Saturday, August 8, 2009

EEEEK - Worms - Tragic Setback

EEEEEK! I inadvertently killed off some of my worms!! :(

It's true, and through my own stupidity. I had a bowl of scraps that I was gathering while cleaning the kitchen. It was destined for my worms, of course. And that night we had made something we don't normally make - popcorn. There was some left in a bowl and it went into the scraps and that went into the top tray and .... well the next day the top tray was very very quiet. I investigated and sure enough, worm bodies were found. :(

I couldn't figure out what had happened until I went backwards in my head and realized the popcorn was the only 'new' item and then realized salt and then.... AWwwww. :( Poor worm buddies. I didn't mean them any harm, that's for sure.

The good news is that the top tray was relatively new. It was the one that I was using as a buffer to keep fruit flies at bay, and there weren't many worms up there yet. I checked the bottom trays and they are still bustling with activity and healthy worms. So it seems that just removing the top tray, dumping the contents and relayering it should do the trick. Hopefully the worms from below will come back up and find it safe and cozy and all will continue.

Doggoneit. One slip like that and you can lose your whole community! I got off lucky this time.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Worms Update - Fruit Flies and Adding 2nd Tray

"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."
—Groucho Marx

For the last few weeks I've been noticing tiny fruit flies around the worm composter. Mostly little black dots on the wall behind it, and some in my face when I open it up. NOT a good thing! I read in my book that fruit flies are one of the biggest problems, and there are a couple of ways to try and fix it. The best way is to add another layer to the whole composter. Add moist leaves and/or shredded paper in a thick layer on top of any processing trays. Fruit flies tend to give up easily and won't fly through and out of that layer.

It's just over 2 months since I first started my worm composter, and I've been putting off adding the second layer anyway so I realized it is definitely time! In a new tray I added a little food in one corner, then about 3 or 4 inches of moistened dry leaves and a few more inches of moist shredded paper. Over top I laid the usual moistened newspaper (4 or 5 sheets thick).

It's been a couple of days now since I added the new tray and I have noticed a major reduction in fruit flies! I still see a couple, but NOTHING like before. I really think it worked.



Now I'm seeing some adventurous worms making their way upward and into the new tray, so obviously that second tray is my new working tray. I'm leaving the bottom one alone until they're all done with it and leave it, or it's all compost and ready to be added to the garden.

Since the 2nd tray is now my main working tray, I think I may need to add a third tray that is full of only the leaves and shredded paper, then just add food to the 2nd tray. That gives me one full tray on top all the time that is full of bedding matter only (no food) and should make certain that no fruit flies get out.

Another interesting note - today I drained off compost tea - the 'leachate' run off from the bottom. I turned the spout thinking maybe I'd have a little, and I filled this plastic container over four times!

I diluted it 50/50 and added it to my houseplants and mostly to my tomato plants outside. I have some potted flowers outside that got some too.

I have to say, there is a real cathartic effect of using certain junk mail as fiber for the worms. When you get some cheesy offer for a high interest credit card.... rip into strips, dampen and feed it to the worms! :) It's really very satisfying!

Worms are happy, I'm happy, so far so good!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Good Walk with Dog and Backpack

Just got in from a good walk with Mr. Cody and his backpack. It's 82 degrees here and we walked briskly for 45 minutes.


BOY I wish I'd had one of these backpacks many years ago!! Cody has never been a bad dog on the leash but now he's the dream dog! Got stopped by several people asking about it... he is calm, focused, when we're done walking he's actually tired and very calm around the house for the rest of the day. WOW! I even let go of the leash without breaking stride so see what he would do. In a busy public park on Sunday - with kids and noise and other dogs around us.... he never left my side and never broke stride. I'm loving my dog and my backpack!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

New - Better Worms for Composting !

My little guys are doing very well - I finally saw the little cocoons that Brad (from Colorado Earthworms) was telling me to watch for. He said, "The cocoons are very small and look kind of like a lemon, once you start to see those you will notice little guys everywhere, the worms will lay an egg a week and each on can hold several young. Once they get to that point you are going to notice your compost disappearing a little faster." I was shy about disturbing the mass in my working tray and just wasn't sure what I was looking for but now I see them! And I see lots of little new wigglers!



Now, here's something interesting. Brad has been experimenting with European Crawlers, another type of worm. They are much larger, and really go to town on the compost. He started a little experiment with 300 worms in a bucket to see how much they will consume in a month. I told him to let me know the results, and I just heard back - sounds like these are a very good composting worm!

Brad says "I just checked on my little test, Amazing! Those little guys turned 12 cups of peat moss into castings in 2 weeks! I still need to sift it out but at first glance all the worms look fat and happy and the castings have replaced most of the contents of the bucket. I think if someone is looking to just make castings for the garden this is the way to do it. I bet if I took 10 buckets of peat moss I could have 10-20 pounds of castings in a very short time. Neat stuff."

