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Eli
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Hello, what do you know about worms?
Latest Activity
allowing the worms to migrate into the new feed, not just top feeding. Perhaps I was not using the right words.
It appears to be protein posioning "sour cropping". Cure it be for it snowballs. Dead worms in your bin will cause a rash of this that grows and grows. A worm is full of protein. Dead worms laying in there for others to become posioned, is a troub...
Beautiful Broccoli
Profile Information
- When did you start composting with worms?
- November 15, 2008
- How were you introduced to vermicomposting?
- Garlic gardener, looking for fertilizer, very sandy soil, a top dressing. Vermicompost is the best nutrient-rich, organic fertilizer and soil conditioner.
- What do your worms like to eat?
- straw, leaf compost, pine needles, grass clippings, cattle manure, horse manure, a little lime)
- What kinds of worms do you have?
- Eisenia hortensis and Eisenia fetida
- What worm bins do you use?
- 18 gallon tub and 5 gallon bucket during winter / windrow during summer
- How many pounds of garbage do your worms recycle each week?
- 60
- About Me:
- I am interested in learning more about vermiculture, and vermicomposting.
- Website:
- http://algonquingarlic.com/
Eli's Photos
Comment Wall (4 comments)
- At 8:41am on November 21, 2009,
Gaia Steward said…
- Hi, Eli:
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post. I really, really appreciate it!
Best,
Gaia
- At 11:08am on November 20, 2009,
Gaia Steward said…
- Hi, Eli:
I posted some info about a potential problem I'm having (http://vermicomposters.ning.com/group/indoor/forum/topics/is-this-protein-poisoning-or), and I'd be grateful to have your opinion/comments. Would you mind having a look at this thread?
Merci buckets,
Gaia
- At 10:22am on January 5, 2009,
Gaia Steward said…
- Hi, Eli:
It's interesting you brought that up. I've been reviewing my master composter class material and Mary Appelhof's book over the last week, and just last night I was calculating the C:N ratio for a mixture of chicken manure (nitrogen source), shredded leaves (carbon source) and wood chips (bulking agent) with temperature and general composting conditions in mind. Great minds think alike! ;)
In any case, I have some info and experience I think you'll find interesting. (This will get a little long, but bear with me.) The last class of our master composter class was a lab in which we created a 30:1 C:N ratio mix using corn, peat moss and shredded paper by doing the calculations, and using the bulk densities and percentage moisture content of each material to determine how much water we needed to add to achieve a moisture of 60% for the mix as a whole. After we did this, we constructed a worm bin out of a cardboard banker's box, reinforced with duct tape and lined with a garbage bag. In went the compost mixture we'd created, and then we divided a pound of Eisenia fetida between the four groups participating in the lab. Our group's quarter pound of worms went into the compost bedding, then we punched holes in the top for aeration. After class, I was able to take home one of the bins and we were advised us not to feed the worms for about a week so that they'd get used to their new environment.
They lived in my home office where I have circulating fans and humidifiers running for my plants and the temperature is a cozy 68 degrees. Seemed like the perfect environment for them, and I looked in on them a lot like a nervous new mother.
Okay, here comes the interesting part. As you probably know, the rule of thumb in composting is to have about a cubic yard of material in order for the material to become self-insulating and go thermophilic. Because of the comparatively small amount of material in my worm bin, I didn't worry about this in the slightest. I figured that the bin would pretty immediately attain a state of equilibrium at the ambient room temperature of my office which is just about perfect in terms of worm temperature preferences.
I was wrong. The bin didn't reach thermophilic temperatures, but over a couple of weeks it *did* become sufficiently self-insulating under these conditions to reach the high end of the mesophilic temperature range. I was shocked. In fact, over a couple of weeks the temperature in the center of the bin was over 90 degrees, and near the edges it was about 77 degrees. The worms were all hanging out at the very edges of the bin where it was cooler like they would have outdoors, behaving like perfectly normal worms. I've since moved them down to the basement where it's cooler, and I'm still experimenting to reach conditions that are optimal for them.
I don't know how your bin size or environmental conditions, but if you created a mixture of bedding consisting of a 30:1 C:N ratio of newsprint and produce that was uniformly mixed throughout the bedding and ensured the moisture content was 60-75%, it *will* heat up but probably not reach thermophilic temperatures unless you've got about a cubic yard of the stuff.
My two pennies,
Gaia
- At 10:00am on December 2, 2008,
Scott Dickens said… - Thanks for the advice I will try that
Scott D
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