July 2012

Plastic Worm Bin-07-12-12

I decided to check on my plastic bin yesterday to see how things were coming along during the “aging” process. The food waste had decomposed quite nicely and moisture had become more evenly spread throughout the bedding, but – as I suspected would be the case – it was still in need of some assistance from me.

One thing that seems to concern people during the aging period is the growth of “mold” in the bin. I only observed fungal growth on some of the food waste in this bin (so far), but it’s not uncommon to encounter larger, fluffy growths of mycelium spread through the bedding as well. Either way this should not be cause for concern.
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Worm Inn Journal-07-10-12


In my last Worm Inn Journal update I reported on the success of my attempts at vermicomposting weeds (that had been previously frozen). Since then, the levels of material in the Inn have continued to drop while my supply of frozen food waste has gone up.

As such, I decided last week to get back into more of a typical feeding approach. Last Tuesday I added 1822 g (4.02 lb) of frozen-then-thawed food waste on top of some shredded corrugated cardboard. There were a lot of bulky materials in there, such as corn cobs, so I made sure to cut everything up a fair bit (you can see the before and after shots below). I then added my layer of “living material”, along with some newsprint over top.
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Wooden Flow-Through Bin-07-09-12

It’s been more than three weeks since my last wooden flow-through bin update. That’s not to say that I’ve been completely neglecting it since then, however. I’ve added a lot more worms (two bags of the “Red Worm Mix” I sell up here in Canada) and of course some food – although, I will admit to slacking a bit on that front.

When I added the additional worms, along with some extra “living material” (well aged manure in this case) the level of material in the bin was very close to the top. It didn’t stay this way for long, though, and when I checked on the bin last week the overall level was back down in the lower half of the bin. Looks as though the extra worms are helping to speed things up!
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Last Tuesday I added 847 g (1.87 lb) of frozen-then-thawed food waste along with some shredded brown paper. This was then covered with a layer of aged manure.
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Plastic Worm Bin Follow-Along

I’ve decided to go “back to my roots” in a sense by setting up my very own plastic enclosed worm bin. In recent years I’ve moved away from this approach in favor of larger, open vermicomposting systems along with various other “fancy” home systems (eg. Worm Inn, Worm Factory etc). Regardless, I still feel it’s a great (easy/inexpensive) option for those wanting to give vermicomposting a try – and a very popular choice among those new to the field. As such, I want to continue educating people on how to set up and use these types of systems.

What better way to help people than to set up my own plastic bin and share the experience here on the site? While I still feel my advice about these bins is on target, I think it will be really helpful for people to see everything laid out step by step, as it happens. One of my shortcomings as a vermicomposting educator is that I’ve reached the point of doing a lot of things in more of an instinctual, “gut feel” manner, so some of my advice can probably seem a little vague or even wishy washy at times.

I still stick to guns about the fact that every vermicomposting system is different (and the importance of acknowledging this), but still, I’m sure it would be nice to at least see the exact steps I am taking with my own bin, along with all the other relevant information (tips, warnings etc) I include with my updates.
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A Tale of Three Vermicomposts

Happy Independence Day to all those of you in the U.S.!
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Not too long ago, I posted a video discussing how vermicomposts can differ considerably, depending on the system being used, the materials being vermicomposted, and the experience level of the person taking care of the system (among other factors). If you missed that one, be sure to check out this post: A Look at Different Vermicomposts

As mentioned in the video, my plan has been to test out three of the different vermicomposts I currently have available:
1) WF-360 vermicompost
2) Worm Inn vermicompost
3) Farmyard manure vermicompost
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