Disposition of Soup

Friday, August 06, 2010

I grow tired of hearing statements such as “eat their own weight in two days” with no documented figures to support the claim.

I have given the nature of experiments some thought, and a careful experiment is difficult to devise.

In this page you will find a technique that could best be described as “circling the enemy”.

One of my bins is about 30 inches square, 15 inches deep. (see “ On The Balcony ”)

It sits in a relatively shaded era, but gets about three hours of direct sunlight in mid-afternoon, then the sun sinks behind the steel-plate balcony and no direct light falls on the bin.

The cover is a thin sheet of masonite, unhinged.

Like me.

Two thin plastic garbage bags cover the material. I think that the worms migrate to the condensate when the moisture level in the bin drops. Smart worms let me know when they are thirsty!

Here is the material. I am in the habit of planting my meager food wastes each week in corners, a 40-week cycle.

Here is a one-pint jar of pea soup – Gone Wrong. Pooh!

I scoop a hole in the center of the bin. This won’t disturb my 4-week corner cycle.

The hole is large enough to accommodate the jar lying on its side.

I place the jar on its side in the hole.

I cover the jar with about one inch of material and close the bin.

Each week I’ll inspect the jar.

My theory is that the bacteria will attack the soup, but can do so only at the surface of the soup, that is a “narrow front”.

The worms likewise can dispose of the bacteria only along that narrow front.

Exhaustion of the jar contents will therefore place an upper limit on the time taken (for a vermicomposter bin with a stable worm population) to digest a pint of pea soup.

The glass jar lets me see the pace, but it surely greatly inhibits the digestion.

The time taken for this experiment is therefore an upper limit on digestion time.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Eleven days have passed.

The green soup is now clouded white with bacteria.

The jar is lying on its side so I assume there is little air circulation in the mouth of the jar.

Here is a close up of the jar; you can see that a worm has wriggled its way inside.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Another week has passed:

I up-end the jar. Quite a lot of castings can be seen in the mouth of the jar.

Either they have fallen in as the material inside has been devoured (or the moisture has evaporated), or the worms have been busy.

Worms are evident actively burrowing in and around the jar.

The area of castings extends well into the jar, and we are not yet three weeks into the experiment.

One month into the experiment, the worms have made inroads. Without emptying the jar, which would disturb the worms, I find it difficult to measure the extent, but from a quick glance the contents seem to be about 1/3 consumed.

That is, I think about 2/3 the jar is still soup, while 1/3 is either castings or air.

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