January 2009
You are currently browsing the articles from Red Worm Composting written in the month of January 2009.
I don’t have an actual question to quote for this ‘reader questions’ post, but I do want to tackle a topic that has come up in emails I’ve received (two very recently) – and a topic that never ceases to make me smile, I might add!
As a serious ‘Worm Head‘ and vermicomposting business owner, the notion of having “too many worms” is a completely foreign concept. There really is no such thing, in my mind.
Of course, it is important for me to alter my perspective in these situations, and put myself in the shoes of someone just getting into vermicomposting. Obviously not everyone wants to continue expanding their worm herd indefinitely, and with all the claims of worm population doubling speeds out there, the possibility of creating a thriving worm bin can probably seem almost a little scary! The thought of having one’s home overrun by worms doesn’t exactly give you the ‘warm and fuzzies’, after all. (might actually make for a good horror movie plot!)
Well, the good news is that worms will NEVER take over your home or expand their numbers to such an extent as to be a nuisance – without your assistance that is! Obviously, if you continue to expand your population to more and more bins, you will be creating potential heachaches in the form of space issues, spousal unrest, fruit fly nightmares etc.
But a single vermicomposting system will reach a maximum carrying capacity, resulting in a slow down of worm reproduction, and potentially even a reduction in the current population. Of course, you WILL still need to periodically clean out the system and start fresh – but there is no rule that states that you must either build a bigger system or start up multiple systems the second time around! You are more than welcome to simply use the same sized bin and continue on your merry way.
Now – let’s chat about WHY you might want to be supportive of your worm population’s desire to expand. Lots and lots of worms is not necessarily a bad thing – HONEST!
Here are some of the things you can do with more worms…
1) Compost more of your food waste – produce more vermicompost – promote the growth and health of more of your plants!
2) Sell them or give them away – there a LOTS of people out there more than willing to take composting worms off your hands. Trust me! Just put an add in one of the free online classified ad sites (eg Craigslist, Kijiji etc) and see what happens
3) Make an outdoor ‘in situ’ vermicomposting bed, like my vermicomposting trenches. These systems typically require a lot of worms to reach their maximum potential, so continuing to add all those extra worms from your indoor system(s) could be a good way to get them started.
4) Add them to your ‘regular’ backyard composter – composting worms can greatly enhance the processing time/efficiency of these systems, and create some pretty phenomenal compost while they are at it!
5) Feed them to your fish/chickens/turtles/frogs/snakes/lizards etc or go fishing more often! It kinda pains me to include this one since I’ve grown attached to my own worms (“Every Worm is Sacred, Every Worm is Great!” – any Monty Python fans out there might pick up on that one. haha).
6) Get your friends and family involved – help them set up their own vermicomposting systems
That’s just a handful of ideas – I’m sure there are other possibilities as well! As you can see, there is definitely nothing to worry about – producing lots and lots of worms can definitely be a good thing!
Hope this helps!
Written by Bentley on January 27th, 2009 with 5 comments.
Read more articles on Reader Questions.
Here is a good question from Chris:
I have a rubbermaid composting bin, it is working great, I
have about 2000 worms. I blend my veggies and food up so its a mush, I
then put this mush in the bin. the problem I am having is, the tea
that is draining is not dark and rich, its light brown but not dark
brown like I would think it would be. I am thinking this is not really
tea its runoff from the veggies right? This bin is about 2 months old.
Is this light colored stuff ok to use as tea still?
Hi Chris,
In a nutshell – your suspicions are correct. This is NOT actual worm tea. It is more accurately referred to as “leachate” – basically just water that has passed down through an active worm bin, picking up various compounds on the way. Real worm tea is made by soaking finished worm castings in water – preferably being aerated at the same time. Those who are really serious about their ‘tea’ often even add other special ingredients to ‘feed’ certain types of beneficial microbes or to improve the final product in some other way.
You CAN use the leachate in the same manner as a compost tea, but it won’t be as reliable/predictable since there are plenty of intermediate (unstable) metabolites from the decomposition process and potentially even some phytotoxic (harmful for plants) compounds that might be in there. I would dilute it and if possible, aerate it with an aquarium air stone before using it.
Hope this helps!
Written by Bentley on January 27th, 2009 with 7 comments.
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Winter worm bed looking more like a snow fort than a vermicomposting system!
I was finally able to get over to my dad’s yesterday for some winter worm composting work. The timing ended up being pretty good since it was a relatively mild day (in comparison to the really cold condtions during the past couple of weeks).
As you can see in the picture above, there was a nice thick layer of snow over top of the bed which I’m sure was an effective bit of extra insulation. Interestingly enough, as we started to dig the snow off we noticed that it was slushy down below and there was actually some water pooling on top of the tarp. I can assure you this was not due to the weather, since it hasn’t been above the freezing mark around here for quite some time.
What this means of course, is that the heap has been generating its own warmth – definitely a good sign. Once the tarp was off, we went in for a closer look, with trusty compost thermometer in hand. In the middle, temps seemed to be in the 14-15 C (57-59F) range – not too shabby, especially considering how brutally cold it has been recently.
