709-218-7927 The Landfall Garden House 60 Canon Bayley Road Bonavista, Newfoundland CANADA A0C 1B0 |
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Measuring
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Mostly everyone with a web site claims that “worms eat their own weight every two days. I have, over the past 25 years, found no records of these measurements, and I am not going to prove the claim here.
I’ve thought about this. I can’t dream up a way to accurately measure the weight of vegetable scraps in a vermicomposter day by day.
The simplest reason is that as the scraps break down, their cells breakdown, releasing water, which evaporates. How do you weigh what is left?
If you are in doubt, buy a one-pound Boston lettuces, dismember the leaves, and leave them outside on a table for two days in summer time, four days in winter. Bingo! The leaves have reduced to one-tenth their original weight without any worms being involved at all.
That said, I was curious about just how long it tales to digest a tub of my vegetable scraps.
I have no measure – count or weight – of the worms in my blue tub vermicomposter. If I harvested all the worms to count and weigh them, the disturbance would unsettle them and reduce (or increase?) their appetite.
Here is my ice-cream tub with scraps: banana peel, carrot tops, coffee grounds, tea leaves. Saturday. So a week’s scraps.
In front of the tub you see an onion bag, thin plastic filament, and to the right the plastic clip from a bag of .carrots or bread.
If you are squeamish, don rubber gloves. I just run hot water into a bowl and use that to rinse material from my hands.
Spread the mouth of the nylon bag and pour the scraps from the tub into the bag.
You will lose many of the tea leaves and coffee grounds; no matter! We haven’t weighed anything yet.
The bag of scraps is in the tub, total weight 2lbs 10z or what looks like 1.24 Kg
The bag of scraps is out of the tub, total weight 6oz or what looks like 125 Kg
Weight of scraps on Saturday, March 23, 2024 36 ounces.
I make space in the vermicomposter, insert the bag, cover with paper, and wait for a week.
Monday, April 01, 2024
It was a busy week and I am two days late in weighing. I rinsed the tub, and without the lid, the bag of scraps weighs 2lb 4 oz.
Date |
Weight oz |
|---|---|
2024/3/23 |
36 |
2024/4/1 |
36 |
This suggests that no weight loss occurred.
(1) Some castings adhere to the scraps and so are weighed with the bag of scraps. As time goes by I anticipate a rapid loss of castings from the bag.
(2) If the bin is already populated with scraps, the original population of worms may be busy feasting elsewhere in the bin.
(3) The original population of worms will determine the rate of consumption of introduced scraps.
(4) The original population of scraps will determine the rate of consumption of introduced scraps.
(5) The time and rate of reproduction of eggs and baby worms will affect the rate of consumption of introduced scraps.
Sunday, April 07, 2024
Another busy week but I am clawing my way back to Saturdays. The bag of scraps weighs 2lb 1 oz.
Date |
Weight oz |
|---|---|
2024/3/23 |
36 |
2024/4/1 |
36 |
2024/4/7 |
33 |
This suggests that a loss of three ounces, some of which is probably due to water-loss. I suspect that dehydrated (in a solar oven) I might have four ounces matter total.
I was pleased to see two worms clinging to the net bag as I pulled it out. That tells me that (a) the worms have discovered the bacteria and (b) the worms will now spread (from their skin) the bacteria around the scraps, hastening bacterial digestion of the scraps..
Saturday, April 13, 2024
Date |
Weight oz |
|---|---|
2024/3/23 |
36 |
2024/4/1 |
36 |
2024/4/7 |
33 |
2024/4/13 |
33 |
The weight is the same; but the contents are now coated with castings. I suspect that we have preserved water, but as the scraps are consumed, that water should evaporate. A fully consumed bin has dry, almost powdery castings.
If I do this again I will shake/vibrate the mesh sack to shed small particles before each weighing
If I do this again I will use only larger-than-mesh scraps to prime the sack.
If I do this again I will use a sack with a specific load of scraps, for example, only orange peel, or only meat, or only carrot peelings (well, I don’t peel carrots, but you get the idea)
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Date |
Weight oz |
|---|---|
2024/3/23 |
36 |
2024/4/1 |
36 |
2024/4/7 |
33 |
2024/4/13 |
33 |
2024/4/13 |
17 |
Monday, April 29, 2024
Date |
Weight oz |
|---|---|
2024/03/23 |
36 |
2024/04/1 |
36 |
2024/04/7 |
33 |
2024/04/13 |
33 |
2024/04/20 |
17 |
2024/04/29 |
14 |
To date the most dramatic drop has been a halving of the weight of the contents of the mesh bag during the fourth week.
This is scant data, but a future avenue might be to try to capture excess moisture from the bin and see if, during week 4, about a pound of water was exhaled. This might then suggest that it took four weeks for the bacterial population in the mesh bag to reach a critical level whereby most of the cells could be destroyed in the fourth week.
Saturday, May 04, 2024
Date |
Weight oz |
|---|---|
2024/03/23 |
36 |
2024/04/1 |
36 |
2024/04/7 |
33 |
2024/04/13 |
33 |
2024/04/20 |
17 |
2024/04/29 |
14 |
2024/04/04 |
11 |
Dropped another three ounces. The sack is noriceably smaller. I predict that it will take another four weeks before I reach, say, 40z. I am adding no other food scraps to the bin, so the sack of scraps rapidly draws close to the average composotion of the bin; that is, it is daily being reduced in attractiveness to the bacteria, and hence to the worms.
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Date |
Weight oz |
|---|---|
2024/03/23 |
36 |
2024/04/1 |
36 |
2024/04/7 |
33 |
2024/04/13 |
33 |
2024/04/20 |
17 |
2024/04/29 |
14 |
2024/04/04 |
11 |
2024/04/11 |
8 |
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Date |
Weight oz |
|---|---|
2024/03/23 |
36 |
2024/04/1 |
36 |
2024/04/7 |
33 |
2024/04/13 |
33 |
2024/04/20 |
17 |
2024/04/29 |
14 |
2024/05/04 |
11 |
2024/05/11 |
8 |
2024/05/19 |
7 |
The rapid decrease in weight/mass is slowed down.
A crude spreadsheet chart suggests that the mass remains constant for about three weeks. Rapid mass loss takes place over the next four weeks. Then the mass is essentially stable.
I can read a reduction in mass from 33 oz to 7 oz as a reduction of about 80%.
Sunday, May 26, 2024
Date |
Weight oz |
|---|---|
2024/03/23 |
36 |
2024/04/1 |
36 |
2024/04/7 |
33 |
2024/04/13 |
33 |
2024/04/20 |
17 |
2024/04/29 |
14 |
2024/05/04 |
11 |
2024/05/11 |
8 |
2024/05/19 |
7 |
2024/05/26 |
7 |
The mass appears to be stable at 7 ounces, from 26 ounces over 50 days. A rough guide therefore is that a mass of kitchen scraps reduces to 20% of its original value in two months.