r/Vermiculture • u/Crazy-Slide-713 • 7d ago
Finished compost Bokashi and Worms
After a few previous posts about having way too much food for my worms, I thought I’d give bokashi a go to help break it all down and spread out the feeding a bit.
The worms were happy and healthy before I added the first batch of fermented food, but now I’m wondering if I’ve made a mistake!
Has anyone else tried feeding bokashi to their worms? Keen to hear how others have gone with it and whether I’ve stuffed up here?
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u/_ratboi_ intermediate Vermicomposter 7d ago
I do bokashi to worm. But it does the opposite of what you suggested- you fill the bucket little by little and when it's done you get all of it at once, and it's all available food for the worms (unlike kitchen scraps that need to start breaking down for the worms to feed on it). It doesn't help spread things out.
Plus because it's already partially broken down it might attract other critters (in my case mainly fruit flies and pot worms) so you need to cover it well. It also might get hot when it breaks down, so watch out for that.
I use maybe a fifth of my bokashi to the worms and the rest goes to the compost pile. In my experience it boosts the population in a very short time, and gets the worms to a new tray faster than everything else I've tried
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u/Longjumping_Home2963 7d ago
the usual trick is not feeding it straight from the bucket. bury the bokashi in a tote of old soil or spent castings for a week or two first, the acidity drops a lot and then they swarm it instead of avoiding it. if the bin already smells sour a handful of crushed eggshell and extra dry bedding usually pulls it back
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u/Ineedmorebtc 7d ago
Depends on how much is given. Any new input, it can be a good idea to smart small and assess.
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u/prestigious_likeness 7d ago
I feed my worms bokashi every now and then, but i always mix it with a lot of dry bedding first because the pH can spike pretty fast. A small handful buried in one corner works better than dumping the whole batch in at once. If your bin suddenly smells sour or the worms are climbing the sides, pull out what you can and add shredded cardboard to soak up the excess moisture. They usually bounce back once conditions stabilize, so don't panic yet.