Vermicomposting – Bin V010

How Quickly do Worms Make Fruit and Meat Products Available?

This experiment will answer two questions. The first is whether or not worms will digest the bacteria forming on fruit matter and meat matter. We believe that they do, for otherwise how could the worms eat the meat and fruit fibers?

The second question, more important, is how quickly can this happen, and when is completion reached.

I filled a 4-liter ice-cream tub with dry shredded paper, not pressed down, soaked the paper for 2 hours and drained off excess water overnight.

I have a basket of coffee grounds from this morning, a pear core, an apple core, and two pieces of raw chicken refused by the cat! The chicken has dried out somewhat having been left on the kitchen counter for 24 hours.

I have about 200 grams of dry castings, free of worms and eggs.

I toss the castings then the fruit and meat scraps into the tub.

With the lid firmly in place, I shake the tub to mix the contents and especially, to coat the scraps with castings. That should make plenty of contact points between bacteria and food scraps.

A day later I harvest 36 worms from my main bin.

You’ll have to take my word that there are 36; these little devils hate being isolated and draw towards each other, when exposed, like bar magnets!

The tub is labeled and placed in a shady nook of the book case.

Saturday, November 05, 2011

I have added an apple-core. I couldn’t resist.

Instead of shaking it into the mixture, I’ve left it on the surface; let’s see how long it takes the worms to pepper it with castings!

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