Vermicomposting in the cold-climate apartment - Nurseries

Sunday, July 7, 2002

Perhaps you want to breed or observe Red Wrigglers, or perhaps, like me, you want to have a small stock of worms on hand to give away to people who would like to try their hand at vermicomposting, or to keep as an emergency re-supply in case your main vermicomposter develops problems.

(Joke) You need a strong stomach if you’re going to do it my way. I use 4-litre ice-cream plastic cartons as nurseries, so you have to buy and eat four litres of ice-cream (End of Joke).

I use an ice-cream carton, you can use whatever suits. Ice cream cartons are soft plastic tubs, about 20 cm diameter and 14 cm high.

I place the lid on the pail and use a sharp knife to remove the most of the lid, leaving a rim about 1 cm wide. I discard the “plate” that I’ve cut away. (Later: no I don't; I use it in my model of a Grey Water System)

I obtain a piece of gauze or similar (I’m currently using the cloth from the face of old loudspeaker enclosures), sufficient to keep out insects and admit the passage of air. I stretch the gauze over the carton, place the lid on top, and Bingo! There’s a “breathing” lid.

I shred some regular (non-glossy) newspaper and soak it in water, hand-squeezing out excess. This makes damp, but not wet, bedding for the worms. I place the damp shredded paper in a tub, fill with soil to about 1/3 full, drop in some easily eaten food scraps, such as an apple core or banana skin, and place the worms on the top. They quickly burrow into the pile to avoid bright light. I add another 1/3 soil, so that the container is 2/3 full, and place the breathing lid back on the carton.

After about one day, when the worms have settled down, you’ll observe:

Worm casts across the surface of the soil.

Worm tracks along the insides of the carton.

(Occasionally) worms stretched out on the inside walls of the carton.

Don’t overload the carton with food, or the soil will go bad and your worms might die.

Sunday, July 28, 2002

I still don't know enough (grin!). My nurseries were, as I thought, a failure. That tells you that you're going to learn that they are not. There had been no signs of the worm tracks, and the soil surface was dry. I added about one cup of water to prepare the nursery for a later batch of worms.

Yesterday I placed in each of the three nurseries a small tuna-tin with about 1/2 a centimetre of vinegar. This to drown off the vinegar flies that had taken up residence.

This morning, 24 hours later, I inspected each nursery and was delighted to see that the tins contained drowned flies. After closing the third carton, I accidentally bumped it off the counter onto the floor. Soil everywhere, and worm-castings. And worms! The worms were alive and presumably well in the centre of the mass of paper bedding and soil.

Rebuilding

I rebuilt all three nurseries, based on new information that has come to hand - new to me.

Remember that I have three nurseries, each in a clean 4-litre plastic tub, as in "ice-cream". I found a fourth tub ($3.97 at Price Chopper!) and cleaned it out, so to speak.

Bedding

I took five sheets of "Toronto Computes" and passed them through my office shredder. You can tear yours into one-inch strips. I use Toronto Computes because I want my worms to digest useful technical data, not trashy tabloid stuff.

Not too much coloured paper; I am suspicious of the impact of chemical dyes on small critters digestive tracts.

I soaked and pummeled the shredded paper in water for fifteen seconds, ensuring that it had taken on as much water as possible, then squeezed it by hand to remove excess water. The shredded paper went into the base of the fourth, well-rinsed tub.

If you are worried that your paper might be too wet, lay the pail on its side for ten minutes and let excess water "flow" out of the paper.

Food supply

I cut a fresh potato into three portions, and placed a 1/3 portion cut-side down atop the bedding. I've learned that red wrigglers eat the bacteria that break down the food, not the food. I figured a potato would provide some food supply on a timed-release program for the existing mature worms.

Worms

The worms, remember, are still in the original tub. Carefully using a garden trowel, I guided the soil from the tub into the new home. When most of the soil/bedding was transferred, I left the 4-litre tub tipped on a 45-degree angle into the new home. Had it held water it would have drained completely, but the bottom layer of soil/bedding clung to the base of the tub. I watched in fascination as the remaining worms sought to escape light by burrowing into the old layer, and in doing so, loosened it, and all tumbled into the new home. Took about five minutes and did less harm than a garden trowel.

It was also a good example of how quickly these critters can aerate a mass of soil. I left the tub another five minutes, then gently scraped the last few specks of dry earth into the new home. Why so careful? I reasoned that there could well be eggs in there, and I didn't want to damage young lives.

Next

Now I have one rebuilt nursery and an empty tub. The second old nursery went into the tub vacated by the first, and so on.

Flies

I mentioned the problem with flies, and my use of small tuna cans containing vinegar. I held off replacing these, reasoning that the worms should have a day or two to settle into, and to settle down, their new home. I placed my gauze covers on the tubs, snapped on the home-made rims, and replaced the tubs on the floor of my bathroom.

I live in an apartment, and so my bathroom is both the darkest and the most equable temperature place I have available.

Wednesday, July 31, 2002

My fourth nursery is an ice-cream tub. The bedding is draining (by placing the tub on its side). I have decided to prepare the food by tossing some scraps into the blender with a cup of water, and draining the resultant sludge for ten minutes. I lay some soil on the paper bedding, the pulp atop the soil, then more soil to cover the pulp.

I'll leave this to "mature" for a week, then introduce a few worms.

