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Soil, Compost & Mulch

How to cultivate EM...?

15 years ago

I've been reading up on Bokashi composting and I like the anaerobic concept and idea of being able to culture your own herd of microorganisms.

The only thing I've been trying to figure out lately is how to make your own "EM" brew as it seems to me that you should be able to cultivate your own for this method of composting without having to buy it.

Anyway, I've been searching online for any tips and I finally found a blog with two recipes, but was wondering if anyone has had any success with cultivating your own or has been able to find any recipes of their own. (In fact, I'm not even sure if these strands of EM are even proper for Bokashi; or for that matter if there's even a difference in types of EM for aerobic or anaerobic) I've read where you can "extend" your purchased bottle of culture, but I'd really like to try and brew my own.

I'll post the link I've found but was hoping to possibly get some more input.

Here is a link that might be useful: EM culture recipes

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Comments (3)

joepyeweed
15 years ago
Yuck.

I accidentally ate some moldy bread the other day. Does that qualify as EM?
queuetue
15 years ago
tommysgarden,

If you experiment, or find out more, please report back. I've wanted to do some bokashi and EM innoculation, but am unwilling to do it if I have to buy the expensive juice.
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tommysgarden
Original Author
15 years ago
so here's what i've found....

In my studies, it seems that you cannot create the original culture of EM without a TON of inconvenience. HOWEVER, you CAN multiply and expand your EM culture so that you're only using 30mL at a time instead of 300mL or even the entire 1L bottle. Therefore, your initial $20 investment can go a LONG way....

I purchased the 1L bottle and since then have made 2 batches of "activated" EM, from which I have made a batch of bokashi from 20lbs of rice bran, poured some into the bottom of my outdoor trash can to help cut down on the stench (which works AMAZINGLY, by the way) and fertilized my garden and flowering plants 3x already. All that from just 60mL of the original bottle. Not even 1/10.

I've made 2 batches of bokashi "pickle" from kitchen scraps and it looks like the first batch is almost completely broken down in the soil. I did a test and buried it in some super compacted clay (took me over an hour with a mattock to dig a 16" deep by 16" long trench) to see if it would break down and help loosen the soil. Covered it with a tarp and now, about 3 weeks later, things are looking really good. I took a shovel to the area yesterday and was able to turn up the soil in the are quite easily (having said that, I only had to dig in about 4 or 5" before I hit the bokashi compost).

Anyhow, i'm very happy with how sparingly you can use the original EM culture and with how much you can get out of it. Basically, 1L of EM-1 will make 22L of activated EM to be used for whatever. If you plan on only using it for bokashi, I can guarantee you that you will not go through the entire bottle before it expires unless you're composting for an entire business or school or restaraunt or something.

Bottom line, I think the $20 bottle is well worth the money.

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