Vermicomposting in the cold-climate apartment - Moisture Level

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

How to maintain a decent level of moisture in a tower vermicomposter? Too little moisture and the worms die. Too much water and you get nasty seepage from the base.

Here’s a technique I use that, coupled with a plastic-bag cover seems to work well right through summer on my south-east facing balcony.

Remember that I drape a plastic bag loosely over the top. Moisture condenses on the underside of the plastic and drips back into the centre of the pile, so moisture is circulating all the time.

Here is a photo of a tower vermicomposter. You can see moist patches on the sides of the plastic liner, and you can see traces of worm castings on the sides, too. The worms are warm, moist, and active.

You are looking at the latest batch of shredded paper dropped into the bin a day or two ago.

Here is a broken plastic pot. I have filled it with stale soil. The soil looks moist because it has been put to the use I’ll describe below.

The pot of soil sits on the top of the shredded paper in the bin, in the centre of the pile, equidistant from the sides.

Here I am with a pint of vegetable water, at room temperature, in a small plastic pail. A Second Use For Everything.

I tip the water onto the soil. You will see below that the water is bubbling down and up through the soil. The soil acts as a reservoir and releases the water over a period of five minutes. This gives the water time to seep sideways through the paper without coursing down the sides of plastic and directly out of the bin.

The worms get a drink of bacteria-laden water. The soil breeds bacteria. The worms can rise into the soil if they prefer.

When I have a batch of shredded paper, I lift out the pot, dump in the paper, and replace the pot atop the new batch of paper.

After a day or two I reasoned that the worms should be attracted to the bacteria in the moist soil. Sure enough, here they are.

I have placed the pot outside the bin to take a better shot.

There’s a possibility that the pot might serve too as a harvesting mechanism for worm droppings.

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