Comments on: Rotten Hay Vermicomposting

By: Bentley

Bentley — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 12:19:31 +0000

SegRider – feel free to email me re: pics
Thanks for helping Bobbi find that harvesting article.
😎
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MR-YAN – That would be a great approach, and you’d end up with a material like well-aged manure that’s basically half food, half bedding. You might still mix in a bit of cardboard to increase air flow (I’m picturing the spent mushroom substrate as having the consistency of a compost), but it probably wouldn’t be critical.

One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen (many years ago now) was a video featuring a “living machine” system that started with brewery waste. This was first used as an oyster mushroom growing medium, then fed to Red Worms (with the resulting vermicompost likely put to use for something). The worms were then fed to fish in an aquaponic system, which in turn was used to grow plants.
😎

By: Mr-Yan

Mr-Yan — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 01:35:13 +0000

Fungi as an important food source for composting worms eh?

So I could run cardboard through an oyster mushroom grow bag then use that into my worm bin. Would that still take the place of cardboard as bedding?

By: Bobbi

Bobbi — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 03:58:29 +0000

Thank you! 🙂

By: SegRider

SegRider — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 03:56:46 +0000

Bobbi

http://www.redwormcomposting.com/worm-composting/davids-tub-harvesting-method/
I use a bin with 8 2″ holes in one end. Works fast and worms have less stress.

By: Bobbi

Bobbi — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 19:02:14 +0000

SegRider, do you have a link for ‘David’s method’?

By: SegRider

SegRider — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 03:55:23 +0000

This is another excellent post on the use of rotten hay. I have a lot of dry grass and leaves that I am trying to produce this rot and haven’t had success. Open piles don’t go and I get foul rot in bags. My standing 4X4 compost bin is FULL of worms,but I can’t harvest the yet. I am setting up the bins with David’s method. Works great. Haven’t decided on over-wintering a few bins yet, having too much fun.

Where can I post pics of my system? Not Youtube capable yet.

By: Bobbi

Bobbi — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 15:48:49 +0000

Hi Bentley 🙂 I don’t actually have any worms, I tried a small container and ended up killing them after almost two years. I suspect it was the container, there wasn’t enough ventilation.

I really need to do something with that hay. If I do I’ll share! 😀 Some of the bales have been sitting out in the weather for months, so I suspect they’re well into decomposing. I need to go take a look!

By: Bentley

Bentley — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 15:03:28 +0000

Hi Bobbi
If you have composting worms, I promise you can make use of it! Just soak it down and add it to a vermicomposting system (a bit at a time).
Or maybe try some hay bale gardening (this might require some more time before the bales are ready for planting)
😎

By: Bobbi

Bobbi — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 03:39:39 +0000

I have five or six bales of moldy hay sitting around (thanks to a leaky tarp). Maybe I should look at your pictures more closely and see if I can make use of it! 🙂