July 2013
Cold Compost & Worm Inn Maintenance
A couple of questions from Ria
I have 2 32 gallon trash bins of cold compost ‘cooking’ in my back
yard. One of the bins looks half composted (reduced in size, small
particles, brown/black. Can I use that as worm food? Or is it
composted? It only stinks when I turn the bottom to the top. Am
intending to scoop a cup or so from the top of bin to feed the worms.Or should I stick to ‘fresher’ stuff?
And re the worm inn. How much and how often should I water it? The
middle looks okay but the edges are dry? I usually water about 100mL
every day and nothing leaks out. Wondering if I should water more or
less?
Hi Ria,
My hunch is that the “cold compost” material would offer some value. Even if the nutritional content has been reduced, it should at least serve as a valuable (more…)
**For Even More Worm Fun, Sign Up for the RWC E-mail List!**Worm Towers – 07-25-13
Since I posted a “Vermi-Fertilization & Watering System” update the other day, I figured a “Worm Tower 2013” update might make sense for today!
Sadly, I’ve only installed one of these towers as of writing this post – but I am still planning to put in two or three more. So far, the system seems to be (more…)
Vermi-Fertilization System – 07-23-13
Everything seems to be moving along well with my “Vermi-Fertilization & Watering System“. I have four tomato plants and a ground cherry (added as an afterthought) in the bed, and – as you can see if you refer back to my original post – they’ve certainly grown a fair amount.
I have even been enjoying the “fruits of my labors”, in the form of (more…)
Rock Dust & Euros – 07-18-13
I finally got around to adding some food to my experimental bins today (they have been sitting for just over 2 weeks now). Before doing so, I performed a little check-up on the contents of each bin.
They each still contain two adult Euros, and the worms seem to be healthy for the most part. The one potential exception is a worm in one of the rock dust bins that isn’t looking quite as good. I’m not a worm vet, though, so we’ll have to wait to see what happens (if anything) there.
I counted all the cocoons I could find in the bins.
Rock Dust Bin #1 – 4 cocoons
Rock Dust Bin #2 – 5 cocoons
Control #1 – 9 cocoons
Control #2 – 7 cocoons
Pretty interesting – but I’m certainly not going to jump to any conclusions just yet!
The “food” being used for this experiment is (more…)
Stacking Bin Euros – 07-17-13
Yesterday – just for the fun of it – I decided to add the 3rd tray of my WF-360 system.
The level of material in the second tray has been getting pretty high, and I really want to see how well the Euros do in the system as additional levels are added.
What’s interesting is that I’m still not really seeing any Red Worms (even though it was a worm mix that was originally added).
I suspect that if I add food waste more regularly I’ll start seeing more of them (congregating in the zones where it gets added). This seems to be the case in other bins containing both varieties.
Before getting the 3rd tray set up, I decided to (carefully) look down into tray #1 as well as the reservoir to see what was going on down there. The material in the first tray looked well processed and compacted. I saw quite a few juicy Euros still down there but – once again – no sign of Red Worms.
In all honesty, I was expecting to find (more…)
Does Vermicompost Really Work?
Try and guess which line represents the height of vermicompost-treated plants!
😉
“Waste” Wool as a Vermicomposting Medium
This past Thursday I went to visit my friend Leanne at the site of her exciting eco-farm/permaculture project – something I’d definitely like to write about in more detail at some point – here in Waterloo Region. Almost immediately, I noticed that she’s been using “waste” wool as a mulch material around the base of small trees and in some of her beds.
What a cool idea!
Like other mulch materials, the wool should be able to (more…)