Mark’s OSCR – 01-25-10

Rich
#1. January 25th, 2010, at 9:47 PM.

It’s amazing how much water is in food waste.

Andrew
#2. January 26th, 2010, at 5:53 PM.

Whoa! That’s quite a squirm you got there, Mark, to process melon rinds like that. Looking forward to seeing the final harvest. What you had already looked great.

My much smaller flow through is considerably more moist. I won’t get that nice crumbly VC unless I dry it out. I’ve almost decided to just use the rough, unscreened VC that comes from the bottom of the flow through. It’ll have cocoons and worms, but I may just put them in a raised bed where I hope to start a small veggie garden. I’ll add decomposing leaves so the worms will have food to eat and hopefully they’ll keep on producing castings in the garden. Same concept as Bentley’s garden trenches…just on a smaller scale.

catherine daly
#3. January 27th, 2010, at 12:09 AM.

You said you had loads of cocoons in your vermicompost- have you a way of harvesting them, or will you leave them in your VC?

catherine
#6. January 27th, 2010, at 12:05 PM.

Yeah, i hatch them in the VC, but I’m always looking for ways to sort them out and hatch them separately, because it would up take less space. As soon as I put a batch of VC in the garden the birds arrive to see how many worms thay can catch! And there are always some left.

Heather
#7. January 27th, 2010, at 7:41 PM.

Awesome, Mark..love the video, especially the cartoon script. Letty is a great video guru–you don’t pay her enough!

What would I do…put a winter squash or pumpkin rind on top of your bins, wait about 2 weeks…harvest the hatched worms…wait 2 more weeks, harvest the rest and use/sell the VC.

John H. from Orlando
#8. January 28th, 2010, at 2:15 AM.

I think your set~up is unique in that both the top and bottom surfaces are dry. This seems contrary to the practices of other vermiculturists/vermicomposters, but I guess if it works for your stock then it doesn’t matter.

Kuan
#10. January 28th, 2010, at 8:55 PM.

Mark, another good one! I like that your melons just sort of disappeared. LOL!! Tell Letty to get more melons, worms seem to like them. I also wondered where the pumpkins went and I fed 2 big ones to them last week. All I saw was the stems.

Crank up the heater because another snow storm is coming and I think it will hit your area harder than where mine is.

Kuan

Kuan
#12. January 29th, 2010, at 3:30 PM.

Yep. They sure disappeared fast this time. I saw some seeds sprouted yesterday so must be from those pumpkins.

Wow, 4 bins inside the house? I was thinking of getting a bin started in my basement but don’t think my husband will entertain that idea too well though.

I think I’ll hibernate for a couple of days before checking the worms again. We sure have some snow this time.

Kuan