May 12, 2008
Worm Composting Canada
Why have I been so scarce lately?
Well folks, I’ve decided for once to fly by the seat of my (creepy) pants and take a leap of faith – I’ve decided to start my very own ‘real world’ eco-business.
I’ve dreamed of doing this for years, but in all honesty I didn’t expect it to come to fruition for at least a couple more. Long story short, I finally decided to stop thinking in terms of “some day” and opted instead for “why not NOW?!”
🙂
As part of the first phase, I’ve launched my new Worm Composting Canada website. As the name implies, the main focus of the business will be here in Canada (especially in my own region), but I will be taking U.S. orders as well. I’ve partnered with a fantastic supplier south of the border, and they’ll be helping me with U.S. worm shipments.
Worm Composting Canada will be one arm of my overall business (more on that in a future post) – which will be focused primarily on earth-friendly waste management solutions (product/services). It will of course be a very important part though – I am a ‘wormhead’ after all!
Just so you know – not much will change around here. Red Worm Composting will still provide quality information and commentary about worm composting. It might even get a lot more interesting now that I’ll be so involved in it myself. I suppose if I get SUPER busy my posting regularity may drop off a bit, but I’m really going to make a serious effort to get a number of posts up each week no matter what!
Anyway, thats all for now. I’m still very much in the early stages with this – I have a LOT of work ahead of me over the next few weeks.
I’ll keep everyone in the loop as things continue to develop!
8)
[tags]vermicomposting, worm composting, waterloo region, kitchener, cambridge, guelph, ontario, canada, red worms, european nightcrawlers, waste management, green business, eco business[/tags]
**Want Even More Fun With Worms? Sign Up for the RWC E-mail List Today!**Help For an Overfed Worm Bin
This question comes from a vermicomposting beginner, wondering how best to deal with an overfed bin.
I am a newbie and way overfed my worms. Can I just leave
them alone for a few weeks and let them work it out or do I need to
clean out their whole bin and start over? They seem to be enjoying
themselves, but I am worried about the white fuzzy mold growing on the
food they haven’t gotten to yet. It is only slightly musky
smelling…for now.
This is a great question, and deals with a problem I’m sure MANY worm composting newcomers encounter.
You never mentioned how you knew you had overfed your worms though. The fact that they are still “enjoying themselves” seems to indicate that all is still ok. That being said, it is always much better to err on the side of caution when concerned about the health of the bin.
I will assume that the presence of large amounts of unprocessed (now covered in fungi) food is what tipped you off. Indeed, this is a good indication of an overfed bin. If you see that the worms are not even coming close to processing everything that is being added then it’s definitely time to ease off with the feeding. I’d recommend either adding new wastes to an outdoor composter or some sort of food scrap holder (a bucket with bedding in it works great) in the meantime, if at all possible.
You definitely don’t need to completely start over – especially given the fact that the worms are still happy. I would recommend adding a decent amount of fresh bedding to the bin then simply letting it sit for as long as it takes for the food materials inside to be broken down. Once it looks like the worms have processed most of the wastes you can start adding new materials (slowly) again.
The musty bin odour you described is also another indication that the bin is still in OK shape – if you smelled some really foul odours it would likely be an indication of all the excess waste materials going anaerobic.
Anyway – hope this helps!
B