a quality.
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If the compost container is left sealed for long periods, be sure
to drain the tea that continues to be produced and make sure it
is tightly sealed. If spoiled foods were added, the resulting
odorous gasses could cause the seal to open and let air in.
If this happens, do not call 911 or panic, just hold your nose
, bury the container
contents, and start over.
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Hard materials like bones, shells, and fruit pits take longer than vegetable and leafy matter; Shells from shell fish (crabs, lobsters, etc.) crumble like sand when fermented; mix with other food scraps but allow a longer fermentation time - bones take several months to soften and may not break down completely even after mixed with soil;
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Fish products ferment faster than food or green waste materials; remove the liquid fertilizer at the bottom of the container more often as it is produced more frequently.
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