February 2018
Worms Climbing Up Sides of Bin
Here is a question from Ray B:
A few weeks ago I harvested my castings and gave “the boys” new bedding which I think is about right in moisture. The bedding is a mix of newsprint, egg cartons, shredded toilet paper rolls and I put some leaf compost in too. I believe the majority of the worms are fine but there are some climbers up the walls of my 27 gallon bin.
They are in the basement which is about 57 degrees. The sides of the bin are damp, condensation I suppose. There aren’t a huge number of climbers but I would like to have fewer or none. Are some climbers normal? Thanks.
Hi Ray,
I see a lot of positives in the information you shared.
1) Clearly you have been through at least one vermicomposting cycle (start-to-harvest) now, so you must not be doing anything horribly wrong! lol
2) You are using a mix of great bedding materials.
3) You added some “living material” (the leaf compost) to help make the new habitat more microbially active.
4) Most of the worms are settling in just fine.
My guess is that the minor restlessness is simply the result of the (more…)
**For Even More Worm Fun, Sign Up for the RWC E-mail List!**Hair Shirt Vermicomposting?
I’ve been enjoying my (weird and whacky) experimental systems lately, and figured why stop now?!
😎
There are two “bedding” (ish) materials I have been wanting to test out more extensively for quite some time: 1) natural fabrics and 2) hair. I have dabbled with both of them in the past (adding them to various systems), but never as part of a focused experiment.
In a lot of ways I think degradable fabrics (eg cotton, linen, hemp – even bamboo!) could be be a sort of “ultimate” bedding material (definitely in the group I refer to as “primary” bedding materials) since they tend to be highly absorbant, highly breathable, yet quite resistant to breakdown (high C:N).
Hair on the other hand, while similarly resistant to breakdown – may offer (more…)
Easy Vermicomposting Retirement Celebration
A little over 5 years ago (as I type this), I launched a worm composting course called “Easy Vermicomposting”.
A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into the project, and I was pretty darn proud of myself for actually seeing it all the way through to completion.
Since that time, many people have benefited from the course, and the sales have helped to support my Red Worm Composting work as a whole. To this day I feel strongly that it offers an excellent introduction to the topic of vermicomposting (and even plenty of solid information for those with more experience).
So why on earth am I talking about “retiring” Easy Vermicomposting, you’re likely asking?
Well, first and foremost (more…)
Worm Inn Mega Reboot – Day 425?!
When it rains it pours – as far as badly neglected (RWC) worm composting systems go (and just you wait – I have another one to write about that is an ALL-TIME personal record for me!).
Back at the end of November 2016, I started up a “Mega Reboot” project with quite a lot of fuss and fanfare (I created an entire “Fun With Worm Inns” project out of it.)
The last time I posted an update here was (more…)
Tea Bag Vermicomposting – 2-07-2018
Just a quick update re: my Tea Bag Vermicomposting system. It has been nearly 1 month since my last update. I’ve concluded that I probably don’t need to feed any more often than that – gives the worms plenty of time to work on the tea bags that have been added, and me plenty of time to collect a decent quantity of them (along with the paper packets).
I was really pleased with how things are coming along when I checked on the bin this morning. I even got a little carried away when I (more…)
Bentley’s Vermicomposting Planter – 2-02-2018
@#%%!! it’s cold!
The End.
P.S. Happy Groundhog Day!
🙂