Springtail Experiment-5-08-12

I checked on my two “springtail experiment” bins late last week to see how things were coming along.

I should mention right off the bat that some additional food was added a short time after stocking the the bins with worms (a few weeks ago) – equal quantities (100 g) of diced turnip, which had been frozen and thawed beforehand.

The initial appearance when I opened both bins was quite similar – essentially bedding materials with an abundance of gray-colored mold growing over it. As you can see in the middle photo, however, the springtail bin did have some critters (namely springtails and white mites) up at the surface.



When I dumped the contents of each bin things changed though – I started to see some interesting differences, apart from the presence of springtails in one bin and not in the other. The bedding in no-springtail treatment seemed to be somewhat dryish at the bottom in comparison to the springtail bin – which almost seemed to be dripping with water. In the springtail treatment there were virtually no worms down near the bottom, yet this seemed to be where most of the worms were hanging out in the no-springtail treatment. I found this odd since most of the food materials had been added up close to the top.

Speaking of food materials…

As I made my way through the bedding I was able to find quite a bit of semi-recognizable turnip goo (for lack of a better term) in the no-springtail bin, yet there was hardly a trace of it in the springtail treatment. I finally started finding Red Worms up in this zone in the springtail treatment as well. I will have to do an official count the next time I check on the bins, but it seemed as though there might be fewer worms in the springtail bin overall. It would certainly be an interesting find if that were the case.

Getting back to the higher moisture content in the bottom of the springtail bin (mentioned earlier), I suspect this is largely due to the fact that more of the turnip has been processed in this treatment (i.e. less water locked up in turnip tissue).

Not much else to report on thus far, but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how this one continues to play out.
Stay tuned!
8)

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