Comments on: Mark’s OSCR – 01-13-10

By: John in Huntington Beach

John in Huntington Beach — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:50:54 +0000

Thank you for the reference, Eve. It is definitely a fascinating…and well named…subject. Yuck!

By: Eve

Eve — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:38:56 +0000

John in Huntington Beach, the mold you were describing is Slime Mold. Look it up in Wikipedia, its fascinating… and disgusting.

By: Kuan

Kuan — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:42:46 +0000

Hi Mark,
I didn’t read your question about the bread until now. I’m a bit under the weather here. I’m the only one eating bread here so about 1/3 of it ended up in the bin. I just tore them up into bite size pieces, mix them up with veggies trimmings, banana peels, etc. then feed them to the worms. By the next feeding, they are gone. If I got lazy, I just let the bread sit until they got moldy and then toss them into the bin. The worms seem to love them. So far, the bin really doesn’t heat up much at all.

Kuan

By: John in Huntington Beach

John in Huntington Beach — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:05:50 +0000

That’s the one, Heather, though technically the name is Huntington Beach Beer Company.

And Sugar Shack is a favorite of mine, too. It is a family owned place and the third generation is becoming more and more in charge.

By: Heather

Heather — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:56:46 +0000

John–from HB–what brewery do you get mash from? We love HB and the last couple of times there dropped into the Huntington Beach Brewery.

My FAVORITE stop is the Sugar Shack for Breakfast. Drooling, now, lol.

By: Heather

Heather — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:20:33 +0000

Mark, Can you handle it?!

Hey Mark…I don’t know would it be easier to measure in lbs or square feet? Maybe a good idea would be to measure it in weight and square feet, since you think your bin is still around 100 lbs? You could weigh the mash easier than making 1 square foot. That way, you could easily do the math as a percentage, ie: 3 lbs in a 100 lb bin raised the temp X degrees.

Personally, I would do it in 1 corner, so the greatest area of the bin would be available for worm escape or emergency mash removal if something crazy was happening, but if you can easily reach your cool zone square foot, that also would be a good option. I would make the mash go down at least 5 inches.

I guess a variable would be how much bread or coffee and how much molasses. I am looking at some of my cooking molasses, which has 70 calories/TBSP. Reaching back to junior high science, KCAL==amount of energy to raise temp 1 degree C of kg water or something like that. In my worm wine, I add 1 fluid oz to one gallon of Worm Wine–no idea how many TBSP are in 1 fluid oz…It would be cool to measure the molasses in “calories” and see how that played out. It will be interesting to see how much 1 oz molasses with a food source would raise the temp (assuming it does!), once some of those beneficial microbes come into play.

I can’t wait to see your results!!!!!!!!!!! I feel like science fair all over again, lol.

By: John in Huntington Beach

John in Huntington Beach — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:21:40 +0000

You nailed it, Mark. The bread mold took over my relatively small worm tower whereas the substantially larger mass of my compost pile will control anything I throw at it. Anything within reason, that is. I can easily make the pile go anaerobic if I overdose it with spent mash from the brewery.

If I had a large worm bin or an outdoor trench, I don’t think I would have a problem with bread if I could bury it six inches deep. But in my tower, the trays are only four to five inches. What I get is a sulphur-colored mold or fungus that exudes out of the various cracks and crevices then starts to grow on the exterior of the tower. When I try to hose off the growth, the surface cracks and releases soot-black spores which float to heaven knows where!

The stuff is still in my system but I don’t let it get out of hand. I wash it off as soon as it appears, before spores have a chance to develop.

I attribute this to the bread I added one time because I observed the sulphur growth starting at the bread (which was a preservative-free sourdough). As I stated orginally, I think that if I had put in a smaller amount of the moldy bread, the worms would have liked it, as Harley suggests, and would have been able to keep the upper hand.

Thanks again for all the feedback… John

By: Mark from Kansas

Mark from Kansas — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:18:09 +0000

Hi Harley,
I think it depends on your bin. As John mentioned in an earlier post, the mold took on a life of it’s own. John says he uses a worm tower and is more precautionary with bread. Heather on the other hand has an outdoor trench, with no apparent problems. Heather’s worms can escape easier if they have to than John’s. John does have a good point about precomposting, which is always a safe strategy.

You can also add a small amount to see what happens.
Mark

By: Mark from Kansas

Mark from Kansas — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:07:10 +0000

Heather,
Is that a challenge or a triple dog dare? I do have cool zone (1 square foot) imagine that. I wonder why I did that? How did you figure out I had a perfectly (well, close to perfect) controlled environment?

I spoke to Letty and she said she would make pasta on Saturday. I’ll try it out.
How do you think “Heather’s Homemade Microbial Mash” do in a pressurized bin? I was wondering because, earlier today I sealed the top of the bin except for a small opening in the side and when I opened it I freaked!

By: Harley

Harley — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:09:23 +0000

Hey guys,

I just read the article & was wondering why wouldn’t the
worms eat the mold off of the bread? Can moldy bread
hurt the worms? I’ve got some bread saved up for mine
& I thought the mold would be good for them.