In my last Worm Inn Journal update I reported on the success of my attempts at vermicomposting weeds (that had been previously frozen). Since then, the levels of material in the Inn have continued to drop while my supply of frozen food waste has gone up.
As such, I decided last week to get back into more of a typical feeding approach. Last Tuesday I added 1822 g (4.02 lb) of frozen-then-thawed food waste on top of some shredded corrugated cardboard. There were a lot of bulky materials in there, such as corn cobs, so I made sure to cut everything up a fair bit (you can see the before and after shots below). I then added my layer of “living material”, along with some newsprint over top.
Things seem to be moving along nicely with this system now. It will be interesting to see: A) how soon I will next be able to do some harvesting, and B) how the material will compare to the vermicompost removed last time.
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What keeps frozen/thawed food from fermenting, heating up, and killing the worms?
Hi Julie,
The quantity of food added, how much bedding gets mixed in with it, and the location of your system can all play a role in this. If your Inn is sitting some place where the ambient temps are already very warm, everything is going to speed up – so if you have too much food and not enough air flow oxygen will become depleted much more quickly.
Absorbent bedding materials (such as shredded cardboard) can really help since they absorb excess moisture and help to increase air flow.
Having some anaerobic zones is very normal and not typically something you need to be concerned about. But if your system is sitting someplace warm, my recommendation is to feed in moderation and make sure to always include some absorbent bedding material (and ideally some “living materials as well”) when adding food.
Bentley,
I’m just about ready to push the button and order
a worm inn. I was wondering, would it be beneficial
to give the worms a bit of oxygen from time to time.
I have a oxygen generator already and could use it to
feed the worms oxygen? If yes, how much, how often?
Would it make a difference?
Thank you for a great site.
Ben
Hi Ben,
I’d be interested to know if something like that could help with an enclosed plastic (tub) bin, but my hunch is that it really wouldn’t be necessary when using a Worm Inn since the air flow tends to be so good.