Soak the bedding in aerated vermicompost tea, then drain before applying. Stand back as the worms will go crazy!

Thanks Equinox- I have five 18 gallon RM bins and have been pouring in tea AVCT as well as leaf tea (just leaves soaked in water). I just harvested one bin started April 1st of this year. Lots of castings, tons of eggs and no dead worms. The unfinished VC went into a new bin and I added cardboard and leaves to bring it to 50% full. - Jim

"Can Bokashi be used as precomposting?"

If I understand the question correctly, no. Or at least, not alone. Bokashi is a managed fermentation; it does begin the breakdown process, but the end result is far too acidic for worms. (Worm-death in plus or minus thirty minutes upon contact with full-strength leachate, so I've read. I don't plan on testing it.) Adding bokashi to bedding starts a hot-compost reaction, which can kill contained worms, though they'll just move away if given the opportunity. And they'll swarm back once it cools--worms love pH-neutralized bokashi!

I precompost equal parts dried leaves and bokashi-fermented food scraps, then feed that to my worms, with no other bedding at all except when starting a new wormery, in which case I do the standard soaked-cardboard and soil for grit. Eggshells go into the bokashi bucket, and I live in a limestone-heavy area, so I don't worry about calcium, though I think folks in other parts of the country might.

If, on the other hand, you meant "can I add EM bokashi bran or EM-1 liquid to bedding?", the answer's different: yes, providing you inoculate the bedding separately from the worm bin, as it will heat up--but then your bin needs more cooling, since it heats up with pretty much any food addition, and you'll need to monitor the pH more carefully than otherwise.

Aren't I just so encouraging? -G- On the positive side, worms don't seem to have any objection to the fermented-and-precomposted versions of foods they're supposed to disdain in fresh states.

DSF

Thanxx for the detailed reply. Lots to digest there.

I have read a lot about bokashi but it is usually just the same basics over and over again. I like reading about people mixing up their own brand of EM. I wonder if the same can be done with aerobic beasties and soak cardboard for worm bedding. Like randomz does. I want to try what randomz does.

When eggshells go into a bokashi bucket do they come back out or melt? Do you crush them?

Maybe not all bokashi buckets are run needing the spigot. But the drainiage I would like to wet cardboard with and let air for a bit to change into oxygen beasties and feed to worms.

"Bokashi is a managed fermentation; it does begin the breakdown process, but the end result is far too acidic for worms. (Worm-death in plus or minus thirty minutes upon contact with full-strength leachate, so I've read. I don't plan on testing it.)" Do you or any posters think this is the string of pearls, melting worms thing happening?

"worms love pH-neutralized bokashi!" It self neutralizes when exposed to air, right?

I am thinking worms will not crawl up into pH uncorrect food additions, but the stuff dripping down onto them if they can not escape is not good.

Do you buy your bokashi, the bran, already treated or make it?

Inspired by this thread, I soaked a bunch of cardboard in VC tea strainings with rinse water added. I sent this mixture back into the bin, and the crew is VERY happpy!

Detailed, oh you whose day approacheth? Try this--

I can't speak to aerated anything, as my idea of gardening just doesn't include air pumps--even for my aquaponics. But there's a lot of info out there about aerobic IMO (Indigenous Micro-Organisms), so I'm sure someone can help.

Cultures I can talk about. If you're running an outdoor wormery and have access to good soil, you can skip the longer culturing process. Good garden soil's just fine on its own, or if you're feeling ambitious, you can mix that garden soil, shredded dried leaves, and a weak molasses-and-water solution; your IMO will reproduce according to whatever conditions you provide, so add air for aerobic or weight for anaerobes and let sit awhile. For an indoor and/or more controlled product, there's a stepped process on AgNet that's pretty reliable and nets you a nice mix of IMO types, or you can go the sourdough route: pick your favorite kind of microbe, find a source, and grow it. So-called because the "hooch" that has to be drained off an active sourdough culture is the same lactobacillus serum mentioned in bucket-fermentation recipes.

Re: eggshells, I don't crush them separately, but my bokashi bucket has its very own masher, so they don't stay whole for long. They don't dissolve, I've found a few small identifiable pieces even after vermicomposting, but I've yet to see any after a season's growing. Poof.

"Maybe not all bokashi buckets are run needing the spigot. But the drainiage I would like to wet cardboard with and let air for a bit to change into oxygen beasties and feed to worms."

No, you really don't. The bucket leachate, that for some reason has its very own name--bokashi juice--is very acid, often with a greasy component if your bucket is not vegetarian, and will stink if exposed to air for long. You'd get every fruitfly and fungus gnat in your area before it dried. Maybe if you diluted it a whole lot, but then...why bother?

As far as neutralizing with air goes, I don't think so, but have to say I haven't tried. All the literature says that bokashi-fermented material needs another microbe source to fully break down, that comes from soil or mature compost (hot, cold, or vermi-).

"I am thinking worms will not crawl up into pH uncorrect food additions, but the stuff dripping down onto them if they can not escape is not good."

Absolutely right! Wicked witches and water, worms and bokashi juice. I've tried adding small volumes of cured bokashi to a feeding layer, but the worms all wriggled away. And considering how hot the bedding got, I can't say as I blamed them. Adding the food to the bottom layer worked--I figured worms can't read, so they might not know they're supposed to go UP toward food. But it wasn't enough of an improvement over batch-feeding pre-composted stuff for me to keep doing it.

But then, I'm lazy. Which brings me to that last question: both. I've done the full range from IMO cultures to purchased retail EM bokashi bran, but what I usually do is purchase the EM-1 liquid inoculant and make my own solutions and bokashi "bran" (bran, dried leaves, UCG, shredded paper...) with that. If I ever manage a simple recipe that has the right rhodobacters and doesn't take a week's attention and a blacklight, I might give up on the retail product, but then again, I might not. These days, I can buy it at my farmer's market, and it's useful around the house for a lot of things.

DSF

I will be using garden lime to neutralize the bokashi I make, testing with pH strips to see when I get to pH = 7, as an experiment.

Since then I have put in one day the large microbial mats of 3 mason jars of kombucha into a tiny bin. I bet the worms liked that. But I also added the 3 mason jars of vinergary juice. I do not think they liked that. The worms seemed to turn dark in color. Maybe some died. I do not know. Next time I will probably just use the juice to preage bedding. Maybe I pickled some worms. I sort of thought it might get less acidic as it went through the layers of material. Maybe not my best experiment