We have all kinds of fruit and vegetables almost all year round. However, homemade tastes best. But what if you don’t have a garden? Then you can grow radishes, cocktail tomatoes or even lettuce in the window box. How to make a high-quality fertilizer from kitchen leftovers is explained by the herbalist and environmental consultant Christine Nimmerfall on Tuesday in the webinar of the Oberhaching Transport and Gardening Association under the title “Kitchen Bokashi – valuable fertilizer for your buckets, troughs and the garden”.
“It’s very special,” says Nimmerfall, and gives an exciting and entertaining account of “Bokashi,” which means “all kinds of fermented organic material.” Kitchen waste that accumulates in the household is fermented with a special mixture of microbes and, after a phase of earthing, put into a variety of planters or used in the garden as a high-quality fertilizer. “Bokashing is a fermentation, similar to sauerkraut, that is also made anaerobically,” says Nimmerfall.
All you need is an airtight bucket with a sieve insert and a small spray bottle for the microbial mixture, which is known in technical terms as “active effective microorganisms” (EMa) and is available from specialist retailers. You also need some patience. Because it takes about five to six weeks for potato, fruit and vegetable peelings or coffee grounds to become fertilizer. According to Nimmerfall, it is important to spray the kitchen leftovers immediately with the microbial mixture.
Also, the beautiful, white fur that forms on top of the boxing shouldn’t be taken for mold. It is formed from ferment-active fungi and yeasts and shows that the fermentation phase is over. But the Bokashi is still very acidic from the environment and can only be used as a fertilizer after a three-week terrestrial phase. “You don’t water with vinegar,” warns Nimmerfall. The 60-year-old gardening expert explains that you can use the finished Bokashi to fertilize your flowers with high quality and even refresh existing potting soil from the previous year.
“The nice thing about Bokashi is that as a gardener you can use it to build up your own high-quality compost in small areas and it doesn’t stink. I also know what kind of kitchen waste I have. If I only buy organic products, with Bokashi I create a 1a- organic fertilizer”. It is a special method that was discovered by accident: when the Japanese agronomist Teruo Higa was researching the cycles that take place with microorganisms in the soil in the early 1980s, he discovered how certain lactic acid and photosynthetic bacteria, yeasts and ferment-active fungi interact and created a multimicrobial mixture that made him the inventor of the “Effective Microorganisms”. Space-saving boxing quickly spread in Japan. Nimmerfall would also like to make it known in the district of Munich.
The link to the zoom webinar of the gardening association Oberhaching on Tuesday, February 8, from 6 p.m. to around 6:45 p.m [email protected] register and, if necessary, the membership application on the homepage https://www.vg-oberhaching.de/Membership/ fills in For a contribution of 14 euros per year there are many lectures and tips.