2 2009-07-11T01:38:25-05:00 false Has it really been a month since my last post? There's so much to update, but for now I want to focus on the Worm Hotel. After reading about the successes and advice of "Katxena":http://myfolia.com/gardener/Katxena and "cmagnus":http://myfolia.com/gardener/cmagnus on adding tiers to the worm bin, I decided to take the plunge and add a tier myself. I've had the bin for nearly three months now (so much for updating regularly), and I started running out of space during month two and have had to periodically pause in adding new material to the bin. This annoys me quite a bit as I have to throw away perfectly good compostable material (I already had a stash in the freezer at the time). I was scared to take the plunge and add another tier, though I'm not sure why (it just seemed hard). Last Sunday I decided to do it and pulled out another tier from my spare bedroom (where the extras currently live). I decided to take a peek at the collection tray as well, since I was moving things around, and lo and behold there were a bunch of worms down there hanging out in some pretty much finished castings (first photo)! I have dubbed it the Worm Spa. There was even a worm taking a dip in the lap pool (no, it's not dead). I don't know why they didn't crawl back up into the bottom tier but there you have it. The choice was to either harvest this finished worm poo or add it back to the bin. Since there were quite a few worms hanging out in the collection basin (20? 50?), and since I was feeling lazy and didn't want to have to separate the worms out, I decided just to scoop it all up and add it to my new second tier, thus seeding the population (second photo). The amount of castings was pretty impressive actually, maybe around a quart or even more (I didn't really measure but am trying to remember from my eyeballing of the pile). I put down a sheet of newspaper and added my collection tray worms to the second tier (third photo). To that I added more scraps and shredded newspaper (fourth photo) and topped it off with some more sheets of folded newspaper. That was one week ago. Since then I have simply lifted the top sheets of newspaper back, added the new material, gave a little stir, and put the sheets back in place. I have to say though that I have noticed 2 things using this more relaxed system of vermicomposting: 1) Not burying the food very well every time I add new material (like I was doing before) does make for a stinkier bin. I'm not sure if it's what I'm adding, or if there is some compaction or something, but there is definitely some sort of anaerobic condition going on. It isn't completely gross - yet - but I like it less than my previous odor-free system. Maybe I just need to add more newspaper. 2) Putting down the newspaper first was a bad idea. The population of worms in the upper bin is still pretty small, and I think that is contributing to the stink (too much food for the worms that are there and possibly liquid pooling on the paper). Yet there are tons of worms in the tier below. Someone needs to tell those worms that the party has moved upstairs. I think the newspaper might have been partially blocking their movement, so I pretty much pushed most of it to the side. I also manually relocated some more worms from the bottom tier to the new tier because I am worried about the bin now. I keep adding material but I wonder if I shouldn't stop for a while. (Though I don't want to stop, because that means waste!) I also wonder if I shouldn't jam the second tier harder against the bottom tier so that there is tighter contact between the material in the bottom tier and the new tier. (There is contact right now but I'm sure I could press it down more. I don't want to crush any worms though.) At the very least no one has died yet, and the amount of kitchen scraps waste going to the landfill is back around zero. We've even had a mini heatwave (two weekends ago it was over 100 degrees both days) and I haven't noticed any die off. I wonder how long it should take to fill up a tier and move on to the next. I really do generate a huge amount of kitchen scraps from eating so many veggies. I also wonder if one can add corn cobs to a worm bin, maybe chopped up. I have one hanging out on the counter ready to go... Hooray for vermicomposting! 4 false 4 64543 false false false Entry 2009-07-09T19:00:00-05:00 DMY 73897 Public 2009-07-11T01:38:26-05:00 1342 Sunny 63 F