January 14, 2010
50 Cocoon Challenge – 01-14-10
50 Cocoon Challenge cardboard-only system – looking almost exactly the same as when we began!
I’m sure some of you must be wondering what on earth is going on with my current “50 Cocoon Challenges” (cardboard & straw) these days.
Believe it or not, I actually found a baby worm in the cardboard challenge bin a few days after getting it set up (and of course, had every intention of writing about it! haha), but not a whole lot has changed in the bin since then. There ARE a few more tiny worms out and about now, but I was unable to find any larger worms – let alone adults! One of the difficulties associated with using corrugated cardboard is that I have no idea how many worms might be living inside some of the pieces (Red Worms LOVE to wiggle into the channels that run through the middle of this material). The cardboard itself doesn’t really seem to be decomposing at all. I thought for sure that we’d at least see some sort of fungus setting up shop, but if this IS happening, it certainly isn’t obvious!
The straw challenge bin seems to be showing a similar lack of decomposition (again, I was definitely expecting to see at least some fungal mycelia in there). The straw does appear to be a fair bit darker in color, but that’s about it.
What’s interesting though, is that there definitely ARE some larger worms in the straw bin. I was not able to locate any adults yet, but found at least 3 or 4 (might have counted one of them twice) worms that were similar in size to those added to my “four worm reproduction experiment“.
One thing is for sure – there won’t be worms in either one of these bins maturing as quickly as those in either my manure challenge, or my original food waste challenge systems. I can’t say I’m too surprised! We are talking about high C:N materials here, so neither are going to be able to support the same sort of microbial biomass (and thus food value) as those other two.
I am still definitely interested to see what happens in these systems over the long-haul though!
8)
Mark’s OSCR – 01-13-10
Hi again,
Well it’s like this; you see I’m one of those guys that can’t leave my bin alone. I was looking at my trash weight and was thinking “how deep is the worm bed?” 10 inches if you were wondering, yep, 40 inches by 48 inches and 10 inches deep.
I had a small hole in the middle, it was like a chimney, I noticed warm air would rise and I thought “cool what a great way to keep the surface warm”, so, I made the hole a little bigger and it worked perfectly.
Now here is the funny part, when I was measuring the depth I pushed my level through the chimney to get a measure and it got stuck. (Like this)
Then I tapped it down harder with my rubber mallet. (Like this)
Wouldn’t you know it, the level was hung up on the heater cable; I snapped it right in half!
Plan B
I have a lot of time and money invested in this bin, not to mention how many worms that are thriving in my garage. I have sweat equity in this bin, I can’t let them freeze, and I would lose too much money.
I had to put a space heater in the harvest chamber (it has a thermostat) to keep it warm. It has been doing well and I haven’t lost bin heat. The addition of the space heater is a major change from the way my OSCR was set up from the beginning and what I have been writing about. I installed a cover over top of it so no moisture would drip into the heater (the blue thing).
My bin is 40 inches by 48 inches and 10 inches deep.
These pictures show what red worms can do to garbage under optimum conditions. 581 pounds of trash reduced to how many cubic feet in 13 weeks?
This stuff would still be in the landfill today if not for the worms being kept warm. I only intend to use the space heater for another 8 weeks and then turn it off till next winter.
There are those who are opposed to artificial heat. My feeling is that this is MY herd and I am not breaking any rules about vermicomposting, this is my research and future business.
‘Mark from Kansas’ is an avid vermicomposter from…well…Kansas, and contributing author here at Red Worm Composting. When he is not tending to his OSCR worm bin, Mark also enjoys spending time with his wife Letty (who also doubles as his trusty vermicomposting assistant) and picking petunias (ok, Bentley just made that last bit up).