Vermicomposting in the cold-climate apartment – Finishing Chest

July 15, 2006

(Read more at http://kitchenecology.blogspot.com )

I’ve titled this ‘Finishing Chest”, but I’m not really certain .. it is the old laundry tub, about two feet square and fifteen inches deep. It has a plug-hole dead centre in the bottom.

In this tub, six weeks ago, I stashed sieved material from my efforts at re-assembling the tower vermicomposters. The coarse undigested paper is held back and fed back into the towers. The laundry tub receives worm castings, soil, small pieces of paper and of course, scads of bacteria.

My theory was that the mass would continue to generate worm castings, and by the end of summer I could mix it with peat moss for my winter program of house plants.

Last week I cut a piece of white-painted masonite to fit as a lid. I sit on the bench and drink my morning coffee.

With the lid raised you see an old garbage bag, folded, following on from my discovery of condensation of moisture in the tower vermicomposters. In the laundry tub, the plastic and its condensate seems to attract worms.

As you can see! When I remove the plastic, I see the surface of the bin is covered with worms and castings.

The white mass is a batch of bean sprouts that was left too long in the refrigerator.

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