Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
So should I dilute the tea or not? The short answer is yes. The long answer is it really depends
on your application.
Thebokashiteaisgoingtobeacidic,andgenerallyacidityisn'tverygoodforplants,especially
in strong concentrations and directly on the foliage. Vinegar makes a great organic “weed” killer
after all. So you want to be careful when you apply the bokashi tea to your plants. Test it first on
plants you aren't that fond of, and use small doses and get more aggressive if you are OK with the
results. Higher order plants such as shrubs and trees should be able to handle a lot more adversity
than small herbaceous seedlings. Rotate from plant to plant each time that you use the tea. Even
if the results are good, if you keep pouring the tea on the same plant, it may end up accumulating
substances it doesn't like or won't like over time.
If you are going to use the tea on your plants, you may want to check its pH periodically to get
a handle on what you are actually working with. If the pH is below 6.0, then I would dilute it no
matterwhat.Howmuch?100to1issafe(alotofwatertoalittletea),butitmaybeoverkill.Again,
testinsmallbatchesandworkupfromthere.Ingeneralcommonsenseprevails.Dilutesome,rotate
throughyourplants, observe, andadjust. Also,Iwouldshyaway fromusinghighconcentrations of
bokashi leachate directly on foliage. Most plants aren't going to be able to handle the acidity, and
you will likely end up burning the leaves. So increase the dilution rate to something like 500 to 1 if
you want to put it on the leaves, or just use the bokashi leachate as a soil drench. I would also steer
clear of fruiting plants that are in the flowering stage; you don't want to risk applying too high of a
concentration of tea and having the flowers drop.
I have done a few unscientific experiments where I have applied bokashi tea in various concen-
trationsto“weeds”onmyproperty.Evenatfullconcentrations,Ihaven'tseenanyterriblynegative
effects. This could be specific to the bokashi tea I am producing, as the tea's composition and pH
vary from batch to batch because the feed going into the system isn't the same every time. The tea
coming out of my system is acidic, but only weakly; the pH is usually between 4.5 and 6.0. This
isn't anywhere near a pH of 2 or 3, which will burn plants for sure, but could cause trouble if you
get a batch at 4.5 and apply it straight to the wrong plant. I would still exercise caution and go the
dilution route, just it case. I would rather err on the side of diluting more and then adjust the ratio
as time goes on than apply full-strength tea and damage my plants, even if the odds of that are low.
If you drain the leachate and it smells bad — think
really
bad — then something went wrong in
the fermentation process. The bokashi leachate itself should smell vinegary, not rancid. There are
several likely causes of putrid leachate:
1. Was the fermentation vessel truly airtight? Air entering the vessel can allow some aerobic or-
ganisms to propagate, causing the contents to putrefy and smell. Check your seals and make
sure that everything looks in order, meaning the seals actual seal.
2. Was there too much liquid in the bucket? A large amount of liquid collecting in the bottom of
the bucket can go rancid. The easiest ways to avoid this are to drain the bucket every other day
and not add a lot of high-liquid contents to the bucket.
3. Moldy or already spoiled food waste was added to the bucket. Unless you compensate this by
adding a lot of extra bran and/or AEM, the bad bacteria will propagate, causing the contents
to putrefy. The easiest way to fix this problem is to not add spoiled food waste to the bucket
or, if you do, add a lot of extra bran to compensate and change the bacterial balance. The extra
