The ‘Four Worm Reproduction Experiment‘ was officially started back on December 12th so I figured it was time for an update. As such, today I decided to dig around in the new system to see how things have been progressing.
If you have been following along you may recall that I decided to use my new wooden stacking worm bin for the experiment. It is a pretty cool system but as I discovered today it DOES require a little more attention than one of my typical rubber tub bins. One of the advantages of the system is that it is incredibly well aerated – wood itself tends to ‘breathe’ more than plastic, but the trays are also very shallow and have mesh bottoms. This advantage can be a double-edged sword however since it becomes much more important to monitor moisture levels on a regular basis.
When I first started it up I made sure to spray the bedding with water on a regular basis, but given our recent holiday activities away from home earlier this week (visiting with relatives for a few days) it has been more difficult to keep on top of it. I was at least happy to see a fairly moist core zone where I had added vegetable scraps last week, but much of the tray (including the newspaper liner at the bottom) was bone dry. Thankfully I was still able to find all four worms and was happy to see that they actually look quite healthy (bigger than when I added them).
I was hoping to find some cocoons, but given the conditions in the bin I can’t say I was too surprised that I was not able to locate any yet. I thoroughly sprayed down the contents of the tray (after adding some absorbent shredded cardboard) and will get back to a more regular watering schedule. Hopefully we’ll see some new additions (babies) to the system before too long!
Stay tuned!
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To avoid the dryness it is possible to put a plastic sheet – for example a peace of a plastic bag with holes – between bottom stand an the first tray.
When the bin will have at least one full tray it will dry less, and the plastic could be removed.
Hi Edwards,
Thanks for the suggestion – thats a good idea.
I think for now I’ll stick with the water spraying since it prevents me from forgetting about checking up on the bin from time to time!
🙂
B.
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