Mark’s Kansas Winter Worm Report
It’s cold in Kansas. How is your outdoor bin doing?
Well some of you maybe wondering “How in the global warming world did that trash weight go up so much”?
It’s like this… you see, I have a warming cable in my bin. Now when this cable heats up, it forms this hard cement like stuff that insulates the rest of the moist bin contents from the heat. The only way to get the cable to warm up again is to free the cable from the crust and that involves digging around the bin for about 2 hours. Now (as the picture illustrates) it is COLD out there! The temps of the bin dropped to mid 50s F. I didn’t want to freeze my jingle bells off and Letty yelled something in Spanish about putting on the hat she got me for Christmas so, I went back to basics. Add fuel and insulation. I should caution that over feeding is very very risky.
Here is an example of ten days in December:
——————————————————————————–
12/17/2009 – 13 lb – pumpkin/manure
12/18/2009 – 1 lb – leaves
12/19/2009 – 18 lb – pumpkin/manure/banana peels
12/21/2009 – 16 lb – manure/ coffee grounds
12/26/2009 – 13 lb – manure/banana
12/27/2009 – 13 lb – melon/leaves
———————————————————————————
The temps did go up and there is a 2 inch layer that is warmer than the rest. The indication is the abundance of worms and their reaction to light. I can’t get an accurate reading in this layer.
HOW IS YOUR OUTDOOR BIN DOING?
‘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).
Written by Mark from Kansas on January 6th, 2010 with
13 comments.
Read more articles on Large-Scale Vermicomposting.
Kuan
Jean Kruse
Bentley
John
Brian
#1. January 6th, 2010, at 7:18 PM.
Hi Mark
Can’t remember if I commented along these lines before- but have you tried with the heating cable at the top of the bin? If you stitched it to a blanket or something, you could lay it on top of the bin with foil/ plastic between it and the material to avoid crusting. It would stop the bin overheating because heat won’t tend to travel too fast down through bin (whereas bottom heat will rise fast). It would encourage the worms to live and breed in the top where you want them.
I dont’ have anything electrical but I do use microwaveable heat pads to add a little warmth to my bins. I’ve tried top and bottom, and top wins out every time.
I have a reptile heat pad on order which I intend to use on top of a worm bin with seed trays over the top so I get double value- worm heater and propagator!!