Temperatures closer to the outer walls weren’t nearly as warm, but these zones weren’t frozen solid either, so I’m not going to complain! My goal is of course to get everything warmed up, but part of the problem has been the fact that the system hasn’t been completely filled with materials – thus the straw bale insulation obviously isn’t helping in those zones. I think we remedied this situation for the most part yesterday, so it will be interesting to see where temps go from here.
Before adding manure to the bed, we added a lot of a material I refer to as ‘compost ecosystem’ – basically the compost-like material (containing countless baby worms and other creatures) left over after worms have been harvested from it. I had a lot of this taking up room in my basement, so I thought it would help to add it to the outdoor bed. It will add a lot more worms, plus it was a lot warmer than the ambient air temps so I should help to warm things up a bit as well.
Winter worm bed after manure has been added.
I wasn’t too surprised to find manure sitting down in my dad’s basement was completely thawed out (you may recall me mentioning that it was taking a long time). It was nice to see that it was still in good shape though. It was a little bit sloppy and smelly down in the bottom of the barrels, but I’m sure the worms will be munching on it in no time, regardless (excess liquid will simply drain down into the bed).
I actually decided to take home three tubs of aged manure for my indoor systems, and also added a fair amount to some systems down in my dad’s basement, but there was still plenty left to add to the bed and we were able to get a nice mound of it built up in the middle.
Another thick layer of straw was added over top of the manure
Once the manure was added, we broke open another bale of straw and spread it over top. This will provide some additional insulation, but will also help to maintain some air flow underneath the tarp.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to add snow once the tarp was back on, since the black surface can help to absorb heat from the sun on sunny days. In the end I opted for the snow covered approach since it has been mostly overcast lately and it’s also supposed to get quite cold again this weekend.
The next couple of weeks should be interesting. As mentioned above, we have basically now filled the bed in completely, and there is now a substantial volume of nitrogen rich material in there. I have a feeling the bed will be quite a bit warmer by next week.
I’ll be sure to keep you posted!
Previous Winter Worm Composting Posts
Winter Composting Extravaganza 2.0
Winter Worm Composting – 12-08-08
Winter Worm Composting – 12-15-08
Winter Worm Composting – 12-30-08
Written by Bentley on January 23rd, 2009 with 4 comments.
Read more articles on Large-Scale Vermicomposting and Winter Composting.
Here is a question from Nicholas:
I was wondering about how many times should i spray down my worms per
day?
Hi Nicholas
How many times you spray your system totally depends on the type of system you have. In all honesty, I very rarely spray down enclosed plastic bin systems since they retain moisture so well (a little TOO well in fact). The moisture released from the food wastes should be more than enough, and in fact it will inevitably start to pool in the bottom eventually (we are talking here about a ‘Rubbermaid’ type of tub with no drainage holes). This can be postponed for quite some time with the regular addition of dry, absorbent bedding however.
In an open system or one made with wood, you will most likely need to spray down periodically. I would recommend simply making sure conditions remain moist (not soaking wet) down below the surface. If you find the materials near the top drying out very quickly, you will likely be best to add water daily, or perhaps even more often. Worms love wet conditions, but they also need oxygen so it’s a bit of a delicate balancing act.
Anyway – hope this helps!
Written by Bentley on January 23rd, 2009 with no comments.
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SSUBWHT with plastic bowl directly beneath it
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my ‘Super Simple Ultra Basic Worm Harvesting Tube‘ – basically my attempt at creating a passive worm harvesting system that actually works. Well, I hoped it would work, anyway.
As I wrote in the post, the system didn’t work at all for me the first time I tried it out. Even with a moist environment down below (provided by wet paper) and a hot light shining for hours above, the worms just didn’t seem interested in going down.
Something that came to mind as a potential problem (also suggested by one of our readers) was the fact that there was an air space between the screen and the paper below. In other words, the worms would basically have to fall a short distance – probably something they would try to avoid whenever possible. I also think I simply had too much material on the screen, so there wasn’t as much of a threat to the worms (and they were happy to stay where they were as a result).
Based on my assumptions, I decided to try the system again – but this time with a modified approach. I found a plastic bowl that almost seems like it was made to go with the SSUBWHT! It fits very nicely underneath, with almost the same diameter. I had to prop it up on a roll of tape in order to have it making contact with the screen, but that certainly wasn’t a major inconvenience.
I filled the bowl with moistened strips of newsprint and fall leaves – enough so that these materials would end up pressed against the screen. I then added a much smaller amount of worm bedding (with worms) – this time with Red Worms (not European Nightcrawlers) – on top of the screen, and positioned the lamp over top in the same manner as before.
I then proceeded to totally forget about it until later in the day – which probably helped.
A the results???
MUCH more promising than last time! I am happy to report that there were a lot of worms down in the bowl. Initially I thought it had been 100% successful, but then when I emptied out the upper compartment I realized there were still a fair number of worms in this material.
At least we are getting somewhere!
Some other things I am planning on testing out…
1) What happens if I used only moistened leaves in the bowl?
2) Will it help if I add a small amount of vermicompost to the material in the bowl?
3) What if I add some cantaloupe to the leaf mixture and let it sit for a few days before putting it in the bowl? (I may test this with the light on and with the light off)
I’m confident I can get the system working even better – my goal of course is 100% transfer of worms. Providing a food source down below may be the missing link.
Stay tuned!
Written by Bentley on January 21st, 2009 with 5 comments.
Read more articles on Home Vermicomposting.
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