Monday, April 13, 2009

Feeding My Worms

I'm very happy and have to say that things are going better than expected with the Worm Factory! MORE importantly, my little worm buddies are very happy! Happy worms mean productive worms, and that means worms that STAY IN THEIR BIN!

I have read (several times) cover to cover the great booklet that came with my Worm Factory (from Colorado Earthworms). It's very informative and most importantly, tells you just what you need to do in order to get a good result. No more, no less. If you want to dive into worm living and worm breeding and worm history, you can find much more in the book "Worms Eat My Garbage"



One interesting thing I learned this week - I read online that worms don't like vibration and they won't be happy if they're kept in a heavy vibration area. Ah - that makes sense. Anyone who enjoyed the cult classic movie, 'Tremors', knows about worms and vibrations!

I was pretty concerned at first after reading repeated warnings to not overfeed, to keep the tray moist but not too wet or you'll drown the poor little worms. It seemed there was quite alot that could go wrong, so I peeked in once or twice a day and I hovered.

It's a good thing to chop up food into small pieces, but I don't take extra time or much effort to do this. I did put my egg shells on a cookie sheet for a little while in the oven to dry out and then ran a rolling pin across them. I used to do this regularly to feed my chicken flock, so it's fun to return to this habit. It allows the eggshells to break down easier and to be more easily processed.

We eat quite a few grapefruit and I was a bit sad to read that citrus is a no-no for worms. There is an ingredient that will kill the little wigglers, so the citrus has to go elsewhere. I've read conflicting views on coffee and tea... mostly coffee grounds and tea leaves are seen as perfect worm food but one source says it will cause the worm bin to become too acidic. I've been adding my jasmine green tea leaves daily and so far they're being received well.

A few other no-no foods - No dairy or meat, and although I've read that processed food is acceptable I would think it can't be very good for worms. It's not good for humans, and adding a bunch of chemical food additives to our nice, organic worm bin seems counter-productive. So I'm sticking to veggies trimmings and scraps, tea leaves, banana peels, a little leftover oatmeal. Along with leaves, some strips of junk mail paper, a few moistened paper towels. I have noticed that I'm throwing less away.

Here are my findings that have reassured me All is Well in my worm bin.

- The first couple of piles of food are obviously decomposing and the worms are actively involved in them.

- I added some nice old leaves from under the trees, moistened. Those seem to be well received. There have been a few worm parties in the leaves so far.

- There is no odor from the bin, or even when I open it to peek in. A nice damp earthy smell is all.

- The worms are active, they've burrowed down and are hardly visible at all, and I think I heard singing.

So far so good!

Update - 5/15/09 - Worms are bigger, more of them, happy. I believe I'm creating a Super Worm colony since I put alot of Jasmine Green Tea leaves in every day out of my teapot! Wooohooo!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Adding Worms to the Vermicomposter

(Vermicomposter is a fancy word for Worm Bin. I thought I'd try to look smart today....)

They're here! Today the worms arrived to their new home!

I lifted the lid and pulled back the layer of moist newspaper that is on top of the tray.


Looks nice and moist and there's been significant breakdown of the veggie scraps and chopped banana peel that I added a week ago.










We slowly placed the worms on the bedding.








The booklet says it can take a week or so for them to adapt to their new environment.




A big pile of wiggly worms! Now our only concern is - will they get out?? eeek. I've been researching the possibilities and here's what I've learned:

Worms like it dark and hate the light. So leave a light on in the room and they won't venture out of the vermicomposter. That's what they say anyway. If I come into my kitchen some morning to find worms dangling from the ceiling, you'll hear me yell from coast to coast, and I'm not usually frightened by these things. I just would prefer that they stay put!

Choosing the right kind of worm seems to be essential. An antecdote in the booklet tells of a man who collected earthworms from his garden to put into his vermicomposter, and they just refused to stay inside. Earthworms require a different habitat and different food, so there was nothing there to make them want to stay around.

I bought my vermicomposter AND live worms from Colorado Earthworms. They sold me red wigglers - also known as Eisenia Fetida, which is a stout little species that's most suitable for the vermicomposter. It processes vast amounts of food, has a rapid reproduction cycle, and hopefully has a charming personality. From the ones I spoke with as I was adding them to their new home, I'd say they do.

Stuff I've learned already that surprised me:

- First is the different species of worms (see above) and realizing that these little guys are better for the vermicomposter but won't be as happy being set free in the garden. Earthworms burrow in the soil and do much better out there.

- Every 3 months red wigglers in the vermicomposter are expected to double in population! Each tray can hold about 3 pounds of worms, or about 3,000 worms. It's really better to not think about that. Since they're inside the house and all...

- Worms don't eat garbage directly. More like bacteria and oxidation breaks down the food matter, and when the particles are small enough, worms suck the food through their mouth.

