Vermicomposting –Bin V003

Sunday, October 09, 2011

This bin started Saturday, September 03, 2011 in Shovel In, Lift Off, Scoop Out .

Sieved material, for a project of extracting castings by suspension in a mesh bag, allowing castings to fall free of the mesh into a collection pail.

Wednesday September 21st 2011

Nearly three weeks have passed. Some mung beans or oat grass have begun to sprout on the top, but there’s not many more castings at the bottom.

After just over three weeks we see a spurt of activity in the base.

Does this means that the worms take 3 weeks to settle down?

I decided to introduce some moisture by drip-feed. Perhaps the mesh allows the matrix to dry right out, reducing worm activity.

This photo taken within 24 hours of starting the drip feed shows a significant quantity of castings in the base.

I might add a bottle of water once a week, and increase the dosage until I see water in the base, at which point I should scale back.

I want to keep the matrix moist but not wet.

I have found, too, that the three-hook method and the mesh bag itself do not lead to easy removal.

Ideally the ring-and-suspension mechanism would be rigid, then I could lift the bag out and place it over an alternate pail before I harvested the castings from the collection pail.

If I were doing this large scale I’d need one more pail than I had bags.

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