Two Worm Challenge – 1-27-15

Thankfully our family stomach bug seems to have “bugged off”, so you’ll be seeing a tad more action on the blog this week!

To kick things off, I decided to check up on my TTTWC bins yesterday. Getting straight to the point – I was a wee bit shocked by what I found…or rather, by what I DIDN’T find!
Here we are, not even a month in, and one of my bins seems to be devoid or worms!

I have absolutely no idea what might have happened. Just to make sure the worms weren’t in fact hiding, I will do at least one more check.

Ya never know!

Anyway – other than that, everything looked basically the same. The worms in the other two bins did look bigger, and may in fact be adults – but there still aren’t any cocoons to be found.

Interested to know if anyone else has found cocoons yet! Be sure to let me know in the comments section below!
😎


IMPORTANT UPDATE:
I have created a Tiny Tub Challenge Guide and a TTTWC Email List to help keep everyone a bit more organized (I know this project kinda got off on the wrong foot – lol). If you are a participant, or just generally interested in following along, I highly recommend at least getting signed up for the list.


**Want Even More Fun With Worms? Sign Up for the RWC E-mail List Today!**
Previous Post

The One Worm Reproduction Conundrum

Next Post

Two Worm Challenge – 1-16-15

Comments

    • Benja
    • January 27, 2015

    I haven’t found any yet, but my mini-bin is not even 2 weeks old, and the worms are not adult yet.

    • joe
    • January 28, 2015

    I checked on mine 2 days ago and 2 of my tubs had 1 adult each.The other 2 worms still looked young. and the other bin still looked liked 2 juivies. So no cocoons yet.
    Joe

  1. When I checked mine, one bin had only one, sickly looking, worm. The other two had two worms. All three bins were dryer than I think they should be.

    The worms in one bin had grown significantly, but I think were still young. I will be interested to see if I can find a second worm in the tub that I only saw one next time I check.

    • sam dockman
    • January 28, 2015

    based on all of the comments above and my own observations, i would have to think that the tiny tubs don’t have enough surface area or o2. what do you all think??

    • Bentley
    • January 29, 2015

    Interesting observations everyone – thanks!

    Sam – I think this is actually the beauty of using tiny tubs. They DO offer great oxygenation. If anything – as illustrated by Karuna – they may have the tendency to dry out too easily (ie have too much aeration). It’s once you start using bigger, especially DEEPER, systems that you start to run into trouble.

    Don’t get me wrong…a tiny tub can still get a wee bit anaerobic if you don’t keep moisture levels in check. But all in all, it’s going to be a lot easier to keep our tiny tubs systems oxygenated than it would be with a typical plastic home worm bin.

    • John W.
    • January 29, 2015

    I have had no problems with mine. I made it a little wet, but punched a lot of holes in the lid. I have mainly used cup-holder material as the bedding and a tiny piece of banana peel. My two worms are def growing, and look healthy.

    • sam dockman
    • January 29, 2015

    hey bentley. i tried to look up what how karuna set up her tubs – and all i could find was that she used clear tubs. my study is between two tubs that have vastly different surface areas – one is almost twice as large as the other, yet one is twice as deep as the other. both tubs were set up with the same ingredients. so far, i have found that the skinnier/taller tub has accumulated much more moisture at the bottom, as one would expect. the short fat tub is comfortably moist. i tried my best to get their bedding to approx 70% moisture and keep the c/n ratio under 50.

    but i guess my query is this – your post indicated that tiny tubs have more ‘aeration’ –with no mention of dehydration. my big worm bins get a fluff every 3 or 4 days – which i understand is good for oxengenation as well as the ph and yes, i know some think this is a no no. with my ungloved hands — oh my yuk. but, in less than 3 months, after acquiring 2 pounds of wigglers, i have 4 bins of approx 1 pound each. so i quess i am doing something right.
    but with these tiny tubs, to add moisture would be easy – a sprinkle a day……. but to dry the tub down – if moisture was too much – well it absolutely amazed me that ONE cup of finely chopped cardboard- tightly packed, only weighs approx 30 grams. given the volume constraints of the tub, i just don’t see how there is enough o2 in the containers. just asking.

  2. The tubs I am using are plastic tubs that are 5 inches by 4 inches by 2 1/2 inches. When I got them at the grocery store they contained sliced mushrooms. I put in the bedding and food and then covered each of them with a piece of a cardboard egg carton. The tubs don’t have lids, so I cut 3 pieces from a big plastic laundry detergent bottle, cut an air hole in each of them, and then put a piece of the plastic over each of the bins.

  3. I checked my bins for the second time today. (Isn’t it a problem to be disrupting them to this extent once a week? I dump it out and go through it carefully.)

    One bin has one worm that is still immature but way bigger.

    One bin has one worm that is mature and there were at least two and maybe 3 cocoons!

    One bin has two worms, one that is mature, or close to it. The other seems younger and not as healthy.

    In all of them the food was gone or almost gone. I definitely need to add food more often. (I’ve tried to leave them alone since I’m doing the big disrupt when I pour the bin on the plate to look for worms and cocoons.) The bedding was still drier than I think it should be but not as dry as last week.

    • sam dockman
    • January 31, 2015

    two questions; the tubs that karuna used – isn’t is possible that these are porous. i know the veggies that they sell here are in tubs that ‘breathe’. just asking.

    but more importantly, i would like to know how you all are checking your tubs – short of dumping the contents, i am at a loss.

  4. No they aren’t porous. But there isn’t a lid on it, just a piece of plastic. I have a big air hole in the plastic.

    I’m going to put pictures on my blog before long.

    I’m dumping my tubs each time. I don’t like doing that but I don’t think there is any other way to do it.

    • Janice Kelley
    • February 6, 2015

    Checked my one tub yesterday. My two tiny worms 3/4″ and 1″ have doubled in length and look lively when I fished them out of their bedding. Seemed to be plenty of stuff for them to survive. No smell detected and the moisture content seemed fine to me. Replaced the contents by adding the shredded newspaper that was on top, to the bottom, replaced worms and topped them with shredded brown leaves.
    My tub was set up 9 January, I will leave them alone now until March.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Get Your Free Vermicomposting Guide!

* Join the Red Worm Composting E-Mail List Today *