“The totally natural way to reduce, reuse and recycle organic waste”

Q. How often can I water my bedding plants and vegetables with the diluted juice, collected from my Zingbokashi bin?

A. Weekly applications are ample and remember that the dilution of the juice when applied over plant foliage should be at leat 1 part juice to 500 parts water [ approx 2 teaspoons per 5 litre of water]

Q.  How often should I add my food scraps to my bucket and can I accumulate them over a couple of days if I only have a small amount each day.

A.  Best practice is to add your scraps to your bucket daily, even though you might only a very small amount. Adjust the amount of CompostZing added accordingly.

Q. Once the food scraps have finished fermenting how deep does it need to be buried in the soil? Also how long do I have to wait before I can add more material into the same area of garden?

A.  A trench approx 1 metre long by 30 cm deep and 30cm wide is sufficient to bury the contents of a 15 litre bucket full of fermented food waste. This should be covered over with 75mm –100mm of soil. To speed up the process it helps by sprinkling a little soil over the waste before covering and using a sharp spade ‘cut’ some soil down into the food to allow some mixing.

You should be able to repeat the process again within around 6 weeks and this is a great way to build up a poor soil with repeated applications.

Q.  If I want to add the contents of my Zing Bokashi bucket directly into my compost heap what is the best way to do this?

A.  Food waste, even when in a fermented state is regarded as a ‘green material’ and should be mixed into the heap with ‘browns ‘ as a cover . To do this simply add the fermented food into the heap and then mix and cover over with brown material.

For best results a cover over your heap will maintain moisture levels within the heap and keep rain out.

Any mould growing in your bucket should be white in colour and this is an indicator that the process is good. Any green or black coloured mould is not so good and this in a indicator that something has gone wrong.

This can be a result of one of the following:

1. Spoiled food added (fresh food should be added daily)
2. Wet food waste added drained foods best
3. Not enough CompostZing added -especially if protein foods such as dairy or meat products are added
4. Excess air in your bucket (pushing down onto any food waste added to expel any trapped air will assist the fermentation process)
5. ‘Juice’ left in the bucket bottom for too long a period
6. Lid not on correctly or left off for a period

Read more about white mould in my previous post