- It takes some time to create good, useable compost tea and or worm compost from this system. Approx 3 - 6 months before one tray may be ready to add nice dark compost to the garden.

- Worms don't eat as much food as we'd originally thought. I had hoped the vermicomposter would use up my veggie scraps and tea leaves, etc on a daily basis. Instead I will be adding 2 handfuls of food scraps at a time to each working tray, most likely every 3 days or so. That means alot of scraps will still need to go outside into the usual compost pile.



"Are you SERIOUSLY going to keep these worms

INSIDE

the

HOUSE???"



Thursday, March 26, 2009

How to Setup a Composting Worm Bin System





It's here! My Worm Factory arrived! There are 3 Main Sections of Setup - assembling the bin itself, creating the bedding, and adding the worms. I finished parts 1 and 2 in 30 minutes. Now to wait a week or so before it's ready to add the worms.


First, assembling the unit:


Unpacking my box, I have:
- a Collection Tray,
- several Holding Trays,
- a Base,
- a Lid that cleverly has the tips and info printed right on it (easy to refer to), - a bag with small parts (bolts and nuts and a spigot and knob),
- a 16 page instruction book,
- shredded paper
- and a brick of something called "coir".

I start off here in the living room, so you can see there's no mess to worry about.



The first step is to place the holding tray over the base tray and attach them with a bolt at each corner.

This is very easy - the holding tray has a mesh bottom and the base has a mesh top already, so no need to drill holes or anything. Just twist the bolts by hand.




Next, I set the collection tray down into the holding tray (attached now to the base) and aligned the spigot holes. I found the spigot and large plastic nut in the parts bag, inserted the spigot through holes and screwed the plastic nut onto the back to hold it in place. To 'assemble' the lid you just put the knob over the hold and put the screw through and tighten. That took all of 3 seconds.



What I learned next is that when you use the vermicomposter, you add one tray at a time. So for now I only need to set one tray in place.

That's it for installation and assembly! My worm factory is up and ready to be filled!


Now to Create the Bedding.

First I lined the bottom of that empty working tray with 3 or 4 sheets of dry newspaper. I have some newpaper that's never been printed on (end rolls of blank paper from the newspaper office) and used it, but real newspaper is fine. The ink isn't a problem. Now to make the tray bedding.

The instructions said to soak the block of coir in a container with 3 quarts of water until it breaks apart and is moist.


What is coir? Turns out it's made from a part of the coconut husk and is highly absorbent. There's a wonderful photo essay on coir here if you'd like to really dig in. I put my coir block into a bucket and added the 3 quarts of water, thinking I'd have to pour it off later or somehow remove the water.



Instead, the block immediately broke apart and soaked up ALL of the water, faster than a sponge! The instructions say to wring out excess water but there just wasn't any.











This solid, hard block turned into wonderful, crumbly thick moist bedding material in just a couple of minutes.




The next part may prove to be a challenge:


You need to find a cup of active compost. I didn't anticipate this step, but the instructions said if you don't have an active compost pile or garden, use decayed leaf litter from beneath shrubs. It was about 10:00 at night but I grabbed my handy crank flashlight and jacket and ran out to dig under the bushes. I came up with a bit more than a cup of decent decayed leaf litter.



I mixed the crumbled, moist coir with the decayed leaf litter and then earthdad helped me spread it on top of the newspapers in the working tray.








Lovely!












Now it's time to add 2 handfuls of food scraps to one corner of the working tray. On the lid of the worm factory there are tips for what kind of scraps are good. Chopping them up makes them break down faster and become food so I used small pieces of chopped asparagus, some lettuce and cabbage, some chopped banana peels. (avoid citrus)



You then cover the food and fill the tray with 2-3 inches of dry, shredded newspaper.









Then take 3 or 4 full sheets of newspaper and wet it.

Cover the shredded paper with the moist newspaper sheets. (Again, I'm using unprinted newspaper from an end roll just because it was handy. Regular newspaper is fine.)






Place the lid over the material in the working tray. Store your remaining trays for future use, and leave your material in the working tray to work. It needs to break down for about a week before you introduce your little squirmy buddies into their new home!








Added Note: After rereading the instructions I realized that I should have combined the coir mixture with the shredded paper before I spread it on the tray (to start the paper breaking down faster). I later went in and mixed it up better.

I ordered my Worm Factory from Colorado Earthworms. They are close by so I'm going to go pick up my worm buddies soon. Stay tuned!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Coming Soon - WORMS EAT MY GARBAGE

The Worm Factory Vericomposter is coming soon! It's been ordered! It will be set up for a week in advance before adding the worms. Should be interesting!

Bookmark this page to check back and see the photos and learn all about keeping worms right in your kitchen to eat your food scraps and junk mail!

Time to read my book - Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhoff