I process a few hundred cubic yards of compost a year and I have no clue what you are talking about.

In my experience, the activity of composting happens, it doesn't require additives.

Lloyd

I think you labs are apples & compost microbes are oranges.
But that is just my opinion.:-)

Lactobacillus is a natural occuring beneficial bacteria that serves a large number of purposes ranging from eliminating odors to improving nutrional intake in livestock as well as using it to erradicate harmful bacteria like e coli. Some people also ingest for health purposes as well. Another purpose of LAB is that it does an excellent job in decomposition of organic matter. LAB in conjunction with other beneficial bacteria are also used in bokashi composting. That being said, I was simply wondering if anyone here had any experience with using in a normal compost program.

Thanks kimmsr. Thats what I was wondering about. I have read alot of literature that say how compost starter is not a necessity. My logic is that since lacto is used to aid in the decomp process, it could be an advantage for someone(me) who wanted to get compost in as short a time as possible. Additionally, I have access to ALOT of free horse manure so that lacto might be beneficial in helping to get rid of potential odors which would be an issue since my neighbors are so close to me.

Interesting. Please post after you have tried it and let us know!

This is my first year with Bokashi, and I not formed any solid conclusions.

I found cheap white rice to be the best starter. Newspaper is my media. Tried some active yogurts as starter and most did not smell right after inoculation.

The research I have looked at does not seem to warrant a lot of effort at this time. I have made about seven buckets this year, part going under my tomatoes, and part in the compost pile. No conclusions pro or con yet.

Read or rather scanned a couple of rather scientific articles on EM and bokashi, without much benefit. They seem to focus on just one crop at a time.

Robertz6,
Like you, I am also doing some bokashi. I actually do a bokashi, vermicompost and also a regular compost in my tumbler. I know...I gotta lot of stuff going on, haha! I used regular wheat bran as my mix for my bokashi. Its just more cost effective for me when I buy it from my feed store. 25lb for approx $8. To be honest, the only difference between EM1 and my Lacto that I made is that there is a more diverse mix of micros in EM1...but I can easily catch up and surpass it by simply harnessing my own beneficial micros from my worm bin. Its really simple to do. If I really wanted to split hairs, I could also harness Purple Non-sulpher Bacteria by culturing a bit of mud that I can get from a local pond.

One of my goals is ween myself off products that i need to spend money on. IM not knocking EM1. Its really good stuff...they just make it seem like it takes a degree in microbiology to make it.

On the subject of this thread though, I will also say that I recently added some of my lacto to my compost tumbler after filling it with material. I added alot of grass because I couldnt get my temps up higher than 115 degrees. With the added grass clippings and a bag of used coffee grounds from starbucks, I got a temp reading of almost 130. Good enough I guess? (Im new to traditional composting) As you might imagine, the smell became something of an issue though. I took a gallon of RO water and mixed in 2tbsp of my lacto/molasses. I used a small amount for my tumbler and the rest for watering my outdoor plants. The smell of the grass clippings is almost all but gone! I cant say for certain that the lacto serum works until i try it at least once more and get the same result.

You can't get much cheaper than DIY newspaper bokashi using cheap rice as a starting point. I cook and eat the rice after using the rice water rinse for a starter.

My expenses are for milk and molasses only. I like the white pages for my media, a bit better than newspaper (which is harder to separate).

3DinAz,
I am doing bokashi composting and make my own innoculant(rice, milk, wheat-germ method). I also like worm and reg. composting.
How do you use some of the worm castings in the bokashi process? Do you mix it into the bran/lacto serum mix and let it ferment 2 weeks?
I find the whole bokashi process very interesting and love the idea of combining both methods (worm and bokashi composting) somehow.
Harry