One more experiment finished

One of my Bokashi dog poo experiments has finished. It’s probably the most successful one so far.

Dog poo is a curse for many gardeners, especially urban ones. It is a resource that, literally, piles up.

You can bury it or compost it but some folks aren’t comfortable with the results. They’ve still pathogenic microbes on their minds.

So, I’ve been experimenting with Athena’s generous contributions. Because she eats mostly what we do, most of her poo is vegetable in nature… and bulky… and in large amounts.

I had a black, 60 litre, plastic bin that we filled with dog poo and Bokashi bran over a few months last year. Then when it was packed, I added a goodly handful worms to it. I made a small hole in the side, near the top to allow them to breathe.

Bokashi is anarobic but worms are aerobic. I’m thinking that the initial compaction of the dog poo and the coffee grounds will provide enough of an anaerobic environment for the microbes.

Then I left it for 6 months. Yes, I forgot about it – it was only supposed to be a month. I only remembered it when I was cleaning out the shed!

The results – a crumbly, well textured mass that got progressive moist and worm filled as we reached the bottom. At no time in the emptying was there any foul smell and the number of worms was much greater than the amount that I added.

This time, I left about 10cm of the previous composted poo in the bottom, broken up a bit to allow some air for the worms. We use coffee grounds rather than bran now as the Bokashi substrate so the texture of the next lot will be finer. I’ve decided to add a handful of veggie scraps to the mix several times whe the new bin is filling. This is to feed and stimulate the worms and make them happier. They’re the hardest workers in the place so we’ve got to keep them happy.

As it was raining when I investigated this lot, I distributed the finished product around the perennials in the condition it was. When this new lot is finished, I’ll dry the result first after chasing out the worms.

Then I’ll dry it in my newly designed, solar dog poo incinerator.