Cocoon Nurseries

Thursday, August 01, 2002

I figure that receipt (or harvesting) of a batch of cocoons warrants special attention. Here’s my scheme:

I have obtained a plastic jar, square in cross-section, 13cm square and 25cm tall with a circular lid 11cm diameter. Think “peanuts” or “silica cat litter” or possibly “mints”. Clear plastic, cleaned and well rinsed.

I have obtained a cardboard box, slightly larger all around than the plastic jar; 15cm square and 30 cm long.

I reckon on preparing the jar as for a nursery, with a bed of shredded newspaper, wet and then squeezed dry, place the cocoons on the bed, cover with soil. The jar could be laid on its side, with the bed sloping away from the open mouth, and a cloth cover to provide a “breathing” lid.

One side of the cardboard box is removed, and the ends taped, so that the cardboard box slips over the jar to provide a dark environment.

Place the kit in a stable place, and lift the cardboard for an instant each day to determine when the cocoons are hatched.

Should work.

Monday, August 12, 2002 Nursery 1

I opened up nursery one today. Only three large wrigglers were in evidence. This nursery had inserted a shallow tuna-tin containing vinegar to kill off the flies. I wonder whether the acetic acid fumes killed off the young worms and only the strong survived. I raided my main bin and added about twenty worms, and used the existing bedding (on the grounds that it might contain eggs) and used the soil-and-waste mixture from the vacant nursery four to rebuild nursery 1. I have placed the nursery in the closet, with a tuna-tin of vinegar alongside it, not within it.

The old soil I dropped into my outdoor tower composter, now shaded from the sun. Any worms or eggs that I missed have a chance of continuing outside.

Wednesday, August 21, 2002 Milk sac nurseries

Why not? I purchase milk in bags containing three clear plastic sacs. Four litres of milk in 3 sacs. Each sac is about six inches wide by about twelve inches long; made of stout plastic.

Rinse and clean the sacs.

I made a hole puncher by banging old nails through a piece of wood (actually I made an elaborate hinged device, like wooden nutcrackers, with nails held in place by a backing strip on the upper arm, and large holes for the nails to drop into on the lower arm. Place the sac between the arms and close them. Bingo! 25 holes. Repeat if you want 50 holes).

With about 50 small holes in each sac, cram as much dry shredded paper as you can into the sac, leave to soak in a tub of recycled grey water for an hour. Maximum water content.

Hang to drain.

Add a small layer of a soil/food scraps mixture (pureeing the scraps won’t hurt, but don’t put soil in your food processor; the small stones will kill the knives).

Add a few baby worms, or a few cocoons. Cover with another layer of moist bedding.

Place in a dark place. Perhaps suspended from a rod laid across an empty 25-litre pail, or perhaps just lying on top of your regular vermicomposter bin (which is dark and moist, right?). Maybe you could place several sacs in a four-litre ice-cream pail with a breathable lid.

I had this vague idea of a peg-board in the basement, with a sac nailed up for each of a twenty-eight day cycle. Each sac takes today’s wet waste and has a month to mature. Then I realised that I didn’t have a basement.

I also considered larger holes, and baiting the sac with attractive scraps and burying the sac in the vermicomposter bin to attract and harvest the worms. After the worms have migrated to plastic heaven, remove the sac, refresh the bin, and empty the sac into the newly-bedded bin.

I took a large cardboard box, lined it with a black plastic garbage bag (to inhibit light) and placed a layer of dry bedding in the bottom of the bag.

Each day I will add my wet waste kitchen scraps to a freshly prepared milk sac, label the sac (1, 2, 3 etc) and place the sac with the others in the black garbage bag for the worms to do their work. If any worms escape, they will find a home in the bedding at the base of the garbage bag, which will retain some moisture and leachate as it seeps out of the sacs.

It ought to work.

Cardboard box/bag bin

If you don’t have access to a regular plastic bin or a wonderful wooden drawer, try using a large cardboard carton lined with a black garbage bag. Throws bedding in the bottom, add wet waste, soil, worms and stand back. In theory you could load each corner of the box/bag over a two-week period, then slide the box into a dark closet to let the worms do their thing for three weeks while you ramp up the next box.

Cardboard boxes are easy to come by, bags are cheap and reusable.

It ought to be possible gently to tip the contents of a bag into another bag as a means of aerating soil, inspecting progress etc.

Fast Breeder

Procedure for lightning-fast breeder: Have a milk sac bag prepared crammed full of dry shredded paper. Run the day’s scraps through a mincer or blender with a cup of water. Makes a wet slurry. Place the bag on a composting bin that seems a tad dry and could use moisture. Pour the slurry into the bag. The paper absorbs much of the water (large bacterial breeding area), the whole thing acts as a sieve, excess (bacterial food) moisture quickly runs into the bin. When the bag is drained (after about one hour) charge it with worms and soil and place it in the black-bag lined nursery carton.

World’s smallest Nursery

(and when the eggs hatch, “World’s smallest vermicomposter” )

Wednesday, August 28, 2002: A visitor inspects my plastic milk sacs of castings and squeals “An egg!”. I’ve not harvested eggs before. After my visitors leave, I spend a long time examining all my casting sacs and I locate four small eggs.

I take an old pill bottle 7.5 cm high and 4 cm diameter, load it with damp fine sand from my grey-water recycling model, and with a pencil point make four depressions, insert the eggs, and scrape damp sand over the eggs.

I have taken the tip of a teaspoon of drained food-scrap slurry and placed it just underneath the surface as a breakfast treat for when they hatch.

The pill container sits on my desk, with an opaque plastic cup over it to shield the light.

I will inspect it every day to know when the hatchlings surface.

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