Comments on: Small Cafe Vermicomposting

By: GrinchPeru

GrinchPeru — Sat, 14 May 2011 01:34:00 +0000

Hi there: PLEASE COMMENT IF YOU HAVE FACTS, THEORIES, HUNCHES OR WILD GUESSES! I am re-reading many posts now that I have several months under my belt (and without calculating now some 750grams of worms, having started from about 30grams!).

I have used substantial coffee grounds in my food recipe (recently some 30% of volume and 10% of weight, but recently I have been getting an inkling that PERHAPS I need to re-think it a bit.

a) I like strong coffee, eg lots of grounds not very “diluted” if they go straight form filter to wormfood mix. I have been thinking, what would be the Caffeine etc load for my workers when I “water” my bin

b) Coffee is a “home remedy” for unhappy gardenia flowers, specifically due to the acid it adds to soil. My gardenias were happy, but I read lots on internet that worms and acid are a bad combo.

c)Coffee, being “dark” may have been leading me to believe my compost was “finished” before it really was.

d) I have recently noticed an apparent decline in the fecundity of my worms (NOTE: they are getting bigger, but not as many cocoons as I ONCE had). It MAY be the coffee, but I am putting more money on that I may have accidentally added lots of Carbon one time (in the form of sawdust) and coupled with some climate factors enjoyed a burst of cocoons.

By: Brian Pearcy

Brian Pearcy — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:29:08 +0000

Diana,

I feed my worms a lot of coffee grounds but it will be awhile before I can rival the vermicomposting going on at the Dunkin Donuts in St. Petersburg, FL. They have 80 lbs of worms in the parking lot that process coffee grounds.

Read the article on Ecobcil.com (http://www.ecobcil.com/blog/florida-dunkin-donuts-has-massive-solar-powered-worm-bin) that explains all the details. The article includes a picture of the patented industrial sized worm bin.

By: kathy

kathy — Sun, 24 May 2009 17:19:12 +0000

Here in Louisville, KY, a local chain of coffee shops, Heine Brothers, worm composts their grounds.
http://www.breakingnewgrounds.org

By: Jacques

Jacques — Sat, 16 May 2009 06:22:20 +0000

Don’t know about any businesses in your area, but here in South Africa there is one that I know of. You even reported on it once on your site http://www.redwormcomposting.com/reader-questions/restaurant-vermicomposting-question/

The Lord Nelson hotel in Cape Town.

By: Travis

Travis — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:55:53 +0000

Well, I knew of a restaurant here in Tucson that used composting to compliment its own garden (it was a vegan/gypsy gig – pretty crazy experience) but I don’t know if they used worms. +1 for composting though.

By: Duff in VT

Duff in VT — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:54:34 +0000

I am fairly new to this and have lots of coffee grounds… that my worms seem to detest. Why? They are not the flavored kind, just regular brew. I have even put them in my worm-laden garden. The worms avoid them totally, living in bliss in nearby corrugated cardboad. I have offers of lots more grounds from friends, but would only use them as mulch at this point. I’d love any tips from those whose worms enjoy the grounds ! What do you do to the grounds to make them acceptable to the worms?