I’m not going to argue, other than the fact that I never said I created a replacement for EM (the beneficials are available literally everywhere and only need culturing)
I’ll let folks make there own decisions. The point is we’re surrounded by them and there’s nothing really special about EM.

Do your own research folks…

The following information is a good place to start and is totally independent of me and my website….

“Using the ordinary to cultivate the mysterious power of beneficial indigenous microorganisms”
http://www.newfarm.org/features/0404/microorgs/index.shtml

“Korean Natural Farming: Indigenous Microorganisms and Vital Power of Crop/Livestock”
Han Kyu Cho and Atsushi Koyama

“Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web” by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis..

Thanks

EM is NOT expensive. The cost of one litre is pennies per gallon when you factor that a litre of EM Primary Culture can make something like 1000 gallons of Extended Secondary Culture.

EM Primary Culture is also Food Grade–you can drink it right out of the bottle if you wanted.

EM is a complex symbiosis of over 60 different aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, fungi, and yeasts–all naturally occuring–working in harmony with each other. It is not one or two or 5 common bacterias gathered from the air or yogurt.

The Wheat or Rice Bran used as a Bokashi medium is necessary not only because it is a dry material to capture the EM culture, but because it has proteins and structures which Newspaper does not. It can be fed to livestock, or buried directly in the garden around plants even before it is used to make Bokashi Compost. It becomes a medium of life in and of itself. There are ways to use other materials, but they are all organic compounds which give life.

The point of using Bokashi and EM is to give back to the soil and enhance the life force of plants. EM Cultures have necessary and important characteristics which do this. Lactobacillus is not the most important part of an EM culture. It is actual many of the yeasts and fungi that are just as important. In addition EM’s ability to help plants fix nitrogen at their roots by reintroducing microrhyzae to the soil is worth the price of a litre alone.

It is true you do not need an expensive Bokashi Bucket system, but the drain is essential in whatever bucket you do use. Not only can the liquid resulting from Bokashi Composting turn putrid and reek, before this happens it is a powerful fertilizer which is not to be wasted. Because it contains concentraited amounts of EM culture is is also great for reactivating septic systems and clearing the gunge out of household drains. Dumping yoghurt down them would not do the same.

Your efforts a worth persuing, but just know you have not created an EM replacement and anyone who follows your current advice will be missing out on the full benefits of EM and Bokashi technology.

All the best,

Neal

http://bokashicomposting.com/